For Event Planners
Can You Book a Speaker Not Listed on the Website?
Yes. Our roster is where we start, not where we stop. We reach out to speakers beyond it, work our referral network, and partner with other bureaus to build you a shortlist. The goal is a great match that fits your budget, not a name off our list.
This comes up more often than you might expect. A planner sees someone speak at another event, a board member suggests a name, or leadership has been following an author all year. None of that has to be a dead end just because the person is not on our site.
Three Ways We Get You the Right Person
We Contact the Speaker Directly
If you have a specific name, tell us. We reach out, check availability for your date, and get their fee. Plenty of speakers are not exclusively represented anywhere, and many who are will still work through a bureau on a given engagement.
You are not paying extra for us to do this. Our compensation comes from the speaker side of the engagement, so the fee you are quoted is the fee you would get going direct.
We Work Our Referral Network
Sometimes the request is not a name but a description. A former college athlete who now runs a company. Someone who can speak to a night-shift audience. A physician who is genuinely funny.
Our roster speakers know other speakers, and the referrals that come out of that network are usually better than anything a database search produces, because they come with a real opinion attached about how someone performs in a room.
We Partner With Other Bureaus
If the right person is exclusively represented somewhere else, we work with that bureau to make the booking happen rather than steering you toward a substitute.
That is a deliberate choice about how we operate. A bureau that only ever recommends its own talent is optimizing for its roster rather than your event, and planners can usually tell.
What This Means for Your Budget
Sourcing outside the roster does not add cost to you. What it does do is widen the range of what is possible at your number, which matters more than people expect.
Tell us the budget first and we will work inside it. If the specific person you have in mind is out of range, we will say so plainly rather than letting you spend three weeks finding out. Then we will show you who is genuinely strong at your level, which often includes people you have not heard of and would never have found on your own. See the speaker fees guide for what the market actually looks like.
What we need from you
A name if you have one, or a description if you do not. Your date, audience, and budget range. That is enough to start, and we will come back with options rather than questions.
How long it takes
Sourcing outside the roster adds a little time, since we are waiting on other people to reply. Expect a few days rather than the 24 to 48 hours a roster shortlist takes. If your date is tight, say so and we will prioritize accordingly. More on timing in how far in advance to book.
Why work with us at all, then?
Fair question if we are willing to book someone we do not represent. The answer is that the hard part of this is rarely finding a name. It is knowing which of four plausible options will actually land with your specific audience, handling the contract and the logistics, and having someone reachable on event day. That is the work, and it does not depend on whose roster the speaker sits on.
Related Reading
How the Booking Process Works | How to Choose a Speaker | Booking a Celebrity Directly | Speaker Fees | Speakers by Industry | For Event Planners
Have someone specific in mind?
Send us the name, or just describe the kind of person you are picturing. We will come back with real options and honest fees, whether they are on our roster or not.