What Is a Speaker Worth?

Asking a speaker to cut her fee because of the cause the event celebrates undercuts the cause itself.

This opinion piece argues that a speaker's fee pays for far more than an hour on stage. It shows what the fee covers, how an event can publish a fair fee policy and when an unpaid slot is honest. It also gives speakers a short way to answer a request for a discount.

Cause days bring a familiar request. A speaker is invited to an event for International Women's Day and asked to take less than her usual fee, because of the day itself. Speaker fees are often the first line an event squeezes. It does so with discounts, unpaid slots and offers of exposure. This piece argues for a public policy instead.

A discount that undercuts the cause

Take a made-up case. A speaker who charges £6,000 is offered £3,000 for a women's day event, and the only reason given is the day. The event is honoring women by paying one of them less than she is worth.

Picture the rest of the budget. The venue still charges for the room. The AV company still charges its crew rate. The caterer still charges per plate. If the speaker is the only one asked to give, the cause is paid for by the person the day is meant to honor.

A cause discount moves the cost of the cause onto the speaker. If an event wants to back a cause, it can pay the full fee and give to the cause from its own budget. That is support. Asking the speaker to fund it is not.

What speaker fees pay for

The hour on stage is the smallest part of the job. Before it come briefing calls, research on the audience and a talk rebuilt for this room. A good speaker does not give the same talk twice.

Then there is travel. A 45-minute talk in another city can take two days away. Those are days the speaker cannot sell to anyone else. The date is also held for months, and if the event cancels late, the speaker may get nothing.

Last comes the recording. If the event films the talk and shows it on its site or sells it, it uses the work again. That is a license, and a license has a price. Do not leave it to a release form signed on the day.

A fair offer names each part. Use this table when you write one.

• Preparation: Number of briefing calls, any custom content
• The session: Length, format, rehearsal slot, questions or not
• Travel: Days away, who books and pays for travel and hotel
• Time held: The date, and what is paid if the event cancels
• Recording: Filmed or not, where it is shown, for how long
• Limits: Any rule on speaking at similar events nearby

Fair runs both ways

Fairness runs the other way too. A fee is not set by what a speaker hopes for. A first-time keynote speaker who asks for a top fee has not yet shown what the talk can do. A fee rests on what the speaker delivers and how many events want them.

That is also why exposure is weak pay. A big stage does not raise a speaker's fee by itself. Demand does, and demand comes from talks that work. An unpaid slot on a big stage rarely turns into a higher fee later. Organizers who offer exposure in place of a fee are selling a promise that seldom pays out.

Publish a speaker fee policy

Most of these problems come from deals made one at a time, in private. A public fee policy ends that. It sets the same rules for every speaker in the same kind of slot. It also makes a cause discount hard to ask for, because the policy already says no.

A policy can be short. Copy this outline and fill in your own numbers.

• Fee bands by session type, such as keynote, workshop and panel, the same for every speaker of that type.
• What the fee includes, such as briefing calls and one rehearsal, with travel and hotel paid on top.
• Recording terms, covering what is filmed, where it is shown and whether the speaker gets a copy.
• The rule on discounts. We do not ask speakers for a cause discount.
• Payment terms, with a deposit on booking and the rest soon after the event.
• What we pay if we cancel, and by what date.

Put the policy on the page where you call for speakers. Then every speaker reads the same terms before the first email.

When an unpaid slot is honest

Unpaid is not always wrong. Many community meetups and academic meetings pay nobody to speak. That can be honest if a few things hold.

Nobody else on that stage is paid. If the keynote gets a fee and the panel of women does not, the slot is not honest. The event is not making a profit from that session. The speaker's costs are covered, from travel and hotel to a ticket for the whole event. The ask is clear in the first email, not after the speaker says yes. And the speaker keeps the rights to the talk.

If an organizer offers exposure, it should be specific. Say how many people will attend, who they are and whether the speaker gets the recording. Exposure that cannot be described is not an offer.

How a speaker can answer a discount

Speakers often feel they must choose between the fee and the client. There is a third way. Trade scope, not price. A smaller job can cost less. The same job should not.

Here are three short replies a speaker can use.

1. "My fee for this talk is the same for every event. If the budget is fixed, I can offer a shorter session with no custom work."
2. "Tell me your budget, and I will tell you what I can do for it."
3. "I don't discount for causes. The cause is the reason my fee matters."

The fee is the respect

An event that honors a group of people should pay them as it pays everyone else. Publish the rules once, and the hard talks get short.

Speakers judge an event by the room they walk into as well as the fee. Monet lays out the stage, the seating and the speaker areas to scale on the real venue plan in minutes, and shows the room in 3D before the day.