A look at working with Outspoken in 2023 and speaking industry predictions for 2024!

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Happy 2024, y’all! Better late than never, as they say. We are rested and ready for what this year has to offer.

At the end of 2023, we sent out a newsletter to highlight some of the accomplishments, positive testimonials and booking facts we saw for the year. In case you missed it, let’s take a peek at some of what we shared:

2023 Booking Facts:

  • "Brandeis was an amazing speaker and brought a unique POV to the conversation."

    "Honestly, you have been the best speaker agency we've worked with. Prompt replies, easy to work with."

    "Nidhi was professional and engaging. I liked that she focused on creating clarity of terms - mental health, mental illness, neurodiverse - these are words that are floating in our business but not well-understood."

    "Tori and Sandy were so helpful throughout the planning process."

    "Dr. Benjamin was absolutely incredible, and her event was one of the best talks we have ever had."

    "It was so lovely to have the option to have everything coordinated through their team for logistics. It was a very seamless process from our end!"

    "Mary was great, her keynote hit exactly the purposes we had in mind and she engaged both on and off stage with our participants."

    "Paula Stone Williams had an amazing showcase and she deserves the attention that Outspoken Agency, and all, will undoubtedly provide."

Although a brief excerpt of what was experienced by our agency with our event hosts and speakers last year, we made many valuable connections with organizations who invited our speakers to inspire their audiences and further their goals through our speakers’ messaging as well as created meaningful connections with our team with our goal of a continued partnership for many future years of programming collaboration. 

So what will we see in 2024? As we tell our speakers, there is no crystal ball to anticipate what’s to come. For us, we have made an internal commitment to be even more communicative throughout the speaker booking and event logistics journey to ensure our event hosts get what they need—both during the current event and in the future. We want to be your biggest advocate and help throughout what can be both an exciting and stressful process of event planning.

  • -Quick responses to your programming requests

    -A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from our speakers in a timely manner

    -Our pre-event questionnaire organizing background info, expectations, and logistics

    -A pre-event content call with the booked speaker, if requested

    -A check-in with the logistics team on final details

    -A full itinerary organized by the agency for each speaker and host

    -A post-event call and feedback questionnaire with the agent

In terms of speaker trends, we don’t have any specific speaking topics to predict, but we have a high suspicion that it’ll be another top year for our women speakers. We have always been of the mindset that there are plenty of capable and arguably better women speakers in our industry than are given credit (and invitations to speak). And who is often better to understand the woes of company culture and distributed work environments with an empathetic lens than women? [Although we do have a number of excellent men on our roster, especially those who can handle these exact topics with care! (See --> Josh and Michael).] If you’re still creating an event program with only men, you’re going to get challenged, you’re going to lose registrations/attendance, and you’re going to miss out on a diverse perspective on your stage. In case you missed it, case in point here in which we were featured as a diverse agency to combat men-only programs! 

We also predict virtual is here to stay, simply based on how many virtual events we already have lined up with our speakers for this year. It’s an affordable, sustainable and inclusive event option for hosts that we strongly encourage when in-person just doesn’t work!

Beyond that, there are plenty of diverse speakers, who do not have to talk about diversity, that are experts in their respective fields. If you want to elevate an experience and diversify attendance to your events, think about what speakers you hire. Just as industries are challenged to diversify their employment hiring practices, so should your events! We understand you’re up against some hefty challenges: maybe you have to get buy-in from your boss or a committee, maybe budgets are tight, or maybe you need a big name to put butts in seats. We get it!

But know that events and speakers are a reflection of your program, your department, your membership, your organization. You show your audience and your stakeholders what is important to you and what should be important to them by your speaker hiring decisions. Know that we are here to help champion your choices and guide you to think outside the (organizational) box. 

We will continue to challenge event hosts to be more inclusive on their stages (both in-person and virtual) this year. Are you up for the challenge in 2024? Drop us a note to let us know how we can help. We can write a compelling letter to your boss, if necessary 😉.  

Outspoken Agency is a women-owned speaking agency representing leaders, founders, public intellectuals, authors and entertainers for paid keynotes, workshops and panels at in-person and virtual events. Learn more about our female founders here.