By Claire at Slayte
You open your inbox and there it is again. A note from a speaker asking if you received their proposal. Another from a committee member asking where their reviews are. And somewhere in your downloads folder is a spreadsheet labeled “Final_Final_RealFinal3.xlsx.” We’ve been there.
Speaker proposals are the lifeblood of many events. They also have a sneaky habit of turning into the biggest slowdown in the planning cycle. And once that happens, everything else—session scheduling, marketing, mobile app prep—starts playing catch-up. So let’s talk about why this process breaks, and what you can do about it.
The Usual Suspects
There’s no single point of failure—but some patterns come up again and again:
- Submissions come in late (and in every possible format)
- Reviewers are unclear on what they’re evaluating
- Decisions get delayed because someone is waiting on someone else
- Communication with submitters gets lost or stuck in draft
Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
So What Actually Works?
We’ve seen some of the most organized events in the country get ahead of the proposal bottleneck—and it’s usually not magic. Just a few simple shifts in process and mindset.
Here’s what helps:
1. Define the Review Structure Before You Launch
Don’t wait until proposals are piling up to figure out who’s reviewing what. Before you open submissions, map out:
- Who’s reviewing each category
- How many proposals each reviewer will see
- What the scoring rubric looks like
Even a lightweight rubric (clarity, relevance, fit) helps reviewers move faster and stay consistent. It also gives you something solid to point to when making final selections.
2. Make the Submission Form Do More of the Work
The best forms aren’t longer—they’re smarter.
You can guide speakers to write better abstracts by:
- Showing examples of strong proposals
- Setting word count minimums and maximums
- Breaking big questions into smaller ones
You’ll end up with clearer submissions and happier reviewers.
3. Timebox the Review Phase (and Stick to It)
Open-ended timelines are where good intentions go to die. Once submissions close, give reviewers a hard deadline. Set reminders. Share progress dashboards if you can. Make it clear when the window closes and what happens next. One of our clients even gamifies it—lightly. Top reviewers get a shoutout and a thank-you card. It works.
4. Pre-draft Your Decisions Communication
You know you’ll need to send out acceptance and rejection emails. Don’t wait until the last minute to write them. Create templates ahead of time, so once decisions are made, you can move fast—and do it with care. A thoughtful rejection now can lead to a strong submission next year.
5. Know Your Cutoff for Last-Minute Changes
There’s always someone who emails the week before the program goes live asking to change their title, add a co-presenter, or switch formats. Set a firm cutoff. Communicate it early. Then stick to it.
It’s not about being inflexible. It’s about protecting the rest of your planning timeline.
The Bottom Line
The speaker proposal process doesn’t have to be a black hole of time and stress. With a few small shifts, it becomes a smooth, structured engine that fuels the rest of your event planning—on time and on point. And if you're still stitching it together in Google Forms, PDFs, and long email chains… it might be time for a rethink.
We’ve helped hundreds of teams clean this up. Let us know if you want to see what that looks like.
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