Your Speakers

A talk for ConfConf, a conference for conference organisers, on what helps speakers do a great job at your conference.

Transcript

1. Your speakers Rachel Andrew rachelandrew.co.uk | @rachelandrew
3. This talk was crowdsourced
4. Survey Stats: Employment
5. Survey Stats: Gender *Of those who declared their gender. Other includes non-binary, non-conforming male and other.
6. Experience and frequency of talks 4 Experience ranged from 1 year to 20 years as a speaker 4 Respondents had spoken for 1 through to 40 events in the past year 4 One person had spoken at over 100 in the last year!
7. Lifecycle of a conference (from the speaker point of view)
8. The Call for Papers or emails to potential speakers This is your first impression make it a good one!
9. "Evidence that the conf organizers are going to dot their I's, cross their T's, and generally take care of their business efficiently."
10. When and Where is the conference?
11. Who are the audience?
12. "The best had a demographic breakdown of the audience, including jobs, level of experience, and areas of interest at the conference."
13. Experience level of the audience
14. Estimate of audience numbers Number at the event. Likely number attending an individual talk.
15. What do you offer speakers? Travel, accomodation, speaker dinner ...
16. If you do not cover expenses say so Be honest. It is a reasonable expection that travel, accomodation and ticket are covered. If not, say so.
17. Speaker fees
18. How long does it take to prepare a talk? In my survey the response was remarkably consistent. Between 40 to 80 hours or "2 weeks work" was a very common answer to a freeform question.
19. What does it cost to speak (assuming travel/accomodation is covered)? 4 for self-employed people 2 or 3 days of work while at the conference 4 child or petcare to pay for 4 employees may have to use vacation time 4 food and drinks at the event
20. What does it cost to speak? For a self-employed person many of the costs are in losing opportunities for billable work. 4 10 days of prep 4 2 days of travel 4 3 days at the conference 4 plus extra expenses due to being on the road
21. "2 days of conference cost me the paid time off that it takes 7 weeks to save up."
22. "Mostly just holiday time, so much so that in the last 2 years all of my holiday has been taken around conferences."
23. "... so much strain on family that it causes my wife to forbid future conference talks. [My spouse] shoulders most of the additional burden & there's not a dollar figure on it."
24. Recognise the cost to speakers Show opportunities for them to get extra value from their stay.
25. What do you expect of speakers? Unique talk? Length of talk. Extra events.
26. Will you be recording talks or livestreaming? When and how will they be distributed?
27. Your Code of Conduct Also details of how this is enforced.
28. Call for Papers 4 When is the deadline for submission? 4 When will speakers hear if they have been accepted or not? 4 What is the selection process? 4 Will you use the submitted abstract as the talk description on the site?
29. Emailing speakers Be clear if this is an invitation to speak or an invitation to apply to the call for papers.
30. Emailing speakers Be personal - tell them why you want them specifically to speak at your event.
31. "Why I, rather than some other expert, would be an important addition to the conference."
32. Emailing speakers Many speakers have information on their websites - read that first!
33. The selection process
34. Email everyone Don't let rejected speakers find that out by seeing the line- up announced.
35. Offering rejected speakers a discount is a nice touch Especially if they might have missed the early bird discounts.
36. The run up to the event
37. Booking Travel Busy speakers can have complex schedules!
38. If you are booking flights 4 ensure you have the correct legal name of your speaker for the booking 4 and make sure that name is only used for the booking, not on the event site 4 if there are a number of flights ask your speaker their preference 4 find out if they will want to check a bag if there is an extra charge
39. Arranging Visas Can your speaker travel to your country?
40. Booking Accomodation 4 check arrival and departure dates 4 does the speaker have any special requirements - for example an accessible room 4 will the speaker be travelling with a family member? 4 would they prefer to arrange their own accomodation?
41. How many nights should you cover?
42. "I once got picked at a 4 day conference to give a tutorial on the first day, and a talk on the last day, but their speaker's package only covered 3 nights hotel. It was an interesting conversation, but was made right in the end when they agreed to cover the full 4 nights."
43. How many hotel nights?
44. Skimping on hotel stays may risk a talk A missed flight connection could mean the speaker missing their talk!
45. Encouraging speakers to speak & run
46. "Recently I had a conference want to send me back on a flight the last day of the conference meaning I would miss it, that made me sad."
47. If you have a strict budget Offer speakers fewer nights in the pricier hotel or more nights in a budget one
48. Consider the location of the hotel and transport options 4 Not all speakers will be comfortable travelling alone around a strange city. 4 If the chosen hotel is some way from venues, arrange safe transport.
49. Technical information 4 slide format and resolution 4 availability of internet connection from the podium 4 will playing audio or video present a problem? 4 any notes based on your knowledge of the venue / setup 4 if you want speakers to present on a conference laptop*
50. Using the "conference computer"
51. The all you need to know email
52. "Two weeks before the conference they sent a reminder with all my travel details in it and a 9-page speaker briefing pdf."
53. PDFs can be lovely but emails are more easily accessible in transit
54. Your contact details Details of a point of contact that will be responsive when the speaker is in transit and while at the event.
55. Travel information 4 How am I getting to the city? 4 What is the address of the hotel? 4 How am I getting from the airport to the hotel? 4 What should I do on arrival?
56. Personal Schedule 4 What time is the speaker dinner and where do we meet? 4 What time is registration at the venue? 4 Is there a technical check? 4 Where should I present myself before my talk? 4 What other commitments do I have? 4 What time and where is the after party?
57. Other useful to know things 4 What costs at the hotel are covered? 4 What is not covered? 4 If there are meals at the event outline what is provided, especially if your speaker has explained any food allergies. 4 local travel information 4 tips on local sights to see if the speaker has half a day after arriving
58. Speakers are arriving!
59. Be ready to help out Make sure someone is watching the contact email address and phone number.
60. "One event said they'd send a car to pick me up from the airport — but it didn't arrive. And couldn't contact the organisers on the day either. Added a lot of stress to getting to the venue on time. "
61. Speaker Gifts "Do not buy me a parrot"
62. They came hand-luggage only Avoid hampers of artisanal jam, bottles of spirits, anything heavy or huge
63. Some things are like marmite* *don't give them marmite
64. People like practical gifts 4 A hoodie 4 An umbrella when rain is forecast 4 Travel power adapters - correct for the speaker's origin 4 Sim cards and mifi devices 4 Portable batteries 4 lipsalve and moisturizer
65. Thoughtful, personalized items and experiences 4 A city walking tour or trip to a local attraction 4 Putting something in the gift bag a speaker has mentioned hoping to try 4 Small hand crafted items 4 Food gifts that can be eaten or shared during the conference
66. Treat all speakers equally
67. "I spoke at a conference with tiered speaker perks. So speakers would ask me if I was going to an event and I would be surprised and embarrassed to say I didn't know anything about it."
68. "I think a really great speaker dinner goes a long way to making everyone feel comfortable and welcome. Too many events, I feel like I walk in, speak, and leave without really interacting. Those dinners, when they do happen, can be gold."
69. "The speaker dinner allows me to get to know a few people from both the organisers and the other speakers. If this is in a city I'm not used to, it makes me feel more confident for the rest of the conference as I at least have a couple of people I know."
70. Tips for speaker dinners 4 Not too late! 4 Check food restrictions, preferences and allergies 4 If "dinner" is more "nibbles" let speakers know 4 Relaxed and social is generally more important than expensive and flashy
71. Speaker dinners let you check in with each speaker Is everyone well and happy, can you help anyone?
72. Alternate ideas to a dinner Arrange a fun event for speakers and attendees
73. Make contact with all speakers 4 Make sure you have been in touch with every arriving speaker 4 Have they everything they need? 4 Let them know of any changes to the schedule or setup
74. "I once spoke at a conf in Prague where the organizers didn't make themselves known to the speakers. It was totally anonymous. There where two evening events, still none of the organizers bothered to say hi to a speaker."
75. The Conference
76. A Speaker Room 4 Providing a quiet room with wifi can be helpful to speakers. 4 Especially where the conference is not in the same location they are staying. 4 In my experience they encourage speakers to stick around, rather than hiding in the hotel.
77. "There have been a few conferences where I've never even met the organizer and there appears to be no staff or volunteers. You show up, find your room, set yourself up, give a talk, and just kind of fade away."
78. Introducing Speakers 4 Explain what will happen 4 Should they be on stage or walk on after the intro? 4 Check the details of the intro 4 Be enthusiastic - why are you excited they are at the conference?
79. "Once an organizer gave me a really half-hearted intro in which he said something that basically suggested he wasn't sure why they'd asked me to speak in the first place but maybe I'd be good."
80. A/V Setup and Support
81. "Despite being promised the ability to do a technical check (it's in my contract), at my most recent talk the A/V person wasn't in the room before I went on. I had to set up everything myself."
82. "At my first ever Event Apart the projector was blank for the first 5 mins of my talk. I had no idea what to do or what went wrong, but I saw Toby and Mike quietly but quickly making their way to the stage and all the cables to sort out whatever had went wrong. Realizing that they had my back in that moment and were on top of finding a fix was extremely reassuring."
83. Speaker Feedback
84. Unhelpful feedback Did you like this talk? Yes / No
85. Helpful feedback 4 structured 4 broken down 4 filtered through the organisers before passed on to speakers
86. "CocoaConf 2012 made gave people that turned in speaker feedback raffle tickets with good prizes. It got me over 50 responses to a talk with 100 people attending, and I received all the feedback only 15 minutes after my talk was done. It was really helpful."
87. When things go wrong
88. Code of Conduct Violations Have a plan in place for what you will do if you are informed of a code of conduct violation.
89. "I was bullied at a conference by a sponsor and the coordinators told him I told them."
90. "I brought up something with organizers once (an attendee didn't seem dangerous, just a little lecherous) and they waved it off with 'oh, him–he's a nice guy, just confused'."
91. "At a Ruby conference in Florida, myself and two other speakers were harassed. [The conference organizers] dismissed our report of harassment by the male attendee because "he is a good guy and has a family and didn't mean it that way." I actively encourage my peers to avoid that conference."
92. "At a meetup I felt the behaviour of an individual went against the coc - I did feel very uncomfortable doing so, but they handled it so well. They made me feel very comfortable in approaching them and that it had been the right thing to do. They kept my identity anonymous through the rest of the process when approaching the individual and dealing with the issue."
93. "I've never spoken to organizers about a problem. It's such a small community and I wouldn't want to endanger my ability to speak."
94. Useful links 4 http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti- harassment/Policy 4 http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/codes-of-conduct-101- faq 4 http://www.ancestralhealth.org/general-information/ staff-guidelines-handling-code-conduct-violation 4 http://the-orbit.net/almostdiamonds/2014/04/10/so- youve-got-yourself-a-policy-now-what/
95. It is not enough to have a code of conduct You need to have policies around what happens if people don't stick to it.
96. Speaker illness or emergencies
97. "Once I had a horrible cold right before the conference (Smashing Conf in Oxford), so I let the organizers know, not because I was going to cancel, just as a warning that my voice wasn't going to be great. Cat brought me tea, honey, lemon, and various medicines to help me feel better."
98. "An old injury flared up, and the organizer insisted on immediately setting me up with a same day medical appointment and personally covered the expense of it."
99. "One time at Agile Manchester I was due to speak, but was ill. I dragged myself there not really feeling up to it and this was pretty obvious to the organiser when I got there. Within 30m the organisers had arranged an alternate speaker, and sent me home. They still covered expenses, accommodation, etc.despite me not speaking."
100. After the Event
101. Ensure that a contact person is still available as speakers travel home
102. Email speakers with feedback and links to coverage Ask for their feedback on the event too. You can use positive feedback when advertising your CfP next year.
103. Pay expenses and fees promptly Remind speakers to submit invoices and receipts as required
104. Have you ever been promised a fee and not paid?
105. Have you ever been promised expenses and not paid?
106. Big Takeaways
107. New speakers need your attention more than your rockstars
108. Speakers from diverse backgrounds may need extra help They may not be used to travel They may not have much cash, or credit cards to fall back on
109. Expenses and fees are a diversity issue You have huge privilege if you can afford to speak for free or cover your own travel and accomodation
110. Expenses and fees are a safety issue This is where the conversation gets hard.
111. "These things are preventable in actionable ways that have nothing to do with a code of conduct."
112. How can we make this safe? 4 properly cover food and travel costs 4 "buddy" system 4 cover a +1 to attend 4 24/7 contact number in case someone gets stranded 4 lots of reminders that the number is to be used for anything
113. Doing it right doesn't mean doing it expensively
114. "I really appreciate it when the organizers facilitate getting to know the area and also meeting other speakers who are there. Help me figure out public transportation."
115. "Goodie bags with snacks when you arrive after a day of travel is so appreciated!"
116. "For my first conference, I arrived at my hotel feeling like an imposter a small welcome pack a note from the organisers made me feel really welcome and at home. "
117. "+1 ticket for a friend, so I can give it to a friend who wouldn't otherwise see the event"
118. " InfoShare sent me a zip of all the photos that had been taken of me at the conference by the official photographer."
119. "Small things like RT's of speaker slides from the conference account were very appreciated."
120. We all want the same thing A successful and enjoyable event for everyone
121. Thank you for listening I'm always @rachelandrew