Index | Here is an overview of many methods of obtaining contact information for speakers bureaus. All of which we have already have done for you in the 2008 Almanac of Speakers Bureaus and Lecture Agents Finding Speakers Bureaus On the InternetOne simple (but VERY time consuming) way to find speakers bureaus is to simply:
This will pull up 702,000 websites. This is REALLY time consuming to check each one. However, at the end of the Google search results page you will an option called SEARCH WITHIN THESE RESULTS. Type in motivational speaker (or whatever your area of expertise is, perhaps "time management"), this narrows the results down to 10,200. Now you start to search. The bad news is that within those results will be all of the free public service speakers bureaus that companies and groups create to promote their group or cause. What you are looking for are the commercial speakers bureaus. Using the term "commercial" will not assist in your search as bureaus do not use that term in their site descriptions. You need to check one by one. Also, go to one of the many on-line phone books. These allow you to use the term "speakers bureau" to access phone records. Try again using "lecture bureau." You will need to search one state at a time. I found that about every one in 12 of those listed there were actually commercial speakers bureaus. The rest were speakers. Once you get to a real speakers bureau's site, you need to discover if they are still in business. The industry as a whole has had a huge upheaval in the past three years. Many are no longer functioning, even though their websites are still up and running. An additional challenge is that many bureaus have several addresses on the web, and use many companies names as methods to make sure they come up more often in search engines. You need to create a database and compare each mailing address and/or 800 number to determine who is who. So, you are looking at weeks of work to go through each off those sites, and comparing data. Long days, and long weeks, trust me, I do it all the time. Consider ways to purchase the information someone else had assembled. Here are several you can try: 2008 Almanac of Speakers Bureaus and Lecture AgentsInternational Directory of Lecture Agencies and Speakers BureausWhen I worked for Walters Speaker Services, I created a directory of agents and bureaus. It contained over 430 agents and bureaus around the world. I found that the information was not very current as they have no system in place to surf the net for new contacts. On the other hand, we were very well known and bureaus often sent us information, especially those bureaus just entering the industry. At the time our list included the bureau name, and address. In several cases they also include one email address, contact names, a phone, fax and specialties. National Speakers AssociationNSA has a searchable website, in 2003 there were 27 members who said they are connected to the world of speakers bureaus. In looking over that list I felt that most are actually speakers bureaus. This is free information. This database was not on line when I tried again in 2008 IASB (The International Association of Speakers Bureaus)Formerly IGAB, International Group of Agencies and Bureaus. Members must meet this criteria they have been in the
If they qualify they are allowed to join. Although they do not give out their list of members, non-member of IASB can access the database from their website. |