Speaker agencies and bureaux are slightly different. Though there are no hard and fast rules, bureaux tend to be larger, have a more transactional relationship with the speakers, and focus on their relationship with the booker. They're there to curate your options and streamline the booking process on your behalf. Agencies tend to have smaller rosters and be closer to their speakers, having more of a consulting role in their speakers' careers.

Pomona Partners is closer to the agency end of things, supporting all our speakers with a range of training and development tools and content, and access to proven coaches. We run a community of speakers that support each other as peers, as well as coming to us for advice, so we tend to know our speakers very well.

From a booker's perspective, the agency and bureau experience might be quite similar. You'll first interact with us in one of two ways. 

You might come to us with a brief for your event and ask us to suggest a shortlist of speakers - something we love to do. Drop us a message through the website or email us with some information about your event. We'll set up a call, dig in to your audience, your goals, your timings and your budget, then come back with recommendations for speakers from our roster who we think would be the best fit.

The alternative is that you will be introduced to us by a speaker you have contacted directly, because they ask us to handle the details of their booking. A lot of our speakers prefer to stay out of the financial conversation and let us negotiate on their behalf. They want their interactions to be all about the content, the audience, and the event. 

Let's be frank here: we make most of our money taking a percentage on the fee you pay the speaker. One of the things we do to earn that fee is negotiating on our speaker's behalf to get them the appropriate fee. Might you pay less if you dealt with them directly? Yes... but also no.

Pomona Partners is set up to be very efficient. Our booking process, existing listings on lots of procurement platforms, clear contracts, and responsive team mean that you can save an awful lot of time dealing with us. We're incentivised to make things happen, and happen fast! And we're good at it.

Booking with us also gives you peace of mind. You're not booking with an individual but with a well established business with everything that brings: history, scale, customer support, insurance.

You can absolutely book directly with a speaker, if you know who you want - albeit many might refer you back to us to handle the deal. But we don't think you lose out by coming through us - quite the reverse. Especially if you're working to a budget...

One of the things that surprises us frequently is the number of people who stop responding when we tell them the fees for a particular speaker they've enquired about. If we do ultimately get a response from them, they often say they looked elsewhere because our speaker was out of their budget. If you're working to a fixed budget, we strongly urge you to tell us, even if you think the speaker you want is outside of it!

In-demand speakers choose their gigs for lots of reasons and not all of them are financial. If you can come to us with a sensible offer on budget, and the reasons you think it would be a good event for our speaker then we're always willing to make the case to them. Just don't try and book them for exposure alone! Think about the audience, the location and venue, the subject. A lot of our speakers are really passionate about certain topics and are looking for opportunities to explore them more. If the event is in a nice location, they might trade a lower fee for a couple of extra nights - especially if they can bring a partner.

Speaker fees range enormously and depend on the speaker's history, profile, and other factors. Pomona Partners is committed to bringing through new speakers, so we have some excellent speakers on our books who maybe don't have the track record or profile of others yet, who start from just £1200. At the other end of the scale, some of our international speakers with high media profiles and years of excellent reviews for their speaking might command tens of thousands of pounds. Be frank with us about your budget and we'll find you an excellent option for the money.

Many people don't understand why a speaker would give up up to 20% of their fee by letting an agent handle their bookings. But what that misses is the value an agency brings, beyond the negotiation. Our speakers are busy people, often with portfolio careers covering writing, broadcasting, consulting and commercial endorsements. Keeping on top of all the administration can be hard work. Especially when you add in the complexities of contracts and increasingly common online procurement platforms that save a lot of time for the customer by making the supplier do all the hard work. And that's all before you try to get paid. Corporate payments systems are increasingly complex and securing payment, on time and in full can be a full time job in itself. We know that's not your fault as the booker, but it is something we deal with every day, making sure our speakers get paid without them having to chase - something that can sour a relationship built around a great event. So while it might seem like you're doing a speaker a favour by going direct, don't be surprised if they refer you back through their agent to handle the billing and admin.

Feel free to get in touch as early as you like when you're planning an event. We're happy to help and to give you an informal guide to budgets and the booking process. Fill in some details on the contact us page and we'll get back to you as soon as possible to set up a call.