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Our story

Speakerfile began as a napkin sketch during a red-eye flight from San Francisco to New York. As Peter Evans sat in his cramped airline seat, he had a burning question on his mind – is there a better way for organizations to showcase their experts and thought leaders for the multi billion-dollar events and media industry? Drawing from his experience recruiting speakers as a conference producer in the technology and healthcare industry, he was fascinated by the inefficiencies of how event organizers and media discover, evaluate, and connect with experts and thought leaders – especially those industry experts who are hard to find.

Evans shared his vision with future co-founder Robert Carter and, together, they set out to explore a solution – an online platform that could help event organizers, media, and potential clients around the world better connect with an ever-expanding universe of global experts. With a background in early-stage startups in software and media, they planned to design an online product that would operate like an "eHarmony for events and experts." With their first prototype on an iPad, they hit the road to do some deep market research. They polled experts, and of course they talked to lots of speakers – both paid professional speakers and corporate thought leaders.

Discussions with event organizers revealed a high degree of pain associated with discovering, evaluating, and connecting with fresh, talented speakers. Marketing professionals and agencies also spoke of their frustration trying to build events calendars, stay on top of speaking opportunities, and work with limited, often outdated, biographical information on the experts they were promoting. Nearly all of these tasks were being run on spreadsheets and paper.

Peter Evans, now CEO, and co-founder Robert Carter soon raised a round of angel funding and hired a talented team to build and market Speakerfile to the world. What began with a few diagrams and Powerpoint slides is now the fastest growing online platform designed for industry speakers.

Speakerfile gives event organizers, media, and potential clients a way to find thought leaders, allowing them to discover, evaluate, and connect with global experts. You now have an easy, out of the box solution to create an inbound marketing channel for your thought leaders. By highlighting experts through rich-media profiles on a syndicated platform, you are able to position your talent with the best and brightest in multiple industries around the world.

Raising the visibility of your people and sharing your organization's success stories is critical to generating more speaking opportunities, press coverage, and leads, which means building authority and increasing revenue for your company.

We invite you to join the movement and become part of the Speakerfile story.
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Three golden rules

To ensure a great experience for all of our experts and thought leaders as well as the events and media who connect with them, we ask that all our users follow these simple, yet important rules:

Be detailed

Speakers

A more detailed, well-crafted profile helps an event organizer quickly recognize you as a qualified professional. Missing profile information such as a head shot photo, speaking topics and past speaking engagements are a definite red flag for event organizers. Rich-media (videos, photos, audio, etc.) are also becoming a standard requirement for event organizers.

Event Organizers

Remember to list key objectives of the event or session to help speakers evaluate their fit. Perhaps your event is many months away and you have not finalized your full agenda. Posting a complete event description and at least one detailed session will allow you to start accepting inquiries from speakers and their agents.

Be authentic

Speakers

Don't just state your expertise. Demonstrate your unique abilities as an expert with visible proof. Don't overstate your experience and remember to list testimonials from past speaking engagements. Avoid overused buzzwords and phrases that can lessen your odds of getting booked. Instead, focus on what makes you different from other experts.

Event Organizers

Accurately represent your event listing. Clearly detail speaker compensation that may be offered for the event. If a sponsorship is required, please clearly state this upfront. Your event will receive a stronger response from quality speakers if you can demonstrate that there is value to their appearance at your event. Provide accurate estimates on audience size and demographics and state upfront if this is a first year event. Also be sure to provide other information that can be important to speakers such as sales or networking opportunities (i.e. speakers dinners, book signing events, etc.)

Be respectful

Speakers

Before you send a connection request to an event organizer, do your homework. Carefully read all the information that's posted on Speakerfile. Also visit their website so you are well informed. State why you would be a good fit as a speaker. Also don't forget to check your calendar to ensure you are available for the engagement date before sending a connection request

Event Organizers

Good speakers and their organizations devote considerable resources to researching events they speak at. They want to deliver value for their audiences. It's important for you as an event organizer to ensure the speaker finds the experience valuable as well. Before you make a connection request, make sure to carefully evaluate their suitability as well as the type of engagements they and their organization wish to consider. While many industry speakers may speak at your event for no fee, please respect that others may have less flexibility to waive speaking fees and travel reimbursements.

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