Create and Edit a Speaker Profile

On This Page

• Add a Person to the Speakers Directory
• Keep a Profile's Bureau Details Up to Date
• Tag a Profile with Speaker Topics
• Make a Profile Active or Inactive
• Related Reading

A speaker profile is an entry in your Rhythm account’s speakers directory, also called the speakers bureau. It holds the presenter details you want to keep across events, separate from what any single event shows about that person.

Prerequisites

• The person must already exist as a contact in CRM. If they do not, see Create or Edit a Contact.

Add a Person to the Speakers Directory

1. Go to Meetings & Shows › Speakers, then select Add Speaker to Directory.
2. Choose the Contact. Rhythm fills in the person’s preferred name and photo from their contact record.
3. Add any bureau details you want to keep, such as topics, website, honorarium, biography, dietary requirements, speakers bureau or agent, and private notes.
4. Save.

Result

Rhythm creates the profile and opens the contact’s record, where the profile appears as a tab.

Warning

A speaker profile is permanently tied to the contact it was created for, so each contact can have only one profile. If you choose a contact who already has a profile, the form warns you and links to the existing profile. Use that profile instead of creating a second one for the same person.

Keep a Profile's Bureau Details Up to Date

1. Open the person’s contact record, go to the Speaker Profile tab, then select Edit Profile.
2. Update any of the following:
   • Topics the person speaks on.
   • Honorarium, their usual speaking fee.
   • Dietary Requirements.
   • Speakers Bureau and the agent’s Contact Person details, including name, title, email, and phone.
   • Bio and private Notes.
3. Save.

Result

Rhythm saves the updated details on the profile, and staff see them the next time they view it.

These bureau details are separate from the details shown for the same person at a specific event. Changing a profile’s fee or biography does not update events that already display that person, and changing an event speaker does not update the profile.

Tip

Inactive topics can still be tagged on a profile if you select one, so double-check the list when you only want active topics to be available.

Tag a Profile with Speaker Topics

Topics describe what a person speaks about, and staff can use them to filter the speakers directory. Add or remove topics in the profile’s Topics field, the same way you update any other field on the form. If any profile uses a topic, you cannot delete that topic from your Rhythm account’s setup until you update every profile that uses it.

Make a Profile Active or Inactive

Set a profile’s Status to Inactive when you want to remove someone from the bureau’s active picks without deleting their record or losing their history.

1. Open the profile for editing.
2. Set Status to Inactive.
3. Save.

Result

The profile is excluded from the active count in the speakers directory. Events where this person is already listed as an event speaker do not change, because making the profile inactive does not affect event speaker records that were already created from it.

Related Reading

To add this person as a speaker for a specific event, with details that apply only to that event, see Add and Edit an Event Speaker. To remove a profile you no longer need, see Delete a Speaker Profile. If your Rhythm account has its own custom fields for speaker profiles, see Custom Fields for how those are set up.