Speaker Fees Presentation Formats
When it comes to booking a speaker for an event, understanding speaker fees can be a crucial aspect of the decision-making process. With so many factors that go into assessing a speaker’s rates, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what you can expect to pay and what you’re getting for your investment. In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about speaker fees, from how speakers assess their rates to the different types of presentations and associated costs.
SPEAKER FEES
- If we presented a fee range to you for a speaker, the lower portion of the range refers to keynote/workshops, non profit organizations, local events, or virtual presentations.
- The higher portion of the range refers to half-day or full-day presentations.
- The fees we have provided are set by the speaker for each initial inquiry.
- Each speaker has their own way of assessing their rates for each request based on the audience size, presentation format, event location and host organization.
- Our services are free to the host organization since we take a commission from the speaker.
- Travel fees are not applicable for virtual or local events.
- The fee does not include tax or travel expenses if applicable.
HOW SPEAKERS ASSESS THEIR FEES
- Speaker do not charge by the minute or the hour as they charge the major portion of their fee to commit to the work involved to prepare themselves and their content for each audience and each event.
- They spend a lot of time researching, drafting, rehearsing, and preparing for each presentation.
- Speakers customize presentation for each audience, their industry, and the desired learning outcomes of the session.
- Speakers are highly educated, have unique personal stories and backgrounds, and have spent years to possess the ability to research and prepare dynamic content applicable for each audience and the identified learning outcomes.
- Speakers base rates on time they must block off in their schedules to research, prepare, and deliver the session.
- Speakers have spent years to develop content, invest in the learning for their topics, craft custom presentations for specific outcomes, keep up with the latest trends and develop a strong presentation ability in order to market themselves as professional speakers that appeal to different audiences.
- Duration of session and the deliver of the presentation on event date is the “cherry on top” of your investment for your event.
WHAT DOES THE FEE INCLUDE?
- Meetings with the speaker
- Time spent researching and customizing the presentation content.
- Time away from their other commitments to prepare the presentation.
- Speakers’ experience and skills in delivering an impactful presentation for each audience.
- Some speakers may do a social media post or a video inviting attendees.
- Some speakers may include online training, books and other “add ons” to create more value when booking them as a speaker.
- Recordings/live streams are at no extra cost if for internal usage only.
NEGOTIATIONS & DISCOUNTED RATES: We can usually negotiate fees of our speakers based on the host organization type, audience size, session format, or the event location.
- Discounted rates are unique to each speaker and their approach to each event request.
- We know how to approach them since we have collaborated with them for so many events in the past.
- We have long relationships with our speakers, and they are flexible to support us and our relationships with each of our clients.
- We can sometimes call in a favor from our speakers to support us for a specific cause or event request.
- We can send another list of speaker options aligned with your budget.
- To negotiate a speaker’s rate, we require to know your budget information.
ARE THERE ANY ADDITIONAL COSTS? – Our services are at no extra cost to our clients.
- Applicable Tax & travel costs are not included in the fee.
- Books and online training are usually purchased as an additional “bulk order” cost.
- Sessions that exceed the singular virtual/keynote/workshop durations will have extra charges for half-day or full-day formats.
- Multiple sessions on the same day will incur a small added charge.
- Multiple sessions on different days will increase the rate but have discounted rate per session for multiple bookings.
- Emcees charge as a daily rate.
GENERALIZED PRICING & SESSION FORMATS
Base Rate Speaker Fee:
- Keynotes: 45-60 minutes + Q&A
- Workshops: 90-120 minutes.
Keynote Presentations: Base Rate Fee
- Duration: 45-60 minutes
- Speakers usually do not exceed allotted time to avoid losing audience engagement.
- Some speakers can exceed the 60 minutes.
- Q&A session usually allocated 10-15 minutes. Can be extended if required.
- Longer keynotes risk losing audience engagement.
- Shorter presentations usually are more difficult for speakers since they must be more selective with their content.
- Can record or livestream at no extra cost in most cases.
Breakouts & Workshops: Base Rate Fee
- Recommended Duration: 60-120 minutes.
- Same fee as keynote presentations.
- Highly interactive with audience members posing questions throughout.
- Contain individual and group exercises to complete during the session.
- Effective with audiences that have limited attendees – 70 or under.
Keynote + Breakout, Half Day, or Full Day Fee: Base Rate + $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the speaker.
- Training, workshops, and breakouts are highly interactive with individual and group exercises, and contain handouts, workbooks, and group activities.
- If you spread the sessions over the full course of the day, the speaker may charge full day rate.
- Half Day Rate: Keynote Presentation + Breakout Workshop back-to-back (Most effective way to create actionable learning is a keynote + concurrent breakout session)
- Half Day Rate: Two (2) Sessions on the same day back-to-back (240 minutes total of presentation time)
- Full Day Rate: Full day Training Session
- Full Day Rate: 3-4 sessions on the same day
Booking a Speaker for Multiple Day + Multiple Sessions: The discount percentage will depend on the speaker.
- Base Rate Day 1
- 20% Discount Day 2
- 30% Discount Day 3
Virtual Sessions: Discounted from Base Rate between 10% – 25% depending on the speaker.
- Recommended Duration: 45-60 minutes + Q&A, or 90 minutes including Q&A
- Speakers carefully selected for engagement and focus on content.
- Session capped at 90 minutes due to high dropout rates.
- Workshop format containing individual and group exercises.
- Longer presentations risk losing audience engagement.
- Shorter presentations usually are more difficult for speakers since they must be more selective with their content.
- Virtual “workshops” can be done but the technology must align with the speaker.
- You can extend the virtual session by a longer Q&A session with pre-loaded questions.
- Can record or livestream the event without extra costs.