What is a Speaker Agency?

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If you are looking to book motivational speakers for public speaking events, a speaker agency will imminently ease the task of procuring the right talent to match your needs and requirements.

 

What is a speaker agency and why might you collaborate with one? Regardless of whether you run a business, are part of a sports club or need organise any type of public event, speaker agencies can help you improve the experience for all attendees.

Companies like Speaker Agency exist to help anyone with booking motivational speakers. If you’d like to delve in to how this process works and why it is beneficial, continue reading our detailed guide below:

What does a speaker agency actually do?

Simply put, a speaker agency in the UK will typically deal with the booking of talented speakers for various public speaking list of events. These agencies are also often referred to as professional speakers bureaus. Both of the terms are interchangeable and relate to the same thing.

Working with an inspirational speakers agency will mean that you have most of the hard work taken off your hands. You see, agencies will have contacts with a whole host of motivational speakers and individuals who are excellent at talking at public events. All you have to do is search for specific speakers depending on your event. The agency will then get in touch with that speaker, organise everything and get them booked.

It’s a very straightforward process, making life easier for both the motivational speaker and the company/individual looking to hire them. Think of it this way, a top speaker bureau in London will basically act as a middle-man to bridge the gap between those who need motivational speakers and the speakers themselves.

What are the benefits of working with a top speakers bureau?

The advantages are very clear:

• It is easier for you to find a speaker for your event
• It is less stressful for you to hire someone
• You get to hand-select an individual based on your needs
• You have more time on your hands to focus on other aspects of event planning

The way a bureau like Speaker Agency works is that you get to see all of the various motivational and keynote speakers that are available for hire. Some of the top talents currently include:

• Mark Millar
• Azeem Azhar
• Ayesha Khanna
• Geoff Mcdonald
• Mark Denton
• Jamil Qureshi
• Will Higham
• Ambarish Mitra
• Hayley Barnard
• Kevin Gaskell
• Felicity Aston

Each of these thought leaders represent a uniques expertise and thus can bring a lot of knowledge to the table. You are free to look through all the keynote speakers for hire, picking one that you believe would be perfect for your event. This makes it incredibly easy to find someone to speak at your public event before the masses. Immediately, you have improved your event for everyone, giving a USP that encourages people to attend.

Congratulation! You have removed a lot of stress and saved valuable time too. If you didn’t work with motivational speaker agents, you’d have to do all the research yourself. You’d need to look for a keynote speaker for hire online, checking reviews and contacting them directly, which would be unnecessarily time consuming.

When you’re already planning different aspects of an event, you can’t afford to waste more time chasing up a motivational speaker. This is where a speakers agency comes in & takes care of all the element for you. The agency will take care of the rest, giving you more time to focus on planning the rest of your event.

How should you choose a motivational speaker?

Choosing your speaker will depend on a few factors. Primarily, you need to consider the event and your brand. As such, you should find a speaker that perfectly aligns with both. The key is to look for motivational and keynote speakers that have considerable experience related to your industry/event.

This way, they can provide interesting insights for everyone to take away. They’ll be highly knowledgeable, wowing the crowd and keeping the whole audience inspired & engaged.

If you are hosting an event all about Start-ups; what to expect, obstacles, funding etc. You will likely want want to hire a keynote speaker who is an entrepreneur or perhaps a VC. Someone who has ideally invested in start-up across a variety of sectors, therefor they can really share excellent and on-trend data as to the processes involved in preparing a pitch, accessing funding, different routes to funding etc.

Expertise is a crucial element of audience engagement.

Sure, they could be a hugely sought after speaker who spoke for or advise blue chip corporations and they might be an exceptional public speaker. But, their experience is irrelevant to your audience or theme of the live event, so it would be pointless.

On the contrary , if you are tasked with organising an award ceremony for a local football club, perhaps a retired professional footballer should be your choice of awards host. Here, they have the experience and relevancy to keep the audience entertained and interested. You would ideally refrain from booking a business speaker for this event or an astrophysicist or a meteorologist or a gamer.

The third but perhaps one of the most crucial points following relevancy of the guest speakers is diversity. Are you placing a speaker in front of an audience who share their culture, skin colour, language, gender, disability? Make sure in your decision to hire a speaker, you rate this points well. Don't forget that topics are important but people especially GenZ onwards want relevance and integrity.

The world is changing at an exponential speed. We are having more conversations around gender, equality, representation. A female builder, A transgender law professor, a non-binary religious leader, a muslim rock star, a black astronaut the list goes on..Challenge our own biases and help others do the same. From talent retention to staying relevant to your consumers and teams alike ; diversity will help take your brand further.

In an ideal world, you’d love to hire the best motivational speaker on the planet. You’ve found a top speaker bureau in London and they have an extensive speakers list of talented speakers.

Naturally there will be some degree of variation in fees these speakers charge. Typically, the more in-demand or famous a guest speaker is, the more likely it is that they will command a premium fee; although there are exception to this. A good speaker bureau will take the hard work away from you and match you with a speaker that is affordable as well as speaking to the brief.

So, ensure your manage your budget and hire a speaker that will be fantastic for your event and not break the bank!

As a brief summary, these are the key factors to consider when hiring keynote speakers:

• Ensure they are experienced & highly rated
• Make sure they’re interesting & relevant to your event/brand
• Make sure diversity, equality and inclusion main drivers of your speaker choice.
• Check that they fit your budget requirements

Why might you look for a keynote speaker for hire?

We’ve established that an inspirational speakers agency helps you find the perfect speaker or thought leader for your virtual event. Or a well respected event host for your annual gala or after dinner speaker. We have to also address the question of do you really need a guest speaker? Should someone from within your organisation take the lead?

To kick off, a keynote speaker will add some focus and intrigue to your event. A guest speaker is often the core part of the marketing efforts. Once you have announced that there’ll be a special guest, there will be a hype generated around the event which will spill into social media garnering a lot of attention and helping with ticket sales.

For free events where audience number is not a consideration, a motivational speaker can still transform an evening. They offer a chance for the audience to learn something new, gain key insights and feel inspired and engaged. This will trigger tweets, posts, and a great marketing chance for your brand.

In terms of who might benefit from hiring keynote speakers, just about anyone that’s hosting an event of some kind. A few examples can be seen below:

• Corporate events
• Awards ceremonies
• Charity events
• Educational events
• Football clubs, rugby clubs, cricket clubs, etc
• Training events for employees

What to look for when working with a speaker agency?

Your points of reference or a check list if you like before you've decided to work with a speaker agency are as outline below.

• A broad and eclectic roster of speakers
• Global access to the best talent
• Excellent customer service
• Some additional services

First and foremost, the best speakers bureau will have access to incredible speakers from all over the world. As a global speaker agency, they will have access to fantastic roster of thought leaders for you to scroll through. A big roster means a higher likelihood of

a) procuring a speaker that fits your niche requirements,

b) a broad number of options to satisfy your financial parameters.

A well established speaker agency will also have excellent customer service, i.e. continued support and communication across pre, during and post event processes. It should be as simple as filling out an enquiry form and mentioning the speaker you want to hire or the topic.

An experienced bureau will make themselves easy to find, have great SEO and Social marketing strategies that make them reachable. If it is proving to be a challenge for you to figure out how to contact the speaker's bureau, they are probably not who you should go

In the same vein, it needs to be almost a doddle for you to find the speakers. Yes, there must be a speakers list, but there should also be a list of topics for you to go through. This is perfect for picking a topic related to your public event and showing all the relevant speakers that are worth hiring.

The best speaker agencies will also be able to provide some additional services; facilitating briefing calls, liaising with speakers and the client to maintain a great two way communication.

To round off, a speaker agency is an organisation whose expertise lies in maintaining a carefully curated roster of thought leaders, award hosts and motivational keynote speakers that you can easily choose from. They will ideally come from as diverse backgrounds as STEM, metaverse, NFTs , aeronautical engineering, mindfulness, blockchains, biotech, team performance et al. They should manage your expectations and that of the speakers ensuring the booking process is a smooth experience for all parties involved. It’s a simple and stress-free way to hire public speakers that are relevant to your event and will mean peace of mind.