conference-speaker-scraper

name	conference-speaker-scraper
description	Extract speaker names, titles, companies, and bios from a conference's /speakers page for pre-event research and outreach targeting. Tries multiple keyless extraction strategies (CSS cards, heading+paragraph blocks, JSON-LD, Sched/Sessionize) and falls back to a headless browser for JS-heavy sites.
metadata	{"version":"1.0.0","category":"lead-generation","type":"capability"}

Conference Speaker Scraper

Pull a speaker list from a conference site for pre-event prospecting. The keyless script tries several extraction strategies and keeps whichever yields the most speakers; a Playwright degrade handles JS-rendered pages.

When to use

• "Who's speaking at [conference]? Get their titles and companies."
• "Scrape the speaker list from [conference URL]."
• Front-end for the event-prospecting-pipeline.

How to run

Primary — keyless multi-strategy

python3 ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/scrape_speakers.py \
  --url https://conf.example.com/speakers \
  --conference "ExampleConf" \
  --output json   # json | csv | summary

Strategies tried: (a) speaker/presenter/faculty/panelist CSS cards; (b) repeated heading+paragraph blocks; (c) JSON-LD schema.org/Person; (d) Sched/Sessionize embed detection. It keeps the single best-yielding strategy (never merges conflicting ones).

If it prints a "no speakers extracted" / "platform embed detected" warning, the page is JS-rendered — use the degrade below.

Degrade — JS-heavy pages (Playwright)

cd ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts && npm install && npx playwright install chromium
node ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/scrape_speakers_pw.mjs \
  --url https://conf.example.com/speakers \
  --conference "ExampleConf" \
  --output ${WORKSPACE}/speakers.json

Renders the page (waits for networkidle) then extracts cards. If that's also blocked and APIFY_API_TOKEN is available, route to an Apify cheerio/web-scraper actor; otherwise return partial results and note the gap.

Outputs

{conference, strategy, platform, speakers: [{name, title, company, bio, conference}]} as JSON, or a CSV / human summary with --output.

Credentials / env

• Required: none — direct extraction uses keyless fetch + Robomotion Proxy equivalents.
• Optional: APIFY_API_TOKEN — only for the managed-scraper fallback on JS-heavy / anti-bot speaker pages.

Notes & edge cases

• Pick the strategy returning the most speakers; don't merge conflicting strategy outputs (the script enforces this).
• Many conferences embed Sched/Sessionize — the script flags platform so you can parse those directly before falling to the browser.
• Without APIFY_API_TOKEN, JS-heavy pages degrade to Playwright; if that's blocked, return partial results and note the gap.
• Bios may be truncated on cards; follow per-speaker links only if cheap.