Which Speaking Topics Command the Highest Fees?

Change is the highest-paying speaking topic in the UK at an average of £6,030 per booking, ahead of personal growth at £5,859 and leadership at £5,755. Sports success pays least at £5,352.

Which topics pay the most?

From 250 UK bookers who had booked a speaker in the previous 24 months:

Topic	Average fee
Change	£6,030
Personal growth	£5,859
Leadership and autonomy	£5,755
AI and digital transformation	£5,717
Sales and customer service	£5,716
Financial success	£5,429
Sports success	£5,352

Why does change pay more than sports success?

Change sits at the top because it maps onto a problem organisations are actively spending money to solve. A restructure, a merger or a new operating model creates a budget line, and a speaker who can address it directly is buying into that budget.

Sports success is the more surprising result. Sporting names carry recognition and fill a room, so the assumption is that they command a premium. The data points the other way, and one explanation is supply: there are a great many former athletes on the speaking circuit, and abundant supply softens fees.

What does this mean if you are booking a speaker?

The spread between the highest and lowest paying topic is under £700, which is a smaller variation than most people expect. Topic is a weak predictor of what you will pay.

Format moves a quote far more. A virtual session costs less than an in-person keynote, which is why Alison’s virtual sessions start from £3,000 + VAT. Audience size, location, time of year and the depth of tailoring all shift the figure more than the subject does.

So choosing a topic because it looks cheaper is a false economy. You will save a few hundred pounds and book a session that addresses something your team was not worried about.

Does the highest-paying topic have the widest pay gap?

The opposite, as it happens.

Change has the smallest gender pay gap in the data at 2%, close to parity, although only five of its 27 bookings went to a woman. Sports success, the lowest-paying topic overall, has the widest gap at 27%, with men averaging £6,175 against £4,846 for women, and it is the one topic where women were booked more often than men, taking 62% of its bookings.

Topic-level figures are based on smaller sub-samples than the headline averages and should be read as indicative.

The pattern holds across the categories. Where a speaker’s value can be evidenced with a number, fees converge. Where the value rests on profile and reputation, the gap widens.

Figures are from the 2025 Speaker Industry Research, an independent survey of 250 UK speaker bookers commissioned by Alison Edgar Ltd in Summer 2025. The full findings include the gender breakdown for each topic.