We are always interested in welcoming speakers from different backgrounds to educate, inspire, and engage with our members. We also encourage professional or notable speakers and personalities looking for a place to practice or tweak their speaking craft. Our greatest interest is in your credibility as a representative of your field and in your ability to inspire, inform and entertain our members. We want speakers who will ‘Wow!’ our audiences, leaving them with value, and new perspectives.
Some of the topics and qualities we are on the lookout for:
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Unique personal stories that offer teachable moments for others
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Topics that relate to women: goal setting, finding your joy, organization, time management, finances for women, how to build business relationships, women’s health, mental health tips, leadership, sales, switching careers, work/life balance
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Speakers with a powerful personal story, preferably with strong women empowerment components or an ability to captivate multiple audience types
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Speakers with lots of energy, enthusiasm, and credibility
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Speakers with a great sense of humor
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Speakers who have developed a strong, established social media presence
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Presentations that have a strong and useful interactive element
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Special “niche” topics we don’t know exist that you’ve found a demand for!
Tips and Suggestions for Speaking:
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Engage our audience by creating a dynamic and interactive session.
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Have a take-away message that invites the audience to reflect and think differently about something.
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Simplify complex subjects while still respecting the audience intelligence. Be succinct, get to the point and don’t try to cram in more than one theme.
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All speakers must respect that our speaking slots are a no sales-pitch event. It’s fine to mention your website or email address but you may not pitch a specific product or service.
Speaking Opportunities for
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In-person Meetings
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Virtual Meetings
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In-person Training/Workshops
- Webinars
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Conferences
We look forward to learning about your experiences and content!
If you are interested in speaking at an upcoming Women Empowering Women (WEW) chapter meeting, please complete this form.
FAQ’s or Commonly Asked Question
Typically 20-30 minutes. Please review our Speakers Guidelines. We are very careful that our speakers presentations are not “sales pitches”. It is preferred that the ideas and presentation must be actionable and interactive. Our members prefer educational, motivational or insightful information that any and all of our attendees might find valuable in their work or personal life.
WEW attendees are a variety of women, ranging from growth minded entrepreneurs, business owners, sole proprietors, and beginners. Most importantly our members are women who get it. They get the idea of collaborating and supporting each other as we climb. They are eager to help as well as eager to learn. What is the exact demographic? A large majority have had full time corporate type of positions and have had one or two career changes. Over the age of thirty with children.
When you speak at a WEW event you will be embraced with a welcome and warm audience who are eager to learn. They will support you and encourage you as well as soak up your topic! If you’re looking to grow your publicity, practice your talk, or give back, WEW is the perfect audience for you.
What do we do to support you as a speaker? We will promote you before and after your scheduled talk. Provide social media recognition as well as links to your personal website on our website surrounding your scheduled talk.
Practical Tips for Becoming a Great Speaker
Talks range from pure opinion to strictly instructional. Whatever the flavor, identify for yourself why you are motivated to give this talk, and use that motivation to guide you. As you prepare, occasionally assess whether your talk is still focused on its goal.
Your talk should also motivate your audience about the topic. If the only thing they take away from your talk is a drive to explore more on the topic themselves, you have succeeded.
A talk is not a mystery novel: be clear and state the point you want people to understand. State it at the beginning and also at the end. It might even be the title of your talk as well.
You must practice your talk in order to be confident in front of an audience. You also want to be able to talk to your audience, not read from notes.
The way to avoid reading from your notes, and to sound casual, is to remember a series of core ideas you want to express, instead of exact words. When you are rehearsing (and timing) your talk, if you must refer to your notes, refer only to your list of ideas.
In storytelling, there are different kinds of narratives, but the most engaging and satisfying* ones have:
- a beginning that introduces the motive (motivation, purpose, thesis)
- a middle where the motive is advanced (explained, justified, challenged)
- a clear ending (summary, conclusion, outcome)
If the middle of your talk has a series of distinct sections, let your audience know what they are in advance, and remind your audience where you are in your “agenda” as you go. You can do this verbally (e.g. “I explained A and B, and now I will explain C”) or just visually with your slides, or both.
* Yes there are stories that break this structure, but they are rare, and while the goods ones are exceptional, the bad ones are dismal.
For a variation on this theme, check the TEDx talk “The secret structure of great talks” by Nancy Duarte. https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks?language=en
The point of your personal introduction is not to give your life story (snore), but to give you credibility. If your talk is mostly opinion, then justify why your opinion is valuable. For example, “As a beginner, my experience illustrates the kinds of frustration other beginners have” or “In my 5 years experience, I’ve seen this pattern again and again.” Such statements add credibility and can thus engage your audience.
Give time for people to think. When you are giving a talk, you notice those silences, but your audience, meanwhile, is still digesting what you just said. Presenting is not radio. You won’t look stupid or forgetful if you pause to refer your notes between ideas. Take a breath, or, if you need an excuse to pause, take a sip of water.
Identify what you assume the audience knows and doesn’t know. This is what people mean when they say “know your audience.” In your talk, state your assumptions. Here is a template you can use: “You have done X before, and you know Y, but I think you did not know Z”.
If you spend too much time talking about a side topic, your audience may stop paying attention, or get confused.
If you find yourself with more than one slide about a side topic, then guess what? You just found another topic you could give a talk about. Cut all but the essentials of the side topic from your talk. You may even only be left with a remark, not even a slide. Set those notes and slides aside, and work on that talk another time.
If understanding the side topic is a prerequisite and you assume your audience does not know it, then explain the absolute minimum required to understand your talk only.
As you watch anyone give a talk, pay attention to what you liked, and didn’t like. When working and re-working your own talk, go back to those thoughts: Can you use any of the effective techniques in your talk? Are you making any of the same mistakes?