NGS Family History Conference Speaker Compensation
NGS continually evaluates speaker compensation in the context of our goal to produce a high-quality educational conference. We realize that the program and therefore our speakers are what makes the NGS conference an enriching educational experience.
NGS Speaker Compensation Model
NGS has discontinued the old conference formula used by conference organizers for decades, which favored using fewer speakers and those with prior national experience. The old formula paid all travel; a hotel night for each lecture plus one additional night; honorarium; and expense allowance for each day scheduled to speak. In order for the previous system to work, each speaker had to present three lectures or more. The conference organizers could not afford to invite a speaker to present only one lecture unless they were local and required no travel or hotel nights. This severely limited the number of national speakers who were invited, prevented new speakers from gaining an audience, and restricted the program topics to the specific expertise of the few speakers invited.
In 2011, NGS changed to a new speaker compensation package. This allows organizers to invite speakers who have no national level experience but who are experts in specialized topics to enrich the conference. This change has improved the breadth and depth of the NGS conference programs which is beneficial to the conference attendees.
Some have asked “What happens if a speaker is to give only one lecture? The compensation only covers a small portion of my expenses to attend the conference.” Speaking at a conference is a way to cover some costs for speakers when they attend a conference. For example, speakers receive a complimentary full registration regardless of the number of lectures they are presenting. This gives speakers the opportunity to attend quality continuing education lectures and to network with colleagues and exhibitors.
Advance planning is part of the genealogical world since calls for proposals, booking travel, and scheduling speaking activities require looking at one’s individual calendar eighteen months to two years prior. With that in mind, speakers will need to consider compensation offered as a supplement to their travel budget by year, not a fully reimbursable expense. Using the current compensation package, speakers may benefit more one year and less another year over time. Depending on where the speakers live in relation to the conference site, a speaker may use all of the travel allowance to reach the conference, may use only a portion of it to reach the conference, or may have to supplement the allowance. This will change each year depending on where the conference is located.
The NGS conference offers four days of lectures. A speaker may be speaking one to four hours over the course of the conference. They then have many free hours to attend lectures, network, talk to vendors, and socialize. All of these activities are important to a speaker’s personal growth and visibility in the field. The exposure that speakers get at a national conference is an unpaid benefit that is hard to measure. Those who lecture at national conferences usually get more speaking engagements because of their increased visibility.
Speaker Compensation
Over the last several years NGS has increased the travel from $100 to $125 per lecture (2015); the per diem to a $35 expense allowance per lecture (2016); the honorarium from $150 to $175 per lecture (2017); the honorarium from $175 to $200 per lecture plus an additional complimentary hotel night for each speaker (2019), and all speakers including sponsored speakers receive a complimentary full conference registration (2020) for the in-person conference. Compensation for 2023 remains the same as for 2022. Any recorded lectures for the virtual portion of the conference will have separate compensation. We will continue to reevaluate the compensation package and make further adjustments to increasing travel expenses in the coming years. NGS speakers are selected by the conference committee.
| Lectures | Honorarium | Hotel Nights | Travels | Expense Allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200 | 2 nights* | $125* | $35** |
| 2 | $400 | 3 nights* | $250* | $70** |
| 3 | $600 | 4 nights* | $375* | $105** |
| 4 | $800 | 5 nights* | $500* | $140** |