Speaker agency for IT and software companies: how tech experts get onto developer conferences

A speaker agency for IT and software companies researches tech conferences, submits talks in your name through open calls for papers and accompanies you to the stage. A call for papers is the public announcement with which a conference collects talk proposals, and in our database of around 22,700 conferences around 1,500 of them are open. Developers and founders without a well-known name can win a speaking slot this way, because the programme committee judges the proposal and an agency submits it on time. This article uses our figures to show where the calls are, how short the lead time is and how much work an agency takes off your desk.

How do I become a speaker at a tech or developer conference?

You become a speaker at a tech or developer conference through its call for papers, in which you submit an abstract, the short description of a planned talk with title and bio. A programme committee, the group that selects the submissions for a conference, decides on it. At technology conferences this committee often consists of practitioners from the community, some of whom review anonymously without seeing the submitter's name. It judges what a talk offers the audience, and that is why experts without a well-known name have a real chance when their abstract addresses a concrete problem the audience has. Well-known examples in Germany are the WeAreDevelopers World Congress and JavaLand, both of which fill their programmes through open calls. What committees expect from tech talks is described in speaking at developer conferences.

The room is full of developers and architects with a task on their desk, and they notice quickly when a talk wants to sell a product. Committees filter out such proposals early, and where the audience draws the line is described in specialist talk or sales pitch. A software company therefore covers a problem from practice and shows its own product at most as an example. The conversations from which assignments arise follow after the talk, and you hold them yourself.

Where are the open calls for tech conferences?

Most open calls for tech conferences are outside the German-speaking region. In our analysis of 2,415 conferences that publicly advertise speaking slots for 2026, the USA leads with 391 conferences, followed by India with 120, Italy with 108, the UK with 90 and Germany with 88. Germany thus accounts for just under four per cent of the conferences, and anyone who searches only in the German-speaking region sees a small section of the field. International calls require an abstract in English, and a talk in English opens the larger part of the market to a software company.

In terms of topics, these conferences clearly lean towards technology. AI and data account for 356 conferences or 14.7 per cent, cloud and DevOps for 281 or 11.6 per cent, software architecture and backend for 99 and security for 86. The largest block, at 65.3 per cent, consists of conferences with a general or mixed programme, where technical talks sit alongside topics from product, leadership and business. Where to find calls is shown in the article on submission platforms for speakers.

How far in advance do I need to submit?

In our analysis, the median time between submission deadline and the start of the conference is 50 days, the average 65 days. The median is the more robust figure here, because individual conferences keep their calls open for years and pull the average up. For half of the conferences analysed, at most 50 days lie between deadline and stage, and the shortest lead time is zero days.

For planning, what matters is when the conferences take place. In our analysis the second quarter counts 717 conferences, the fourth 824, the first 417 and the third 457. With a lead time of around seven weeks, the calls for the strong months of April to June close between February and May, and those for the autumn quarter in summer, when holidays and releases coincide at many software companies. A missed deadline usually means a year's wait for the next edition, and many conferences reply only weeks after the deadline.

Starting quantitatively: how many submissions a talk needs

In software and technology, with an active call-for-papers landscape, the work starts quantitatively: a fixed set of prepared talks is only adapted to the form for each conference, rather than writing every proposal from scratch. Each submission takes minutes instead of hours, and on submission platforms fifteen to twenty submissions in one day are realistic. In the first month this means at least a hundred submissions to around twenty conferences, and at least fifty a month after that. Alongside these sit individual submissions tailored in depth to a top-tier conference.

Our own submissions show why the volume is necessary. We have submitted 2,189 abstracts for clients, of which 1,374 have been decided, and 94 of those were accepted, around 7 per cent per abstract. At conference level the rate is higher, because we often submit several abstracts per conference and one acceptance is enough. We reach up to 19 per cent per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions.

No agency can guarantee an acceptance, because the programme committee decides. In the first year one to three talks are realistic, later four to six. The preparatory work on topic and abstracts and the follow-up after submission, which stretches over months, lie with the agency.

Pay to speak on tech stages: a slot for money

Besides the open call, there are conferences that sell speaking slots. With pay to speak, the speaker pays the organiser for the slot, often as part of a sponsorship package, and that quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. The audience decides whether it pays off: sponsored sessions are often not labelled in the programme, yet a developer audience recognises them by their content, and a talk recognised as advertising loses weight. The article sponsored talks and pay to speak places both forms in context.

Is developer relations through conference talks worth it?

Developer relations through conference talks is worth it for software companies whose product is chosen or recommended by developers. Developer relations, or DevRel, is the work with which a company builds trust in the developer community, and a talk at a community conference is one of the most effective channels for it. A developer who has heard an honest talk about a migration problem is more likely to try the tool that solved it. DevRel through conferences becomes effective with volume, because a single talk a year reaches an audience once, while a series anchors the company in the community.

Speaker agency for software and IT: what it takes on and what stays with you

A speaker agency takes on the work between expertise and stage for IT and software companies. This is the work Stage Starter takes on for you: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it. We also develop the talk and abstracts and follow up until you are on stage. Software companies often already have the raw material for a good talk, for instance in architecture decisions and migrations, and from it comes a talk that solves a problem for the audience. From you we need your expertise and one approval of the talk and abstracts, which you give once before the start, after which not every submission crosses your desk again.

The collaboration starts from €990 net per month. Anyone who wants a written roadmap first starts with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency. How the services of a speaker agency fit together is shown in the guide to speaker agencies.

Doing it yourself or with an agency

Anyone weighing up whether to do it themselves or use an agency compares the days for research and forms in their own calendar with the price of an operation that submits continuously. If you want to know which tech conferences suit your topic and your clients, talk to us in an initial consultation.