A speaker website that answers an event organiser's checklist
Event organisers shortlist speakers quickly and with a checklist in mind: what do you talk about, can you hold a room, have you done this before, can I get a photo and bio for the programme, and roughly what will it cost. A speaker site that answers each of those in one visit gets more enquiries, and better ones.
The organiser's checklist
Programme organisers, conference committees and in-house event teams are usually comparing several names for one slot. They're looking for evidence, not adjectives. Build the site around what they need to copy into their shortlist document.
| They want | Give them | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Topics | Two to four named talks, each with a one-paragraph abstract and who it's for | Talks page |
| Proof you can present | A two-to-four-minute clip from a real event | Home page, near the top |
| Track record | Recent events with dates and audience type | Talks page or About |
| Programme copy | Short and long bios, written in the third person, ready to paste | Press section |
| Photos | Two or three high-resolution headshots, landscape and portrait | Press section |
| Logistics | Formats you offer: keynote, workshop, panel, remote | Talks page |
| Fee | A range or a starting point, and what it covers | Enquiry page |
Write talks, not a list of subjects
"Leadership, resilience, innovation" tells an organiser nothing. A named talk does: "Shipping on a Friday: what a hospital pharmacy taught me about release safety", forty-five minutes, for engineering leads, with three things the audience will take away. Each talk on the page should have a title, a short abstract, the length and formats it comes in, and the kinds of event it's worked at. Organisers can paste that straight into a programme.
Video and photos
A short clip of you speaking to a real audience is the strongest thing on the page. Lead with a few minutes, not a full hour; link the full recording separately. Upload headshots and the model sees them and places them. Published pages can't play video, either as an embedded player or as an uploaded file, so host the clip on YouTube or Vimeo and put a clear "Watch the showreel" link near the top, with a still from the talk beside it.
For press photos, say which ones organisers may use and how to credit the photographer. A press kit page can hold bios, photos and logos for download if you're asked for them often.
The enquiry form
A general contact form produces vague messages. An enquiry form that asks the right questions produces quotes you can answer in one reply. Ask for the event name, date, city or online, audience size and type, the format wanted, and the budget range. The built-in contact form has a name, email and message, so for those questions use a custom form tied to a site function (up to 30 plain-text fields), whose thank-you page can repeat your reply time. Say how quickly you reply and whether you work through an agent.
Enquiries are saved in your dashboard, sealed at rest, and can be emailed to you; connectors can post each one to Slack, add it to Airtable or Notion, or create a HubSpot contact when there's an email address. If an agent handles bookings, send enquiries to them through a webhook or a shared channel.
How Anticode builds it
As a speaker website builder, Anticode starts from a description like "a speaker site for Dr Amara Osei, who gives keynotes on medication safety to healthcare and tech audiences, with a talks page, a short showreel, press bios and a booking enquiry form". The Architect confirms the plan and asks where the answer changes the build, such as whether fees should appear. The design engine can split the site into separate pages, for example a Services page for the talks, an About page and a Contact page for enquiries. Luxury (Jost) and Editorial (Geist) suit keynote speakers; Technical (IBM Plex Sans) suits conference regulars in tech.
When you add a new event or retire a talk, edit it in place or ask in a sentence: "add the Lisbon conference in May to past events". Version history keeps your most recent saves if you need to go back.
Limits
- No calendar of availability. The booking calendar is for slot-based appointments, not for blocking out speaking dates. Handle dates by email.
- No video on the page. Link to your clips on a video site instead.
- No contracts or invoicing. Agree terms and invoice outside Anticode; a deposit can be taken through a payment link from your own provider.
- English only. The builder and the pages it makes are in English; if you speak in several languages, say so in the talks list rather than expecting translated pages.
Questions people ask
Should I put my speaking fee on the site?
A range or a "from" figure saves time on both sides and filters out events without a budget. If you speak free for charities or students, say so too.
Can I keep a list of past talks up to date easily?
Yes. Edit the list in place, or keep past talks in a CMS collection with fields for date, event and city, which you edit in the dashboard.
Do I need my own domain?
It helps: organisers forward your link around a committee. Connect one on a paid plan; free sites use an anticode.dev address.