How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WP Events #Diversity&Inclusion

This is an event for meetups located in the Great Lakes Area, including Ontario and New York meetups. To name a few: Hamilton (hosting), Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara, Toronto, Mississauga, London, Kingston, Durham, and any other meetups that may wish to include their members. Please let us know so we can properly recognize you.

This will be Hamilton's Meetup for the month of March and held a week earlier than usual.

Does the thought of speaking at one of our meetups or WordCamps intrigue you? This is a workshop for people from marginalized and underrepresented groups who are thinking about speaking at a meetup or WordCamp. The focus of this hands-on session is to look at what has stopped you from speaking in the past and explore how to move past your fears, generate WordPress-related topics to give a talk on, boost your speaking confidence, and allow you to practice speaking in a safe space. At the end of the workshop, you will have a few ideas for talks that the community wants to hear!

You do NOT have to have any experience in public speaking. This workshop is for all levels of experience.

This workshop is for you if:

• You identify as being from a marginalized or underrepresented group in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc.
• You’ve thought about speaking at meetups or WordCamps but haven’t been able to think of a topic
• You think you don’t know anything worth speaking about

All Meetup and WordCamp organizers in our region are also invited to both participate in the exercises and to support the attendees.

We will cover:

• Why speak at WordPress events?
• Dispelling some myths about speakers/speaking
• Coming up with topics and choosing one

Be prepared to participate interactively! We are going to be working on exercises together in small breakout rooms. You can also always say “Pass” to opt-out of participating.

This workshop will be facilitated by a couple of our friends from the #WPDiversity group: AmyJune Hineline (she/her) and Tara King (she/they).

Please try to arrive a few minutes early so that we can start on time.