# Switching speaker agency: when it pays off and what to check Author: Marin Niehues, Stage Starter · Published: 2025-10-14 Topic: Speaker Agency (https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/topic/speaker-agency/) Source: https://www.stage-starter.de/en/blog/switching-speaker-agency/ Switching your speaker agency is worth it when, after six months, it cannot show you a verifiable report on its submissions or it pursues a different goal from yours. We mean an agency that develops talks for you and researches conferences in order to submit to a call for papers, the public announcement through which a conference collects talk proposals. Because a submission often waits weeks for an answer and months for the stage, the decision needs a yardstick that allows for that delay. This article sets out that yardstick, explains what to check in your current contract and how to terminate it, and shows how to hand over abstracts and speaker profiles. **You switch when the collaboration shows no verifiable submissions after six months or when the agency's model does not fit your goal. Before the current contract ends, you clarify the rights to abstracts and profiles and what happens to pending submissions.** ## When should I switch my speaker agency? You should switch when, after six months of working together, there is no verifiable status of the submissions, or not a single acceptance across many decided conferences. First you separate delay from standstill. An agency that submits through calls for papers works with waiting times: some conferences answer long after the call has closed, and the talk itself often follows months after acceptance, as the article on the [timeline from call for papers to stage](/en/blog/call-for-papers-timeline/) describes. If you see no talk in the first weeks, you therefore have no reason to switch yet. Six months is a fair yardstick, because by then the preparation is complete and the first conferences have decided. A volume-based submission operation reaches at least a hundred submissions to around twenty conferences in the first month and at least fifty a month after that. In our submissions for clients we reach up to 19 per cent acceptances per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions. At 19 per cent per conference, the probability that 15 decided conferences produce no acceptance at all is 0.81^15, around 4 per cent. Anyone with no acceptance after that many decisions has good reason to question the agency's topics, abstracts and choice of conferences. You recognise standstill by the fact that the agency cannot show you what it has submitted. A sound collaboration can be described at any time: how many conferences hold a proposal, which decisions have arrived and which are still open. If that overview is missing even after you ask, you lack the basis for any decision about continuing, and then the switch is due. You also switch when results do arrive but happen on stages that your future clients do not attend. How to tell an agency's results from its claims is covered in [Speaker agency reviews: how to recognise real results](/en/blog/speaker-agency-reviews/). ## Warning signs during an ongoing collaboration A few features show early that the agency's model and your goal point in different directions. The clearest is the sale of speaking slots. With pay to speak, an organiser sells speaking slots, and a single slot quickly costs €10,000 or more, at large conferences a multiple of that. An agency that earns from that slot has little interest in you earning the stage through an open call. Sponsored sessions are often not marked in the programme, but professional audiences read a bought talk as advertising as soon as it sounds like selling, and it then earns less trust than one a programme committee selected. A second warning sign concerns your time: if every submission still lands on your desk for review, or you write abstracts yourself because the agency mostly fills in forms, you have only rearranged the work. The third warning sign is the promise of a fixed number of talks. No agency can guarantee an acceptance, because the programme committee decides. An agency determines the volume and the quality of submissions, and those two measures are what you judge it by. ## How do I terminate a contract with a speaker agency? You terminate in the form the contract requires, usually in writing, and in good time for the date it sets for ordinary termination. This article provides an overview and does not constitute legal advice. What matters for termination is which of three contract types you have. A contract that can be cancelled monthly ends with the agreed notice at the end of a month, and a switch is possible at any time. A contract with a fixed term can only be terminated in the ordinary way at the end of the term, and contracts between businesses can provide for automatic renewal: if you miss the notice period by a single day, you stay bound for the entire following term. The third option is extraordinary termination for good cause. Under German law it is available for an ongoing contract when continuing until the regular end cannot reasonably be expected of you, for example because the agency persistently fails to deliver the agreed service despite being asked to. As a rule it requires a formal warning with a deadline, and termination must be declared promptly once you know the reason. Keep the activity reports and your queries, because they document the reason. Next you read what happens to pending submissions when the contract ends. Who looks after a submission whose decision arrives only after the end date, and what applies to an acceptance that comes in during that period? Some contracts contain a tail clause under which a fee remains due for such acceptances. The third point concerns your own knowledge: abstracts and bio contain your experience, and you need a clear statement of what you may do with them after the contract ends. Typical contract clauses are described in [Contract with a speaker agency](/en/blog/speaker-agency-contract/). ## What happens to abstracts, profiles and acceptances An abstract is the short description of a planned talk that the programme committee reads before deciding on inclusion. Your abstracts rank among the most valuable documents from the collaboration so far, and you ask the agency for the texts in the version last submitted. You also ask for an overview of the conferences with pending proposals, giving the status and the date of the expected decision. On submission platforms, the portals through which conferences collect proposals, there is usually a speaker profile with bio and past talks. Check whether the profile runs under your name and your email address or under the agency's account. In the first case you keep it through the switch, in the second you need the access details handed over or you create a new profile. For acceptances that already exist, you agree who is responsible, that is who talks to the organiser about technology and the speaker agreement until the talk has taken place. The overview of pending submissions shows which conferences already hold a proposal from you, and the new agency leaves those out of its first round, so the committee never sees two proposals from one person. **A careful handover makes the switch seamless, because the new agency can submit with your abstracts and profile access from the first day. You therefore settle both before you end the contract.** ## What to look for in the new agency The questions for the new agency resemble those of your first search, except that you now ask them with experience. You ask who pays the agency and what it earns from, what work the monthly fee covers and which figures it shows you about your submissions. A good agency states its acceptance rate with its basis, that is how many submissions have been decided and how many of them were accepted. [Ten questions to ask a speaker agency before you sign](/en/blog/questions-to-ask-a-speaker-agency/) collects questions for the first conversation, and the [speaker agency guide](/en/blog/speaker-agency-guide/) gives an overview of the services and pricing models on the market. **Prices at a glance** - from €990 net | per month, the start of working with Stage Starter - from €10,000 | quickly due for a single speaking slot with pay to speak - from €2,000 net | Speaker Audit, credited when you book the agency **Three starting points when switching** Criterion | Seller of speaking slots | Commission model | Stage Starter Who pays for what | you, to the organiser for a slot | you, to the agency on acceptance | you, monthly for the agency's ongoing work What it costs | quickly €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot | an agreed amount per acceptance, often with a tail period | from €990 net per month for the whole operation What the fee aims at | selling the slot | the acceptance | the work from research to stage Route to the stage | bought slot | submission, preferably where an acceptance comes easily | submission through calls for papers to conferences where your clients sit ## How Stage Starter takes on a switch If you come from another agency, you find a way of working at Stage Starter in which the work lies completely with the agency. Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: [we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it](/en/), then follow up and accompany you to the stage. We review abstracts from your previous collaboration and build on them where they are convincing. From you we need your expertise and one approval, which you give once before the start for the talk and abstracts, and the individual submissions then run without further review by you. You hold the conversations after the talk yourself, because that is where you speak to your future clients. Collaboration starts from €990 net per month. If you want a written plan before deciding, you begin with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency. **A switch of agency is worth it when there are no verifiable submissions after six months or the model does not fit your goal. Beforehand you read the contract, terminate in good time and settle the handover of abstracts and profiles together with pending submissions.** **Sources** Stage Starter analysis: our own submissions for clients, 433 decided conferences with 83 acceptances. Pay-to-speak prices based on publicly advertised sponsorship packages from conference organisers. Termination for good cause under Section 314 of the German Civil Code, rights of use under the German Copyright Act. ## Frequently asked questions ### When should I switch my speaker agency? You should switch when, after six months, the agency cannot show you even on request what it has submitted to which conference, or when its model aims at selling speaking slots. Another signal is many decided conferences without a single acceptance. Missing talks in the first weeks are no reason, because a submission often waits weeks for the conference's answer. ### How long should I give a speaker agency before switching? Give an agency six months, because by then the preparation is complete and the first conferences have decided. It should, however, be able to show you a report on its submissions after the first few weeks. The acceptance itself often arrives only months after the submission. ### Can I switch speaker agency in the middle of a contract? With a contract that can be cancelled monthly, yes, with the agreed notice. With a fixed term you terminate in the ordinary way at the end of the term, and early only through extraordinary termination for good cause, for example if the agency persistently fails to deliver despite a formal warning. You can engage a new agency in parallel as long as the two agencies' conferences do not overlap. ### How do I terminate a contract with a speaker agency? You terminate in the form the contract requires, usually in writing or by email, and in good time for the date it sets. Ask for confirmation of receipt and of the end date. If you miss the deadline on a contract with automatic renewal, you stay bound for the entire following term. ### Do I still have to pay commission for late acceptances after switching? Yes, if your contract contains a tail clause that provides for a fee on acceptances from submissions made during the contract, even after it ends. If there is no such clause, clarify the question in writing with the agency before you terminate. A pure monthly fee provides for no commission per acceptance, and you should have the new agency confirm that in writing before you sign as well. ### What happens to acceptances that arrive after the contract ends? An acceptance applies to you as the speaker and therefore stands after the switch. The only open point is who handles the coordination with the organiser, and you agree that with the current agency before the contract ends. Whether a fee is still due for it is governed by the contract. ### What happens to my abstracts and profiles when I switch? You request your abstracts in the version last submitted, together with an overview of pending submissions. You keep profiles on submission platforms that run under your name, and for profiles under the agency's account you need the access details handed over. Clarify beforehand which texts you may reuse. ### Who owns the abstracts an agency wrote for me? Under German law, copyright stays with the author and cannot be transferred, and what is transferred are rights of use. A good contract grants you exclusive and unlimited rights of use to all abstracts and bios created for you. Without such a provision, you may use the texts to the extent that the purpose of the contract indicates. If you would like to describe your situation after a first agency and hear how we would begin in your place, we can work that out in an [initial consultation](/en/erstgespraech/).