Abstract: 

Many events and conferences have gender and general diversity issues. These can be a product of a long history of predominately male speakers – the Known Quantity Factor-- or, of an industry where there is little diversity at the top (where speakers often come from) or in the ranks.

An #allmalepanel can get you mocked, ridiculed and harassed on social media. There’s a “Congrats you have an all-male panel” Tumblr. Gender Avenger (@GenderAvenger) looks for events light on female speakers and creates social media-ready images with your event hashtag. The Gender Avenger community can bury your event’s social media stream in a flash.

Speaking at conferences is an important path to career and business success. Speaking at conferences gets you access to prospective customers, partners, employees and investors. Meanwhile, more diverse conferences are more interesting and better attended.

So, how to do you create a pipeline for future success and a diverse conference? You likely already have a number of diversity speakers inside your own community. We help educate your existing community of women and diverse candidates on what it takes to be a speaker – how to source speaking opportunities, write abstracts, pitch and then rock the gig itself. We also help them understand the benefits of public speaking through this hands-on workshop.

We talk to professional women about:
• The Speaker’s Paradise (why there are so many speaking opportunities today)
• The 5 “C’s” – the benefits of public speaking
• Rebranding their fear – getting over the nervousness of public speaking
• How to handle the “no” – getting turned down to speak

Bio: 

Bobbie Carlton is a parallel founder and an award-winning speaker, marketing, PR and social media professional. Her marketing and PR firm, Carlton PR & Marketing is a boutique firm that supports tech startups and small to medium-sized companies. Her second company, Mass Innovation Nights (MIN), is a social media powered new product showcase which has launched more than 1200 new products which have received more than $3 billion in collective funding. Company number three is Innovation Women, an online speaker bureau for entrepreneurial and technical women. It helps connect event managers and awesome speakers who just happen to be women. Follow Bobbie on Twitter as @BobbieC @MassInno @WomenInno or @CarltonPRM