Join a very different speaker agency

Pomona Partners isn’t like other speaker bureaus or agencies. Simply put, we invest more in our speakers, but we also expect more back from you.

Hence the name: this is a true partnership.

Because we represent speakers at every stage of their career, from chasing their first fee, to commanding five (or even six) figures, we break our offering into three tiers.

Performance

A subscription service for those who want access to our training, tools, events and representation, but who won’t get (or put through us) sufficient bookings to be profitable.

For those billing less than £5000/year through Pomona Partners.

Professional

Standard bureau representation with zero subscription fee but the usual percentage on bookings, with the benefit of access to all our tools, training and events. Limited 1-1 support.

For those billing upwards of £5,000/year through Pomona Partners.

Premier

Enhanced bureau service with additional marketing support and 1-1 consulting with the Pomona team, as well as access to all of our tools, training and events.

For speakers billing upwards of £10,000/year through Pomona Partners.

Why do we have tiers and subscriptions?

Simple: because we spend a lot of money on providing an excellent service, tools and features, and we can’t do it for free.

Talent Map

Every one of our speakers gets access to our unique Talent Map, a way to understand the weaknesses in your speaking career and overcome them to get more bookings, and higher value bookings.

Talent Conference

All our speakers are invited to our annual Talent Conference where we provide training and development with excellent speakers and coaches.

Training Library

The Talent Map is backed by an extensive library of articles and videos that map to the development areas highlighted by the Talent Map. If you need additional support, we have a roster of proven coaches and support partners (additional cost).

Market Barometer

We share the state of the market - based on real booking numbers - with all our speakers. Know how you’re doing relative to the market at all times. Is it just you, or is there a slowdown?

Feedback Engine

We provide tools to all of our speakers, like the Feedback Engine, a powerful way to capture testimonials, photos, videos and contacts from all of your talks - a tool that would cost £00s/year if bought elsewhere.

Deal Transparency

Our in-house CRM system is built explicitly for handling speaking and campaign enquiries for our talent. That means we can expose information to you about the enquiries we’re handling on your behalf, all through your private login.

Peer-to-Peer

We run an active peer support community, with lively WhatsApp channels and monthly peer support calls where our speakers can ask questions of each other and share their successes and failures.

1-1 Support

All our higher-tier speakers get 1-1 advice and support from our team, whether it’s insight from the agent representing them on how to attract more enquiries, or feedback from the development team on their proposition or performance.

Why join Pomona Partners?

No agent or bureau can build your speaking career for you. Just signing up with us won’t get you more speaking gigs or increase your fees.

But here’s what we will do:

  • We will provide you with direction as to how to advance your career, through the Talent Map, peer-to-peer, and 1-1 support*

  • We will give you the tools and training to take those steps; you have to be the one to take them

  • We will connect you with a supportive community of peers to share with and learn from along your journey

  • We will market you to our audience, through search engines, advertising, social media, calls and meetings

  • We will negotiate for you to help you maximise every opportunity. We aim to increase your fees beyond the 20% that we take

  • We will take away the admin headache of each booking, handling supplier registration, securing strong contracts, and invoicing

  • We will make sure you get paid

If that’s what you’re looking for, then sign up below.

*For speakers in higher tiers.

Sound good?

Whichever tier you might fit in, if you like the sound of Pomona Partners then why not apply to join us?

We generally take around a week to review applications (we get a lot), and then we let you know. Not everyone is right for us, and we’re not right for everyone. But there’s no harm in starting the conversation. Click the link here to begin the process.

If you still want to know more before making a decision, we recommend reading some of the posts from the blog, introducing Pomona Partners, highlighting our values, explaining our offer, and what we expect from the speakers on our books. You can also check out the FAQs and more reasons why we are different below.

Apply to Join

More reasons why we’re different

  • We’re the only speaker agency in the North of England, though we represent talent from all over the world, for opportunities all over the world

  • We believe in more balanced event agendas, so more than 50% of our roster are women - and they always will be

  • We’re people-first but technology-powered, building our own software to maximise transparency and give you the tools and training you need to thrive

FAQs

  • Are you getting paid as much as you want to for each gig? Do you find it embarrassing pushing for the fee, travel and accommodation options that you want? Is the burden of admin, contracts and chasing up outstanding invoices weighing you down? Even without all the added value that Pomona Partners offers, these are good reasons to sign up with an agent.

    Our team are expert negotiators. Many of our speakers have seen 50%, 100% or even 1000% uplifts in their speaking fees. And that process doesn’t stop. As you advance and justify increases, we keep pushing your fee higher. It’s just easier for someone else to ask for the sort of money you want to get paid.

    We’re already on the supplier lists of many of your prospective clients. We’ve invested heavily in streamlining the admin of bookings, and in the quality of our contracts. Getting booked is just much simpler when you hand enquiries over to an agent.

    And inevitably, some clients pay late. Don’t ruin your relationship with them by chasing. Let us handle the awkward calls and pester them until they pay.

    All this is before the added value we give all our speakers: tools and training, peer to peer support, and more.

  • No! You should maximise your career opportunities. And we like our speakers to at least experience other agents. We want to know how we measure up against them! If they do something better, then tell us.

    That said, we do expect all of the speakers on our books to put at least a percentage of their enquiries through us so that we can show our worth. We’ll try to match those enquiries with our own marketing of you (in 2025 for example, we generated almost exactly 50% of the enquiries we handled with the other half being referred by our speakers). But if you’re doing everything right, then the vast majority of your enquiries should be coming direct to your website or social profiles, not to us. We’re here to filter out the no-budget timewasters, and maximise the value of the good ones. Let us help you!

  • There are some simple tests as to whether you are truly agent-ready. Are you getting paid for speaking - not by your employer but by third parties? Do you have an online profile that says you are a speaker? I.e. a website in your name (not a company name), and appropriate tags/services on your social profiles? Do you want to advance your speaking career, and are you willing to invest time and money in doing so? 

    If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then you’re ready for an agent. 

    If the answer to any or all is ‘no’ then we might still be interested in having you on our books, if we can see that you’re committed to this career choice. Our tools and training can help you to get there faster. But you might spend a little longer than normal in the Performance tier while you tick all those boxes.