# State of Speaker Bookings 2026 HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Edition The 3-Page Executive Brief ## You've Been Pitching Blind. This Is the Map. We analyzed **1,514 speaking opportunities** across **20 events** and **10 buyer organizations** from 2022–2026. One number matters more than all the others: **34%** **The Encore Index™** That's the share of working content professionals a buyer had the chance to rebook who actually were rebooked. One in three. Bookings create revenue. Encores – getting re-booked – build a career. ## The 5 Findings That Change How You Pitch ### 1. The Encores Go to Teachers, Not Shows | Who | Had a Chance | Rebooked | Rate | |---|---|---|---| | Content professionals (breakouts, seminars, working sessions) | 147 | 50 | **34.0%** | | Celebrity-tier headliners | 34 | 4 | 11.8% | | Stage-front professionals (opening, keynote, or meal sessions) | 20 | 0 | **0.0%** | Event planners rotate opening acts on purpose. The teaching sessions are where the encores live. **A working session that changes what people do on Monday earns the return.** ### 2. Leadership Topics Get Hired Most Frequently. Operational Topics Earn the Return. | Topic | Had a Chance | Rebooked | Share Rebooked | |---|---|---|---| | AI | 5 | 4 | **80.0%** | | Hiring & training | 9 | 6 | **66.7%** | | Operations | 8 | 5 | **62.5%** | | Business & money | 17 | 10 | **58.8%** | | Leadership & culture | 21 | 4 | **19.0%** | Leadership & culture is the #1 topic professionals get hired to teach (40 of 256 titled professional sessions, 15.6%) — and has the **lowest share rebooked** of the topics with ten or more chances. **From the Stage — Jeffrey A. Wolfe** Why? Topics that change every year need the expert to return with updates. A leadership talk can be replaced with another speaker. And leadership or cultural specialists rarely provide “you can apply this on Monday and get results” insights. ### 3. The Door Is Wide Open You might think the same names dominate. They don't. - **75.6%** of professionals (201 of 266) hold exactly one speaking opportunity - **864 of 1,103 speakers** appear only once - At buyers we watched year over year, **63.1%** of 2026 professional speaking opportunities (70 of 111) went to speakers **new to our data** Two of every three professional speaking opportunities go to a fresh face. **A first booking in this market is realistic. The market is not closed.** ### 4. Your Next Booking Is Hiding in Someone Else's Buyer List We call them **Demand Twins** — speakers whose buyers overlap, whether or not they've ever met. They define Speaking Circuits. Two speakers qualify when at least three buyers have booked both. 737 pairs of speakers in this data already share two buyers. One pair shares three: the first Demand Twins. Their circuit, 3 national associations, staged 1,005 of the 1,514 speaking opportunities. The Organizations you haven’t been hired by yet in a circuit are excellent marketing opportunities. **Those buyers already book the other Speakers in your circuit – people like you.** ### 5. Working Relationships Heavily Influence Rebook Decisions The most frequent re-booking is the buyer's **very next yearly event**: 146 of 198. 6 of the 10 most-booked professionals are embedded with a single buyer organization. **Your first buyer is your likeliest second booking: 47 of the 64 professionals booked again in a later year came back through a buyer from their first year.** **From the Stage — Jeffrey A. Wolfe** Serve the event well. Plan the return before the first stage is over. Consider this scenario: An Event Organizer knows the schedule is running 30 minutes into the Lunch Break. The last two speakers before lunch are asked to trim their presentations to get the Event back on schedule. One Speaker demands full time, and takes it. The Audience is now late for lunch. The second Speaker asks the audience if they’re willing to grab lunch then eat in their seats, promising to deliver at least one high value “use this on Monday” take-away in twenty minutes. Then does it. Which speaker gets invited back? ## The Data at a Glance | Metric | Count | |---|---| | Speaking opportunities | 1,514 | | Unique speakers | 1,103 | | Events · editions | 20 · 39 | | Buyers | 10 | | Professional speakers | 266 | | Professional speaking opportunities | 374 (24.7%) | | **The Encore Index™** | **34%** | ## See Your Twins. Find Your Next Stage. A **Speaker Twin** is another speaker whose booking history reveals buyers who already hire speakers like you — and are more likely to hire you, too. There are two kinds: Demand Twins, matched on who books you, and Content Twins, matched on what you speak about. The Demand Twins in this report were found because we have their booking histories. Content Twins reveal which organizations and corporations have been hiring professionals with related content. All based on your one-sheet, and website. **Yours isn't in the data yet.** Which means your warmest leads — the buyers who already book speakers like you — are invisible to you. **Book a Zoom Call. Bring Your One-Sheet and 5 Previous Bookings. Get Your Personal Speaker Twin Report.** **What you get:** - **The stages next to yours** — buyers who already book people like you - **The Full HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Industry Report** — proven by the record - **Future Industry Reports Before Public Release** Open to the first 25 confirmed professional speakers as our Founding Members group. **[BOOK YOUR ZOOM CALL →](https://calendly.com/jeffreyawolfe/30min)** [speakerencore.com](https://speakerencore.com) *Built from the SpeakerEncore booking graph: 1,514 speaking opportunities across 20 events and 10 buyer organizations, 2022–2026.* *What we collect, what we never show, and how to get out: read the [Data Charter](https://speakerencore.com/charter).* **© SpeakerEncore** · [speakerencore.com](https://speakerencore.com) *Built on the encore. The one metric this industry has never measured — until now.*