Speaker agency or speaker directory: who really gets you onto the stage?

A speaker agency gets you onto the stage by submitting to conferences in your name, while a speaker directory makes you visible to organisers who book speakers. The two offers sound similar and lead to different stages. With a directory you create a profile and wait for requests, while an agency submits specifically where conferences publicly advertise their speaking slots. This article describes how both routes work, which directories exist in Germany and what each costs, and it shows who each route suits for winning clients.

What is a speaker directory?

A speaker directory is an online catalogue listing speakers with a profile, topics and references, so that organisers can find them and contact them directly. Organisers looking for a speaker filter by topic and region and write to the person. The direction of the request is fixed: the organiser has a gap in the programme and looks for someone to fill it.

This set-up solves a problem for organisers. Anyone planning a corporate event or a congress needs a speaker quickly and wants to compare several without a long search. Each directory sets its own terms for a listing: some charge a fee for the profile, others earn from bookings they broker, and some only accept speakers who already have a name or a book.

Which speaker directories are there in Germany?

In Germany there are four kinds of speaker directories: member directories of professional associations, open databases, the speaker portals of agencies and the profiles on submission platforms. The first kind includes the directory of the German Speakers Association, the professional body for speakers, where members are listed with topics and references. An open database is speakerinnen.org, which makes women experts visible for panels and talks so that organisers can put together more balanced programmes.

The speaker portals of speaker bureaus are mostly shop windows for their catalogue, often with several hundred names from keynote speakers to moderators. The profiles on submission platforms, through which many conferences run their calls, are the fourth kind. They mainly link a submission to a bio and past talks, and organisers rarely search there for speakers of their own accord.

Does a speaker directory really bring requests?

A speaker directory brings requests when organisers search specifically for your name or an in-demand topic, and for a name that is still little known they rarely come. A directory profile works passively and waits. It works where organisers search for your name or your topic, and it works less well while your name is hardly known, because a dozen similar profiles sit next to it.

Three criteria decide how many requests a listing brings: how well known you already are, how much organisers want your topic and how many organisers use the directory at all. Before listing, it is worth asking the provider which organisers search there, how many requests a listing generates on average and how the directory is funded. Reputable providers answer openly.

What does a speaker agency do?

A speaker agency for experts actively goes to conferences and submits in your name instead of waiting for requests. It uses the call for papers, the public announcement in which a conference collects talk proposals. You respond to such a call with an abstract, the short description of the planned talk. A programme committee reads it, the group that selects the talks at a conference, usually made up of experts from the sector, before it decides whether to include the talk.

Stage Starter takes on this work for you: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it, then follow up and accompany you to the stage, as the Stage Starter page describes. These are five stations, from talk and abstracts through research and submission to follow-up and support, including agreeing technology and slot with the organiser. You supply your expertise and approve the talk and the abstracts once before the start, and after that not every single submission lands on your desk again. You hold the conversations after the talk yourself, because that is where the relationship with your future client begins.

What such a process looks like in detail is described in having your call for papers submitted, and the speaker agency guide sets out all services with costs and models. A submission gets you into the programme of a conference that has decided for itself that your topic interests its audience.

Two routes, two kinds of stage

The two directions lead to different events. A directory mainly brings requests from organisers who buy in speakers, for example for company parties, customer days or congresses with a supporting programme. The speaker there is often the highlight of an evening, and the audience hears a talk meant as entertainment or inspiration.

At an industry conference, professionals from one sector follow a talk on their field. The programme largely comes from submissions, on which a committee decides by fit for the audience. The room is full of people with a concrete professional problem, which is why this stage works as a channel for winning clients.

What do a speaker directory and a speaker agency cost?

Depending on the model, a speaker directory costs nothing, an annual or membership fee or a share of brokered fees, while a speaker agency for experts charges a monthly fee for ongoing work. Open databases are often free, association directories require membership, and brokering portals keep a share of the fee like speaker bureaus, which typically keep 20 to 30 per cent. With a directory you pay for visibility, with an agency for work.

At Stage Starter the collaboration starts from €990 net per month for the whole operation, and if you want a written roadmap first, you begin with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency. A third option comes up regularly in this search, pay to speak: an organiser sells a speaking slot, often as a sponsorship package, and that easily means €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. When that makes sense is covered in sponsored talk and pay to speak.

What Stage Starter's submissions show

If you get onto stages through submissions, you should know the rate, because it shows how much work lies behind one talk. Stage Starter has submitted 2,189 abstracts for clients, of which 1,374 are decided: 94 accepted and 1,280 rejected, roughly 7 per cent acceptance per abstract. At conference level the figure is higher, because we often submit several abstracts per conference and one acceptance is enough. Of 433 decided conferences, 83 said yes, so we reach up to 19 per cent per conference, whereas the market typically sees 5 per cent at most at this volume of submissions.

Calculated across many conferences, the rate becomes a figure you can plan with: at 19 per cent per conference, the chance of at least one acceptance across twenty conferences is 1 − 0.81^20, around 98 per cent, and at the typical 5 per cent it is 1 − 0.95^20, around 64 per cent. This is why the number of conferences worked counts as much as the quality of each abstract, and the programme committee still decides on every submission. A directory does none of this work, because it writes no submissions.

Who gains most from which route

A directory works for speakers who are already known, for example through a book, a position that interests organisers or many earlier talks. Organisers then search for their name, and a well-kept profile lets them get in touch directly. The same applies to the paid speaking business, meaning fees for talks at corporate events.

For consultants and founders who want to win B2B clients through talks, the agency model pays off most, especially with a high order value and a full calendar. For this group the stage is a means of winning business, and one client from a talk is worth more than any fee. The goal is a room full of professionals who have the problem their offer solves, and industry conferences are the place for that. The distinction from classic speaker booking is described in speaker agency or speaker bureau.