Recap of the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) on September 23, 2020

Summary: We talked about how the September intermediate workshop series went last week, upcoming workshops/trainings/discussions September through November, help needed, and the start of our Spanish translations.

Attending: @jillbinder @carike @danitto @cguntur @nalininonstopnewsuk

Start: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1600880518104400

Agenda today:

  1. How the September workshops went
  2. The upcoming plan for the September & October trainings and the October & November workshops
  3. How you can help
  4. How Spanish Translations are going

1. How the September workshops went

Last week, we held our first “Intermediate” series.

I asked for questions in advance, and almost all of the questions could actually be answered by the beginner content. But it did give us the chance to go a little deeper with their specific questions, and also answer a few new, advanced questions.

We had 17 attendees, from 17 cities in 4 countries. (Nigeria, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States)

Not too many attended from the areas that had wildfires, but one mentorEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. who is in the thick of it did attend! (Plus me. Also smoky.)

With the advanced topics, I got a few experienced speakers on board to be mentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., and I am so grateful for their help. @allienimmons @volkswagenchick @dani418

We also had a new volunteer who helped with some background admin items, Amina.

Also, a big thank you to the #marketing team for all of their hard work in promoting the workshop: @abhanonstopnewsuk, @nalininonstopnewsuk, @lmurillom, and others!

Participants reported a public speaking confidence increase of 15%!

@nalininonstopnewsuk: That is great Jill. We have had some feedback that some people who wanted to attend are not available to due to the hurricane or Covid issues in the family. But they were very interested. We are making sure we say there are more workshops too. Well done Jill and everyone.

2. The upcoming plan for the September & October trainings and the October & November workshops

We have a lot upcoming!

Tomorrow, we have a training for WP Event organizers to learn to run the workshops:

Thurs, Sept 24 (APAC/EMEA-friendly time)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wordpress-meetups-hold-your-own-diverse-speaker-workshop-apacemea-tickets-118231322067

There are pre-recorded videos that the participants will watch, and @angelasjin will lead discussions before and after, and have chat discussions during.

We have 9 signed up right now!

We will have the same training again in October, where @miriamgoldman will lead the discussions:
Sat, October 24 (AMER/EMEA-friendly time)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wordpress-meetups-hold-your-own-diverse-speaker-workshop-ameremea-tickets-118520944335

In the first full week of October, we are trying out having Discussion groups using the new Learn WordPress platform!

People will be invited to watch the recordings on Learn WordPress ahead of time, and then come to the discussions ready to chat about it, ask questions, and even ask for feedback on their titles, pitches, and bios.

Tues, Oct 6: Discussion on: Who am I to be speaking? & Finding a topic
Wed, Oct 7: Discussion on: Creating a pitch
Thurs, Oct 8: Discussion on: Online Stage Presence

This hasn’t been posted to the Community blog yet. I am ironing out some details first.

In November, we are holding another Intermediate series. The “special topic” of this one will be something that has been requested frequently: How do you write a story for a tech talk?

Tues, Nov 17: Improving your pitch
Wed, Nov 18: How to write a story-based talk
Thurs, Nov 19: Intermediate online stage presence

3. How you can help

There are some great opportunities to help out with these and items on our team.

Right now I am composing a post for the Community blog to reach out for more volunteers beyond our team, but also I’d love if anyone on the team also wanted to put their hand up!

I showed the roles that I am reaching out for. @nalininonstopnewsuk gave great feedback!

  • Meeting Reminder-er
  • Workshop Mentors
  • Workshop Assistants
  • Discussion Group leaders
  • Team-members

4. How Spanish Translations are going

We have an eager group of people to do the Spanish translations of our workshop, and @rahuldsarker and @bhargavmehta, our Translation team leads, are getting these started with them.

End: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C037W5S7X/p1600884034154200

#wpdiversity