You’re Invited to Speak at a Conference in December… of 2025?!

Remember in 2020 when most of the meetings on your calendar were flexible because no one had anywhere to go? Conferences that year – almost exclusively virtual – were planning timely content up to a couple of weeks before the event since they had a captive audience and captive pool of speakers.

Fast forward to today. Just this week, we at Scarlino Speaker Strategies had a dozen calls with conference organizers, most of whom shared they plan to begin confirming speakers for their 2025 events at least 9 to 12 months in advance. It may be hard to remember, but in reality, this is the standard planning timeline that conferences had been using 5,10, even 15 years ago.

How did we get here?

Think back to 2021 for a moment. As soon as people felt safe to gather again after the onset of the pandemic, many conferences returned to live programming. Despite a few disruptions by COVID variants, by 2022 vaccines and widespread immunity helped eliminate the uncertainty and soon conferences learned that they could plan up to six months in advance without fear of a date change or cancellation.

Then 2023 came along and many organizations requested that their workforce come back into the office. Conferences had to compete for time on potential speakers’ calendars with live meetings, corporate sales kickoffs and customer confabs.  This became a huge challenge in the fall of 2024 when a live event seemed to be happening every week. Not to mention holidays and the U.S. Presidential Election, all blocking valuable dates on the corporate calendar.

As we roll into 2025, conference organizers have realized that to get the keynote speakers they want, they will need to plan far in advance. But confirming executives is a tricky balancing act familiar to everyone in corporate communications or media: Invite speakers too early, and you risk competing with their company’s important internal events or earnings whose dates are still TBD. Invite them too late, and they are no longer available.

What do I need to know to get on those coveted stages?

After locking in a venue and dates a year or more in advance, conference organizers start to invite keynote speakers – especially marquee names that help to promote the event. Next, they seek out the speakers who comprise the bulk of the agenda. The conference teams that we have met with this month are already inviting speakers for gatherings in the second and third quarters of next year. A few are planning into late 2025.

So, what are we hearing from conference organizers? They face increasing pressure to confirm most of their speakers earlier and earlier, although many still like to leave a speaking slot or two for someone who can address an announcement or topic relevant to current events. For example, one organizer who usually aims to invite all of their speakers by October told us they are waiting for the outcome of the presidential election to program half of their content for a 2025 show. We have also heard a common lament from conference teams – that they are being asked to condense agendas in recognition of shrinking attention spans and a desire for more networking at events – netting a reduction in the number of overall speaking slots available.

No matter what 2025 brings, it pays to know when your top choice events begin their thematic planning and speaker outreach, and to understand how they like to be approached. Some conferences use a formal call for speakers, and that information should be available on their website. You can also check the conference social handles to determine what time an event started announcing speakers last year. And there is always the tried-and-true communications best practice – to reach out to the conference and ask.

For more information on working with Scarlino Speaker Strategies and accessing 20+ years of speaker placement best practices, reach out to us at info@speakerstrategies.com