Trust is the product

Booking a speaker means committing thousands of dollars to a stranger, usually on someone else's budget, usually without seeing them work first. Everything we build exists to make that decision less frightening.

Why we exist

The speaking industry runs on withheld information, and it has done for decades.

Ask a bureau what a speaker charges and you will be asked for your budget first. That is not rudeness, it is the business model. When the buyer cannot see the fee, the margin in the middle is whatever the market will bear, and the 20 to 30 per cent sitting there is invisible by design.

We started SummonSpeakers on a simple bet: that publishing the number would win more business than hiding it. Planners who can compare openly enquire more, not less. And speakers who set their own rate, and keep the relationship afterwards, turn out to be the ones worth booking.

None of this is complicated. It is just unusual in this category, which tells you something about the category.

Where we are so far

speakers listed: 2,143speakers listed
added to any fee: $0added to any fee
median time to shortlist: 1 daymedian time to shortlist
average event rating: 4.9average event rating

How we decide things

01
Publish the number
If we know what something costs, we say so. Every profile carries a real range, because a fee you cannot see is a fee you cannot judge.
02
Answer the objection on the page
What it costs, whether they will suit the room, what happens if someone cancels. If you have to ring us to find out, we have failed at the page.
03
Earn from the booking, not the confusion
Speakers pay a flat listing fee. We do not make more money when you understand less, which is the only reason this model works.
04
Both sides, or neither
A marketplace that treats speakers as inventory ends up with bad inventory. Speakers set their own fees and keep their own relationships.