ParseForge
Papers We Love Conf Speakers Scraper
parseforge/papers-we-love-conf-speakers-scraper
Developer toolsAutomation
Scrapes Papers We Love Conf speaker data by year. Returns each speaker as a flat row with name, talk title, and year. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
- Total users
- 2
- Monthly active
- 1
- Total runs
- 88
- Bookmarked
- 0
- Rating
- Not rated yet
- Last modified
- 8 days ago
Overview
Papers We Love Conf Speakers Scraper
Scrape Papers We Love Conf speaker data from any year, up to a million per run. Each speaker comes with their name, talk title, and conference year. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Papers We Love Conf publishes its speaker lineup on a public website, but there is no official API to pull the data. This Actor reads the conference pages directly, filters by year, and returns each speaker as a flat row. You get a clean dataset without writing a single scraper.
| Who uses it | What they scrape Papers We Love Conf for |
|---|---|
| Conference organizers | See who spoke at past Papers We Love events to invite repeat speakers or find gaps. |
| Tech community managers | Build a directory of speakers and their talk topics for their own meetup or newsletter. |
| Researchers | Analyze trends in computer science talks over the years. |
| Job recruiters | Find engineers who have presented at Papers We Love to source candidates. |
What it does
This Actor collects Papers We Love Conf speakers by conference year and returns each one as a flat row.
- 📅 Year filter: scrape a single year like 2019, or leave blank to get every year available.
- 🔢 Max items: cap the number of speakers per run from 1 to 1,000,000.
- 📤 Export formats: download as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with Papers We Love Conf data
📋 Build a speaker directory.
A community manager scrapes all Papers We Love Conf speakers and imports the CSV into Airtable to power a searchable speaker list for their own event.
📈 Track talk topics over time.
A researcher scrapes every year and uses the talk titles to see how subjects like distributed systems or machine learning rose and fell in popularity.
🎤 Find repeat speakers.
A conference organizer scrapes multiple years and filters for speakers who appeared more than once to shortlist proven presenters.
🔎 Source engineering talent.
A recruiter scrapes recent years and cross-references speaker names with LinkedIn to find engineers who give technical talks.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No API key | Reads the public Papers We Love Conf pages directly, no registration or OAuth. |
| Flat schema | Every speaker is one row with name, talk title, and year, ready for spreadsheets. |
| Year control | Target one year or scrape the full history with a single run. |
| Scalable | Collect up to a million speakers per run without manual copying. |
How it compares
No other Store actor targets Papers We Love Conf the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.
| Papers We Love Conf Speakers Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When Papers We Love Conf changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor with a conference year and a maximum speaker count, and filters run as each page is read so only matching speakers reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.85 |
| 1,000 results | $8.50 |
| 10,000 results | $85.00 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the Papers We Love Conf Speakers Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to Papers We Love Conf through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/papers-we-love-conf-speakers-scraper"
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
Check the Year input. If you entered a year that has no conference page, the Actor will return an empty dataset. Try leaving Year blank to scrape all years.
Why did the run stop before reaching my maximum?
The Actor stops when it has collected the number of speakers you set in Maximum speakers, or when it has read all pages for the selected year. Lower the maximum or clear the year filter to get more data.
Why are some speaker names missing?
The conference website may list a speaker without a full name or with a different format. The Actor returns exactly what is on the page, so check the source page for that year.
Can I get talk abstracts or slides?
No, this Actor only extracts the speaker name, talk title, and year. For abstracts or slides, you would need a different scraper or manual collection.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need an API key or login? | No. The Actor reads the public Papers We Love Conf website directly, so no registration or credentials are required. |
| Can I scrape a specific year? | Yes. Set the Year input to a value like 2019 to get only that year, or leave it blank to scrape all available years. |
| What data does each speaker row include? | Each row includes the speaker's name, their talk title, and the conference year. The exact fields are shown in the sample output below. |
| How many speakers can I scrape in one run? | You can set the Maximum speakers input up to 1,000,000. The default is 10. |
| What export formats are supported? | You can download the results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset. |
| Does this Actor scrape talk abstracts or videos? | No, it collects the speaker name, talk title, and year as listed on the conference pages. It does not fetch abstracts or video links. |
| Can I run this on a schedule? | Yes, you can set up an Apify schedule to run the Actor daily, weekly, or monthly to catch newly added speakers. |
| Is this Actor affiliated with Papers We Love? | No, this is an independent scraper built by the Apify community. It is not endorsed by Papers We Love. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Papers We Love. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| year | string | Conference year to scrape (e.g. 2019). Leave blank to scrape all available years. | not set |
| maxItems | integer | Maximum number of speakers to collect per run. | 10 |
Pricing
from $7.50 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| result | Single result in the default dataset. | $0.0075 to $0.0085 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~papers-we-love-conf-speakers-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
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Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.
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