October 07, 2025
The heart of any great event is its content – and more often than not, that comes down to the speakers. A strong lineup can draw people in, spark lively discussions, and make the whole experience worth attending. But curating that lineup isn’t exactly simple. Gathering proposals, reviewing submissions, finalizing decisions, and keeping everyone in the loop can quickly pile up into a mountain of extra work.
That’s why hundreds of organizers have already turned to Whova’s Call for Speakers (Abstract Management System) to bring order to the process. With features like flexible waitlist decisions, ability to run multiple calls, and reminders for incomplete submissions, organizers have happily left behind messy spreadsheets in favor of a smoother, smarter workflow.
But once the proposals are accepted, there’s still the critical step of locking in speakers’ final commitment. Just because someone submitted a proposal months ago doesn’t always mean they can still commit to presenting. Plans change – travel, schedules, and even jobs or priorities can shift –and organizers are often left wondering: “Are they still able to come?”
That’s where our new enhancement comes in. Speaker Confirmation Forms make it easy to gather those commitments quickly and with zero manual chasing. Instead of back-and-forth emails, you can simply include a confirmation form in your acceptance messages. Speakers can confirm their participation with one click, and you’ll see it all neatly tracked in a dedicated dashboard.
Better yet, you can add your own custom questions to the confirmation form. For example:
- Ask speakers to consent to cover their own travel and lodging
- Confirm they’ll attend the full event, not just their session
- Gather updated contact info or affiliation for your program
- Check if they have any A/V or accessibility needs
- Request consent to record or share their session afterward
With this flexibility, you can handle both the commitment and the logistics in one step—saving you the hassle of sending extra forms later. No more uncertainty, no more scattered responses. Just clarity, peace of mind, and a truly locked-in speaker lineup.
This feature is available exclusively on the Whova CFS Premium and Enterprise plans. If you’re currently on Standard or Advanced, upgrading is quick so you can secure your speakers with confidence.
Keep reading to see how Speaker Confirmation Forms help you cut down manual tasks and guarantee your carefully chosen speakers make it to your stage.
How Do I Set Up the Confirmation Form?
When you’re ready to send out speaker acceptance emails, you can set up the Confirmation Form to include with those emails. Simply navigate to Call for Speakers, then to Decision Announcements on your dashboard.
Set up the Confirmation Form in your Call for Speakers Dashboard.
From there, you can:
- Set a confirmation deadline and create automatic reminder emails so you don’t have to chase responses manually.
- Customize the form details. You can include a standard “Will you confirm your participation?” question, or add your own custom fields. For example, you might ask if the speaker wants to meet other presenters beforehand, or collect availability preferences for scheduling.
- Save your progress and come back to refine the form until you’re ready to share it with your accepted speakers.
Managing Form Responses
Once decisions are announced, tracking responses is effortless. Under the Manage Confirmations tab, you’ll see a unified dashboard with each speaker’s name, session title, and response status: Confirmed, Pending, or Declined.
Need to filter quickly? Just sort by status. For example, filter for “Confirmed” to see who’s officially locked in, or “Pending” to identify who needs a reminder. This gives organizers a real-time overview of how many speakers are attending the event without having to check cluttered inboxes for each speaker’s response.
This dashboard helps track which speakers have confirmed or declined their attendance, and which have yet to respond. Organizers can filter by confirmation status with a dropdown menu, highlighted in the red box above.
Send Reminders and Other Communications
If your deadline is approaching and some speakers still haven’t responded, Whova makes it easy to nudge them. From the dashboard, you can send a batch reminder to all Pending speakers in just a few clicks.
You can also email confirmed speakers as a group. For example, you can share travel logistics or let them know when they’ll be scheduled to speak. This helps organizers stay in touch with speakers efficiently and professionally before an event.
Speakers Can Easily Confirm Attendance
From the speaker’s side, the process to confirm takes just a minute. Accepted speakers receive a congratulatory email with a link to their confirmation form. They simply click the link, answer the questions, and submit their response.
Speakers can confirm attendance and answer further questions via the Confirmation Form.
For speakers with multiple accepted submissions, the system will display all of their talks so they can confirm or decline each individually – a quick and straightforward process.
Adding Confirmed Sessions to the Agenda
Once confirmations are in, adding speakers to your agenda is seamless. When importing sessions from Call for Speakers, you’ll only see submissions from confirmed speakers. That means you don’t run the risk of accidentally scheduling a speaker who never confirmed.
This small step helps organizers reduce no-shows and makes building the final program much more reliable.
Manage Speaker Confirmations with Ease
Whova’s new Confirmation Form makes the process of confirming speaker attendance simple and stress-free. From collecting confirmations and availability to keeping a reliable agenda, this feature streamlines the process of lining up event programming and improves both the organizer and speaker experience.
Ready to take the stress out of speaker confirmations? Get a quote for Whova today and see how easy it can be to manage your next event.