Rhythm uses two records for someone who speaks at your events. A speaker profile belongs to the person, not to a single event, and appears in your speakers directory for session organizers to choose. An event speaker belongs to one event and controls that person’s name, photo, and biography for that event, whether you add them directly or choose them from a session’s speakers.
Why Rhythm Keeps Them Separate
Associations often invite the same subject-matter expert to speak at several events over the years. A speaker profile lets you keep that person’s biography and details in your speakers directory once, then reuse them when they present again. An event speaker is the version your event uses. Portal pages and programs read from the event speaker record, so changing a speaker for one event does not rewrite what earlier or later events showed.
What Each Record Carries
A speaker profile and an event speaker both store a name, organization, and biography, but they answer different questions:
| Record | Belongs to | Answers |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker profile | One person, across every event | “Who is available to be picked as a speaker?” |
| Event speaker | One person at one event | “Who is presenting at this event, and what should their event page show?” |
Both records keep plain-text and search-friendly copies of the biography, in addition to the formatted version you enter with headings and paragraph breaks. Rhythm uses those copies so staff can search speakers by biography text and export biographies without formatting. Rhythm rebuilds the plain and searchable copies when the biography is saved. If you clear a biography, save the record again before exporting, or the export can still show the old text.
When you build a report, choose the query type based on the data you need. Sessions > Speakers includes event fields, such as the event name and dates, but it does not include the topic custom field. Speaker Profile can include the topic custom field, but it does not include the event name or event dates. Use the session speaker query for event-specific data, and use the speaker profile query for cross-event speaker-profile data.
Keeping Details in Step with the Contact
Both a speaker profile and an event speaker are tied to a contact in your Rolodex. Each time you save the speaker record, Rhythm copies details from that contact, including the contact’s current organization. Rhythm copies those details only when you save the speaker record, so contact changes do not reach a speaker profile or event speaker until you open and save that speaker record again. If you type a name or job title directly on the speaker record, that value overrides what Rhythm would copy from the contact. Clear the field if you want Rhythm to use the contact’s current value again. Because Rhythm copies the contact’s organization when you save, a speaker profile can keep showing an organization the person has since left until you save the profile again.
Tip
If a speaker’s name or organization changed on their contact record but still looks out of date on an event or in the speakers directory, open and save the speaker profile or event speaker again. Speaker details refresh only when you save the speaker record itself.
From a Session's Speaker Picks to an Event Speaker
When a session organizer picks people from the speakers bureau on a session, Rhythm creates event speakers from those picks and lists them on the session automatically. Staff do not need to create the event speaker by hand. The sync runs shortly after the session is saved, usually within seconds to a few minutes. The Console does not show anything while the sync is pending, so a newly picked speaker will not appear on the event immediately. The sync copies only the person’s name from their profile; it does not copy a photo or biography. If the event should show a photo and biography, add them to the event speaker separately. Each sync rewrites the session’s full speaker list from the picks that triggered it, so a speaker change made to the session between two syncs can be lost. If you manage speakers closely after editing a session’s picks, check the session again after the sync has had time to run.
Because the sync copies only a name, a speaker’s biography and other details from an abstract do not automatically fill the session’s speaker entry when that person does not have a speaker profile yet. You can copy a bio from the abstract record into the speaker profile yourself; once that speaker profile is saved, the event uses it. If you collect a headshot or bio through custom fields on the abstract itself, that data stays on the abstract and does not sync to the speaker or session speaker record. For a self-service option, turn on Show Contact Form on the event’s registration process so a submitter can update their own Rhythm photo. If the event has the Presenter Center installed, a presenter can also update their speaker profile photo and biography there after submitting an abstract.
Getting Started with Speakers
The first time your Rhythm account switches on Events, Rhythm gives it four starter speaker types, so you can add your first speaker without building a speaker type list first. Re-enabling Events later does not restore a starter type you deleted.
Staff add someone to the speakers directory from Add Speaker to Directory under Speakers. Staff add or edit a speaker for one event from Create a Speaker on that event’s Speakers page. A presenter can also get access to edit some of their own details in the Portal, which is covered in Sessions Explained.
Speaker setup expects some profile-style information, such as Job Title, even when you use the speaker record only for an internal purpose, such as controlling a discount or an operational process, and the speaker will not be shown publicly.
Events does not currently offer a searchable, publishable speaker directory like a membership directory. If you need speakers organized outside your Rhythm account’s speakers area, plan to use another tool for that purpose. The Console also has no bulk way to carry a prior event’s speaker list into a new event or its linked Higher Logic community; you add speakers to the new event one at a time.
Uploading a spreadsheet of speakers adds the records listed in the file. It does not remove existing speakers that the file leaves out. Downloading current speaker data gives you only the spreadsheet structure to work from.
Warning
Event functions, such as meals or luncheons, do not currently support assigning a speaker directly. Speakers attach to sessions.
Speakers in the Portal and Presenter Center
A speaker’s Job Title and Organization appear on the Speaker Info page in the Portal after a visitor selects that speaker’s name from the speaker list.
There is no separate option to hide one speaker from the Portal unless you also make the speaker inactive. Setting a speaker’s status to inactive removes that speaker from the Portal, along with the other effects of being inactive.
Speaker images stored on an event speaker or a speaker profile are not available as public asset links for downstream integrations. Rhythm has no documented recommendation for the speaker roster page image aspect ratio, and it is not established whether that page enforces a fixed ratio. If a speaker’s photo looks cropped or stretched there, try a different aspect ratio for that image.
The current speaker-facing self-service tool is the Presenter Center, where a presenter can manage their own speaker profile. It does not let a presenter search for other speakers or see session history from prior events.
Warning
A session’s time can display inconsistently on its speaker information page. Reports vary: a session in a non-Eastern time zone has shown correctly on the event schedule and session detail page while its speaker information page showed an incorrect time, sometimes without labeling the time zone. When an event has the option to convert all times to the event’s time zone turned on, session times on speaker pages in both the Portal and the Console are intended to show the same converted, event-local time as the schedule. If a session’s time on its speaker page does not match the schedule or session detail page, treat the schedule and session detail page as correct and verify with Support.
Speakers and Registration Packages
A registration package’s purchase restrictions can exclude registrants who are already marked as speakers. That exclusion depends on a separate speaker-related checkbox setting on the package, not just on whether the registrant has a speaker profile or record. Changing that checkbox changes whether the package is offered. If you need broader purchasing eligibility logic for a package, such as restricting it to a section’s members, build it from contact- or organization-level data, such as a custom field or contact role. A speaker profile by itself is not the attribute to target for that kind of restriction.
Importing and Reporting on Speakers
The session import mapping screen is not self-explanatory about speakers. Matching a speaker by name during import does not automatically fill that speaker’s organization or email. Those values come from the speaker’s own profile or record, not from recognizing a name in the file.
In the Session Speakers query, the Session > Abstract and Session > Abstract ID fields can be blank for imported event records, including historical imported events, even though the abstract record still has an ID when you open it directly. Abstracts created directly in Rhythm do not have this gap.
There is no field, tag, or trigger condition that distinguishes presenters with one session from presenters with multiple sessions for automated email segmentation.
Example
A returning keynote presenter already has a speaker profile from a prior year, with a biography and photo on file. A program organizer picks that person from the speakers bureau while editing this year’s opening session. A few minutes later, Rhythm creates an event speaker for that person on this year’s event and carries over their name from the profile. Staff then open the new event speaker and add this year’s photo and biography, because the sync copied only the name. When the presenter’s employer changes later that month and someone updates their contact record, the event speaker keeps showing the old employer until staff open and save it again.