| 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
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.
