Finding someone who can connect with your audience, be it an entrepreneur, a scientist, an artist, a community leader or a local hero is essential. WikiTalks are at the very heart of WikiStage and it is extremely important to find the right speakers for your event. Before you start, here are two questions to ask yourself:
Who is my audience?
Think of what issues or concerns they want to address, what problems they would want to be solved, or what is their passion?
What do you want from your speaker?
Decide what you expect them to bring to your event, and how they are going to help you achieve your goals. Is it to motivate, educate or entertain your audience?
When you define answers to these two questions, you are ready to start. Here are some tips on how to find matching speakers for your WikiStage event:
1. Use your own network
Your colleagues and friends may be able to refer you to a speaker that they have personally seen in action or they personally know. Also, you could find expert speakers by connecting with organizations and clubs in your field.
2. Use the Internet
Start with searching through your LinkedIn network of mutual contacts, YouTube, and other social media. Seek out professionals who are developing content that is being read and shared by readers online.
3. Check your local university
Professors can be ideal speakers because they are skilled communicators and educators. Also, many universities have a speakers bureau that connects conferences and event organizers like you with professionals interested in speaking opportunities.
4. Look to nonprofits in your area
Leaders in NGO are often very active in the community and are likely to share their experience. Consider a local nonprofit as a potential resource for a speaker.
5. Attendee feedback
Always keep the desires of attendees in mind. Collect attendee feedback to see if they can recommend a speaker they are interested in hearing from.
As an event organizer, you are well aware of the role that speakers can play in the success of your event. Event organizers often tell us that they find it more difficult to find women speakers. Nevertheless, we think is worth the extra effort to look for great female speakers. A good mix and balance is a very enriching ingredient in every WikiStage conference. If you get a line-up of who can deliver excellent content to your audience, then you’re likely to have a very successful event.
In 2013 I have taught a Public Speaking course at the Teacher Education College in Southern Algeria. The class was an opportunity for me to help learners be outspoken and use communicative skills for social change. One of the topics that I discussed with my students was the importance of saying “no”. At that time, I was inciting them to say no to tyranny and oppression and also to learn to say no when they are not ready to commit. Often, out of shyness or complacency, we say yes to everything and then under-deliver what we promised.
After that, I left to finish my doctorate at Syracuse University in the US. Towards the end of my stay, I was approached by one of my bright students telling me how transformative “learning to say no" was to her. She said: "I am going to say no to an opportunity that was waiting for me and my team". I said: "Wait!” I changed my mind. After a lot of pondering I discovered that I was wrong. I told her: “Say yes!” Because I came to realize we live in a world with shrinking opportunities. After her apparent confusion, she said: "Sounds great! And by the way, we are organizing a WikiStage event in Djelfa and we would love if you can come and talk". I immediately said “no”. I could see clearly that she was very confused because she was certain I was going to walk the talk and say “yes”. She told me: “First you teach us to say no, now you are telling me to say yes and when I ask you, you say no.” Out of embarrassment and in an effort to be the role model I should be, I said yes and embroiled myself into podium panic!
It took me a long time to choose my title. I wanted a positive topic to navigate the ocean of despair and negativity that I think prevails among Algerian youth scene after the frustrations of the Arab awakening. I wanted a topic that speaks to the audience that shares with me the same impoverished background. The talk location was just 50 km from my birthplace. I was born and raised in a region in Algeria with a lot of poverty, despair, school drop-outs, and deteriorating infrastructure. I wanted to share my success story with one idea that seemed to be the basis for all my breakthroughs.
After a lot of hesitation, I had the “eureka” moment! “The Power of Saying Yes” is a big idea. Fast-forward to the day of the presentation, I talked about how saying yes to helping people, saying yes to opportunities and engagement boomeranged in my life and enriched my CV without initially intending it, diversified my background and led me to where I am today - an education specialist and project manager in leading international institutes. My main cry was: “Say YES, do good things, they will come back and haunt you in a positive way.” When Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, he did not think of creating a company. I watched him say in one of the interviews: "I was convinced that someone will someday build something like Facebook for the world, but not me". He thought that it would be a company that already had thousands of engineers. He spoke about all the social pressures that he had. But saying yes led him to be a billionaire, and most importantly a game-changer in the 21st century. I concluded my talk by emphasizing the importance of relationships and how treating people with respect and kindness will also boomerang in a very serendipitous way. The last slide was a quote that really changed my life. Mark Twain once said: "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe Harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
When young activists do this, they’ll have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Only the sky will be the limit!
Many high-profile conferences and events lack gender balance, despite there often being no shortage of qualified women. The absence of women at public professional forums is a problem. Because speakers are usually male, audiences are given a narrow perspective. The lack of diversity limits the quality of the conversation and potential outcomes.
As an event organizer, you are well aware of the role that speakers can play in the success of your event. Event organizers often tell us that they find it more difficult to find women speakers. Nevertheless, we think it is worth the extra effort to look for great female speakers. A good mix and balance is a very enriching ingredient in every WikiStage conference.
WikiStage strongly encourages women speakers to speak at our events. For example, the #ShareHerVoice Conference was an inspiring and eye-opening experience aiming to support future gender equality champions. Amongst the speakers we welcomed on stage, there were a lot of amazing women. You can read more about this empowering event Empow’Her: Share Her Voice.
Sometimes it feels like many people (women and men) fear public speaking more than anything else. Whether this is true or not, it is a hard reality that a lot of people are afraid of, or at least uncomfortable with, public speaking. If you have something valuable to say, then you have all the talent and "gift" required to speak. Now, what you need is skills, practice, and feedback. Coaching can also be very valuable. See why is it important to say "yes" to a WikiTalk request and how one of our speakers overcome podium panic: The Power of Saying YES to a WikiStage Talk Request.
What is important in WikiStage is that WikiTalks are not exclusively provided by one small group of celebrities or just a handful of teachers. We want to encourage you to get involved to bring your perspective on stage; in your community and in your language. WikiStage empowers you and your community to take part in a global conversation. Add your piece of knowledge to our collaborative video library for learning.
Apply to become a WikiStage speaker HERE.
