This year, as we mark our 20th anniversary, we celebrate not only our growth, but the extraordinary reach, resilience, and impact of the business. Since 2006, we have organized over 12,000 paid speaking engagements featuring 1,084 speakers. We have brought authors to audiences in all 50 states. We have sent speakers to more than 40 countries outside the U.S., including Azerbaijan, the UAE, Romania, Nigeria, and Thailand. And yes, our speakers have now appeared on all seven continents!
One of our most far-flung events? Birding expert David Allen Sibley traveling from Massachusetts to Buenos Aires, boarding a private charter to Ushuaia, Argentina, and then embarking on a ship to Antarctica for an event with Lindblad Expeditions.
No matter the destination, PRHSB has gained a reputation for taking care of our speakers with white glove service at their events. Internationally celebrated disability rights activist Emily Ladau had this to say about working with the Speakers Bureau:
“Working with PRHSB continues to bring about fruitful professional connections and affords me opportunities to educate a wide range of audiences about disability. And because planning fully wheelchair accessible lodging and travel can often be tricky, I’m particularly grateful to have the support of my agent, who is incredibly kind and patient in coordinating logistics. Representation by PRHSB has elevated my speaking career immensely and is truly a point of pride for me.”
In 2022 Emily Ladau spoke to Nasdaq employees as part of their “Expanding Perspectives” DEI series. Nasdaq announced the initiative on a billboard in Times Square.
From Big Audiences to Intimate Conversations
Our largest live audience to date was Bryan Stevenson (represented by the bureau until 2019) speaking in Houston, TX in 2018 to 30,000 people and another 18,000 via livestream.
Our smallest? Valerie June spoke at a six-person corporate retreat in 2024—an event described by attendees as “calming,” “positive,” and “perfectly easy.”
Both moments reflect what we do best: create meaningful connections between speakers and audiences, no matter the size of the room. We estimate that nearly 10 million people—both in person and virtually—have attended PRHSB-organized events over the past 20 years.
Asked about the audiences he has spoken to, Hernan Diaz says:
“Working with PRHSB has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my professional life. Because of the Bureau’s curatorial expertise in selecting each one of the events, my experiences at auditoriums all over the country have exposed me to the liveliest audiences and the most inspiring interlocutors. As a direct result of these speaking engagements, I have gained a better understanding of my own craft and even grown as a writer. It has been a privilege to collaborate the PRHSB team over the last few years. Here’s to the next two decades!”
Colson Whitehead spoke to a sellout crowd at One Book One Community Auburn in 2017.
Books at the Center
Over 20 years, we have sold more than 1.5 million books in conjunction with events. Some of our largest book sales have come from university community reads programs.
Priya Parker signing books at her event for Philanthropy Southeast where she spoke to staff members including trustees, C-Suite leaders, program officers, and funders.
Long-Standing Partnerships
Some of our speakers have grown their speaking careers with us for nearly the entire 20-year journey.
Lawrence Wright’s first event with us took place in October 2006; nearly two decades later, he continues to headline events with major clients.
In 2012, a few months after her bestseller Wild was published, Cheryl Strayed spoke at her first PRHSB-event: the Fall Benefit for Friends of the Dallas Public Library.
Reflecting on his speaking career with PRHSB since signing on in 2017, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi notes:
“Solidarity writing and reading is imperative. But as a writer, nothing is more imperative than readers engaging each other, learning from each other, collectively making sense of how to transform our world. To nurture this, to model this, I regularly walk away from my writing desk and onto stages for constructive conversations, hoping they spark conversations into the night, into the next day, into the next year. I have been ushered every step of the way for this imperative work by the good folks at the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau.”
Debbie Macomber spoke at the Lincoln County Public Library’s 100th year celebration. A billboard announced the event.
Adapting to a Changing Market
Over 20 years, the Speakers Bureau has continually adapted to change and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reshaped the paid speaking market almost overnight. In March 2020, in-person events came to a sudden halt as conferences, campus programs, and corporate gatherings were cancelled or postponed indefinitely. At the same time, the shift to virtual platforms created new opportunities: geographic barriers disappeared and authors were able to reach larger and more diverse audiences through livestream and hybrid formats.
A True Team Effort
Behind every one of our over 12,000 events is a deeply collaborative team—agents aligned across Penguin Random House divisions working hand in hand with editorial, publicity, marketing, sales, education and library teams, finance, and operations.
The Speakers Bureau succeeds because it is uniquely positioned within Penguin Random House, leveraging in-house synergies to create opportunities no outside lecture agency can replicate.
“Twenty years on, we’ve built something extraordinary,” says Tiffany Tomlin, Vice President and Executive Director of the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau. “Here’s to the next 20 years of bold ideas, powerful conversations, and books at the center of it all.”