Eight complete emails that take a speaker from a name on your list to a session that ran, a promotion they actually sent, and a reconciliation nobody had to argue about. With the order to invite in, what to offer at each tier, and a tracking grid that keeps a roster from quietly falling apart.
A speaker list is not a list of impressive people. It is a list of three separate judgements about each person, and a first summit usually makes two of them and guesses the third.
Will their name make somebody register who has never heard of you? Draw is what fills a room from cold traffic, and it is the only one of the three that a stranger can see from your registration page.
The testWould you put this name in the subject line of an email to people who do not know you?Will they actually promote? Reach is audience size multiplied by willingness, and willingness is the term everybody drops. A speaker with a very large following who will not email is worth less to the room than a small one who will.
The testHave they promoted somebody else’s event in the last year, and did it look like effort?Does their session belong beside the others, and would their audience want the rest of the summit? Fit is the one nobody checks, and a mismatched name sends you registrants who watch one session and leave.
The testWrite the agenda with them in it. If their session needs an apology in the description, it does not fit.Rank each candidate on all three before you write a single email. The ranking is not for deciding who is good — it is for deciding what you offer them, what you can reasonably ask in return, and which of them has to say yes first.
Eight emails across roughly ten weeks. The timings are a starting cadence to adjust against your own roster and lead times, not a benchmark to hit — B2B speakers routinely need the whole thing pushed two or three weeks earlier.
| When | |
|---|---|
| T−10w | The cold invitationOne line proving you know their work. Everything else is logistics. |
| T−10w | The referred invitationThe referral goes in the first line, or it is a cold send. |
| T−9w | The one follow-upSame thread, new information, no third email. |
| On yes | Yes → everything I needEvery ask, one deadline, one link, while willingness is highest. |
| T−4w | The promo kitThe swipe, the images, the link, the date. Four minutes of their time. |
| T−1w | One week outTheir timezone, the speaker link, the run of show, a phone number. |
| T−1h | You are on in an hourFive lines. The phone number is why. |
| T+3d | Thank you and reconcileRights, numbers, money, and next year’s invitation. |
Every invitation is a trade, and the trade is different at each tier. Writing it down before you invite anybody is what stops you promising an anchor something you cannot deliver, or asking a rising speaker for nothing when the promotion is the reason they are keen.
A rising speaker is asked for more promotion than an anchor because the stage is worth more to them — which is only true if the stage is actually worth something. If your summit has no audience yet, say so in the invitation and let them decide. Implying reach you do not have is the one mistake in speaker outreach that follows you into the next event, because the people you did it to talk to each other.
A cold invitation, a referred one, and a single follow-up. There is no fourth email in this block, and the discipline of that is what makes the first three worth sending.
All three are short, because a long invitation reads as a pitch and a pitch gets the treatment pitches get. What makes them work is one specific line proving you know the person’s work — everything else in the email is scheduling.
[First name] — I am running [Summit name], an online summit on [the specific problem the summit is about], [dates]. I would like you to speak. Why you specifically: [the actual thing of theirs you read, watched or used, named precisely enough that this sentence could not be sent to anybody else. One line. If you cannot write it, you are not ready to send this email.] The session I have in mind: [working title] — about [length] minutes on [the narrow thing you want them to cover]. [Live at a time we agree, or pre-recorded. Say which, because it changes the answer.] The audience: [who registers, in one line — the role, the stage, the problem they arrived with]. [If you have confirmed speakers, name two or three here. If this is your first summit, say so plainly instead of implying a track record you do not have.] What I handle: [the recording, the editing, the captions, the registration, the promotion, the tech check — list what they do not have to do]. What I need from you is [the session, and the one other thing], nothing else at this stage. Would you like to do it? A yes or a no is equally useful and I will not chase past one follow-up. [Your name] [Your site, and the summit page if it is live]
A cold speaking invitation is decided in about eight seconds on one question: does this person know my work, or did they find me on a list. The second paragraph is the whole email. Everything under it is logistics, and logistics have never persuaded anybody to say yes.
[First name] — [Referrer first name] suggested I reach out to you about [Summit name], [dates]. [One line on the connection — how you know the referrer, and why they thought of this person.] The summit is [one line: what it is about, and who it is for]. Confirmed so far: [two or three names, or “this is the first roster and I am building it deliberately small”]. The session: [working title], [length] minutes on [the narrow thing]. [Live or pre-recorded.] [Date window.] [Referrer first name] thought you would be right for it because [their reason, in their words if you have them]. I agree, for [your own reason, which should be a different one]. If it is a yes, I will send one email with everything I need and no surprises after it. If it is a no, that is genuinely fine. [Your name]
The referral is the email, so it goes in the first line rather than the third paragraph — it is the only thing here that separates you from a cold send. Two rules around it: ask the referrer before you use their name, and if they offer to make the introduction themselves, take that instead. A forwarded introduction is answered at a rate a mentioned name is not.
[First name] — Following up on this once, then I will leave it alone. What has changed since I wrote: [the genuinely new information — another speaker confirmed, the dates now fixed, the format settled, the registration page live]. [If nothing has changed, say that instead: “Nothing, except that I am still hoping you will do it.” An invented deadline is worse than an honest empty-handed bump, and people can feel the difference.] I am holding [the slot] until [date], and then I will fill it. If it is a no, a one-word reply is genuinely useful and I will stop here. If it is a not-now, say so and I will ask about [the next one] rather than this one. [Your name]
One bump, five to seven days after the invitation, sent as a reply in the original thread so the invitation sits directly underneath it. The rule that matters is the one after it: there is no third email. The slot is worth less than the relationship, and the person who ignored two emails will remember the third.
Willingness peaks at the moment somebody agrees and declines steadily afterwards. The four emails in this block are arranged around that fact: ask for everything once, make the promotion effortless while there is still time to schedule it, then remove every logistical reason for the session to go wrong.
[First name] —
Delighted. Everything is in this one email so you never have to hear
from me about admin again.
YOUR SESSION
Title: [Working title — change it to whatever you want]
Length: [length] minutes [+ [n] minutes of Q&A, or “no live Q&A”]
Format: [Live on [date] at [time] [timezone] / Pre-recorded, file due
[date]]
Topic: [the narrow thing, in one line]
WHAT I NEED FROM YOU, BY [DATE]
1. Session title and a [n]-word description, written for the attendee
rather than for your bio
2. A headshot — [spec: square, 800px or larger, no text on the image]
3. A [n]-word bio and the one link you want people sent to
4. [Anything else — the slide deadline, a workbook, a code for the pass
bonuses]
All of it goes here: [one submission link]. One place, one deadline.
WHAT WE AGREED ON PROMOTION
[Write it out exactly as agreed, in your speaker’s own words where you
have them: “one email to your list in the week of [date], plus two
social posts,” or “no promotion — you are here for the session.” If
nothing was agreed, this is the moment to agree it, not the week before
the summit.]
WHAT I HANDLE
[The recording, the editing, the captions, the tech check, the
promotion, the reminders, the replays, the attendee questions.]
RECORDING AND REPLAY
[Say it plainly, once: how long the replay stays up, whether it goes
behind a paid pass, whether you are giving them their own copy of the
file, and what you will not do with it. This is the paragraph people ask
about later, so answer it before the question arrives.]
[If there is a revenue share: the rate, exactly what it applies to, the
attribution rule, and the date you pay. All four, in writing, now.]
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
[Date] — promo kit, with the swipe copy and your link
[Date] — tech check, if you want one
[Date] — your session
[Your name]The yes is the moment of maximum willingness in the whole relationship, and it decays within days. Anything you do not ask for here you will chase for six weeks. One email, one deadline, one submission link, and the promotion commitment written down while it is still fresh — a commitment that only ever existed on a call is not a commitment.
[First name] — [Summit name] is [n] weeks out. Here is everything you need to share it, put together so that sending it takes about four minutes. YOUR LINK [Their unique tracked link] — use this one everywhere. [If there is a revenue share, say what it tracks and for how long. If there is not, say that it exists only so you can tell them how many people came from them.] SEND WHEN [The date you agreed, restated.] [If they gave you a sending schedule, name the exact date they gave you rather than a window.] THE EMAIL Copy, paste, and change whatever you like — the swipe is below. TWO SOCIAL POSTS 1. [Short post naming their session and the problem it solves, with the link.] 2. [Post for the week of the event, naming one other speaker and the date.] IMAGES [Link to a folder holding their speaker card, a plain summit graphic, and a 16:9 version of each — sized for the platforms they actually use.] If you would rather write your own, please do; it will do better than mine. The only thing I would ask you to keep is the link. [Your name]
Written for the speaker to send to their own list. Keep it short enough that editing it is easy, and plain enough that it does not read as your marketing arriving in their voice.
Subject: [The session title as a benefit — not “I am speaking at a summit”] [First name] — I am doing a session at [Summit name], an online summit on [the problem], running [dates]. Mine is called “[session title],” and it is about [the one thing their reader would want]. [One or two sentences, in the speaker’s voice, on why they said yes to this. The honest version reliably outperforms the promotional one.] There are [n] other sessions across [n] days, including [two speakers this audience would recognise]. Registration is [free / [price]]: [Their tracked link] [If they cannot make it live: replays are up for [the free window], and there is an all-access pass if they want to keep them.] [Speaker’s name]
Four weeks out is the last point at which a speaker can fit your email into a calendar they have already planned; at two weeks you are asking them to displace something. The kit only works if it removes every decision — the words, the image, the link and the date — because a promotion commitment you never made easy is a commitment you did not really get.
[First name] —
Your session is [Day, Date] at [Time] [Timezone] — which is [the same
moment written out in their timezone. Do this every time. It is the
single most expensive mistake in the entire event.]
JOIN HERE: [speaker link — not the attendee link]
Join [n] minutes early. [Who will be in the room to meet you.]
YOUR [n] MINUTES
[0:00] [Host introduces you — either the exact words, or a note that
you will read the bio as written]
[0:0n] [Your session]
[0:nn] [Q&A — and how questions reach you: read aloud by the host, or
on screen] [or: no Q&A on this one]
[0:nn] [Handover — what the host says at the end, and what you do]
WHAT TO HAVE READY
[Slides in [format], a wired connection if you have one, the window you
are sharing already open, notifications off.]
IF SOMETHING BREAKS
Text or call [phone number] — [name] is watching it for the whole
session. [What happens if you drop: we hold the room, you rejoin on the
same link, and the recording is edited afterwards.]
WANT A TECH CHECK? [Booking link] — [n] minutes, any time before [date].
[Your name]This is friction removal for the one person whose failure you cannot absorb. An attendee who joins the wrong link is a lost attendee; a speaker who joins the wrong link at the wrong time is a hole in a published schedule with an audience already watching it. The timezone line and the phone number are what earn this email its place.
[First name] — You are on at [Time] [Timezone], in about an hour. Your link: [speaker link] Join at [Time minus n minutes] — [name] will be there to meet you. Anything at all: [phone number]. Looking forward to it. [Your name]
Five lines, a link and a phone number. The number is the reason this email exists: the failures it catches in the last hour are exactly the ones email cannot fix, and this is the only window in which catching them is still useful.
The promo kit hands every speaker their own link, and the thank-you email owes them a number against it. On a stitched stack that is a spreadsheet join between the registration tool and the cart, done at the exact moment people are waiting to be paid. In Agorix, registration, attendance and purchase sit on one attendee record, so “which speaker brought this pass buyer” is a question with an answer — see how summits and events work.
Most organisers finish the summit, collapse, and never write to their speakers again. Then the second summit is harder to book than the first and nobody can work out why.
Send it within about three days, while the event is still the thing everyone was doing last week. Close out the recording rights and the money in the same email, because both are uncontroversial now and neither will be in six weeks.
[First name] — Thank you. [One specific, true sentence about what their session actually did — the question it set off, the line people quoted in chat, the point three later speakers kept coming back to. Specific, or leave it out; a generic thank-you reads as a mail merge, usually because it is one.] YOUR RECORDING [Link to their file.] It is yours — [state plainly what they may do with it, and what you are doing with it: how long it stays on the replay page, whether it sits behind the all-access pass, and when it comes down.] YOUR NUMBERS [Only the ones you actually have, labelled honestly:] Live attendance in your session: [number] Questions asked: [number] Replay views so far: [number, and as of when] Registrations from your link: [number, if you issued tracked links] [If there is a revenue share:] RECONCILIATION [Pass sales attributed to your link] at [rate] is [amount]. Paid on [date], after the [n]-day refund window closes, by [method]. [Restate the attribution rule you set before the summit, so that nobody has to remember what was agreed.] WHAT IS NEXT [Where the session lives now and for how long. Whether there is an encore, an evergreen replay or a next event — and whether you would like them in it.] If you would do this again, I would like you back. And if there is something I should have done differently, I would genuinely like to know — reply and tell me. [Your name]
The email most organisers never send, which is a large part of why a second summit is harder to book than a first. It does three jobs at once: it closes out rights and money while both are still uncontroversial, it hands the speaker something they can be proud of, and it opens next year’s invitation before anybody else asks them.
Fifteen speakers is roughly the point at which memory stops working and somebody gets chased twice while somebody else is forgotten entirely. The grid is not project management theatre — it is the only place the promotion commitments exist in writing.
| Column | What goes in it, and why |
|---|---|
| Speaker | The name, and one line on why they are on the list at all — the draw, reach and fit read in a single sentence. If you cannot write that line, this is not a candidate, it is a name you recognised. |
| Tier | Anchor, Core or Rising. It is not a ranking of people. It records what you offered, and therefore what you may reasonably chase. |
| Status | One of six words, never free text. A status column that people write sentences in stops being sortable, which was the only thing it was for.Not sentInvitedBumpedAcceptedDeclinedConfirmed |
| Slot | The date and time, or the word “unassigned”. Accepted speakers with no slot are what quietly breaks a schedule two weeks out. |
| Promo commitment | Exactly what was agreed, in writing: “one email, week of [date], plus two posts”, or “none — anchor”. “Will promote” is not a commitment and should not be recorded as one. |
| Assets | Five boxes rather than one: title, description, headshot, bio, recording. A single yes/no hides which one is missing, and it is always the recording. |
| Kit sent · promo confirmed | Dates, not ticks. That you sent the kit tells you nothing about whether their email went out; the date they told you it went out does. |
| Owner | The one person chasing this speaker. Two chasers is worse than none — the speaker hears from both and answers neither. |
Sort by status, then by slot. Everything at Invited for more than seven days gets the one follow-up or gets closed. Everything at Accepted with an unassigned slot is a scheduling problem that is currently invisible. Anything at Confirmed with a missing recording two weeks out is the thing that will ruin your week, and it is the single most useful sort in the sheet.
The eight emails hold across both. What changes is who reads them, how long approval takes, and what a speaker can actually accept in return.
The draw is often the organisation as much as the person, and your invitation may be read by comms or a manager before it is answered — so write it to be forwarded. Promotion rarely comes from the individual; it comes from a company channel on a calendar set weeks ahead, so ask for that date rather than for “an email”. Many speakers cannot accept affiliate income at all, which rules out a revenue share and makes the recording, the transcript and co-branded artefacts the real currency. Expect a paper trail, and expect a question about what happens to attendee data — answer it in the acceptance email before it is asked. Lead times run longer: ten to twelve weeks rather than six.
Draw and reach are the same person, and promotion is the actual currency — which makes the ask larger and the negotiation more honest. A revenue share on the paid pass is normal and expected, so state the rate, the attribution rule and the payment date up front. Assume speakers compare terms with each other, because they do: wildly different deals for comparable speakers is how a roster comes apart mid-promotion. Everything moves faster and more informally, but assets arrive later, so set a hard asset deadline about two weeks before you actually need them. Pre-recording is common and entirely fine — say so in the invitation, because for some speakers it is the reason they say yes.
Eight to twelve weeks is a workable starting window: it leaves room for the invitation, one follow-up, an acceptance, a four-week promo kit and a one-week logistics note without any of them landing on top of each other. B2B speakers usually need longer, because approvals and company promotion calendars are set weeks in advance. Work backwards from the send date you want from your speakers, not forwards from today — the pillar guide puts the whole event on one clock.
Fewer than the number that feels impressive. Every speaker is a relationship to maintain, a set of assets to chase and a session to produce, and no attendee watches forty sessions. The constraint is what people can genuinely watch and what you can genuinely run, not how many slots fit in a schedule. A tight roster where every session belongs beside the others is a better event, and a much easier one to promote.
That depends on the model you choose — a flat thank-you, a revenue share on the paid pass, both, or neither. What matters is that it is decided and stated before the first invitation goes out, and never renegotiated after a yes. Whichever you pick, the rate, what it applies to, the attribution rule and the payment date all go in the acceptance email in writing. The trade-offs between the models are worked through in the summit pricing guide.
Nothing punitive during the event. Three days out you cannot make it happen, and trying costs you a relationship worth more than one email. Fix it structurally for the next one: a written commitment agreed at the moment of yes, a kit that removes every decision, a reminder scheduled against their sending date rather than yours, and a tier structure where promotion buys a better slot. Then ask honestly whether you made it easy enough — most missing promotion is a kit problem rather than a character problem.
Both work, and the decision belongs before the invitations rather than after, because it changes who says yes. Pre-recording removes timezone problems, nerves and the risk of a no-show, and some speakers agree only because it is pre-recorded. Live creates a room, a Q&A and a reason to attend on the day. Say which one in the invitation, and if you are mixing the two, say that too — the tech checklist covers what each choice costs you on the day.
Once. Send the invitation, then one bump five to seven days later in the same thread carrying genuinely new information, then stop. There is no third email. The slot is worth less than the relationship, and a speaker who ignored two emails will remember a third — usually at the exact moment you want to invite them to something better.
Only if you are going to use them. A tracked link per speaker is what makes a revenue share reconcilable and tells you which speakers actually drove registrations rather than which ones said they would. If you are not running a share and will not act on the numbers, one link is simpler and more honest. If you are running a share, decide the attribution rule before the summit and publish it in the acceptance email — deciding it after seeing the numbers is how rosters fall out.
Registration pages, multi-session live journeys, paid passes and upgrades, replays, and follow-up that branches on which sessions each person actually watched — on one attendee record, so the audience is still useful after the final session.
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