Talent Tiers

Pomona Partners works with speakers at every stage of their career, from beginners to veterans. But the nature of our business model means that we cannot sustainably offer the same service to everyone. For that reason, we ask all new applicants for some information about the status of their speaking business. Using that information we sort people into tiers with slightly different propositions: Academy, Professional, and Premier.

Standard Features

All our members receive:

  • Representation: Send your enquiries to us and we will represent you, negotiating on your behalf to get the best deal, wrapping a contract around any bookings and making you look professional

  • The Talent Map: Our unique 45-point assessment tool to guide you through your speaking career, with advice on next steps at every stage

  • Online Training: Articles, videos and case studies to help you with every aspect of your speaking career

  • Access to Training Sessions: Members-only rates for group training sessions looking at speaking skills, proposition development, and raising your profile

  • Access to Coaching: Connections to our panel of professional coaches to help you with every aspect of you speaking career.

Academy Members

Speakers earning lower fees (typically less than £2000 for a keynote or equivalent) and doing fewer gigs (under 12/year at that fee) are allocated to our Academy.

Academy members are largely responsible for their own development, using the Talent Map and our development resources to advance their careers until they are at the point to advance to the Professional tier, where they will begin to receive some 1-2-1 support from their agent.

Most of our income as an agency comes from the percentage we take (20%) on speaker bookings. Because our Academy members have fewer bookings at a lower rate, we tend not to make any money from them. In fact, having Academy members on our books costs us money, because of the time we invest in onboarding and representation, training and development, and tools. To somewhat offset this, we charge Academy members a monthly subscription of £20+VAT.

Professional Members

Speakers with frequent bookings (upwards of 12 per year) at somewhat higher values (£2,000-5000) are generally allocated to our Professional tier.

Professional tier speakers receive some 1-2-1 support from their agent and our team, helping to advise and direct them in terms of their speaking career development.

There are no monthly fees for our Professional tier members.

Premier Members

Speakers with higher fees (over £5,000) and receiving frequent bookings are allocated to our Premier tier.

Premier tier speakers receive more extensive 1-2-1 support from their agents and our team.

There are no monthly fees for Premier tier members.

Moving Between Tiers

These are just starting allocations and every speaker can move between them over time. Generally people will move up the tiers, but it’s also possible that we have to move people down if we have over-estimated where they are at in their career, or if things slow down for them. Speaking careers require constant investment in your proposition, profile and performance and it may be that an alternative tier is a more appropriate place to undertake the work required.