Creating Diverse and Inclusive Meetups

Tips for encouraging diverse meetup speakers

  • Ask! It’s so simple, but can be quite impactful. If there’s a member of the WordPress community you admire and have enjoyed a talk they’ve given in the past, you should send them a pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”. Be specific about what you are looking for, when you hold your event, and find out if they’re willing to speak to your group.
  • Collaborate with other nearby groups to find speakers. This works especially well for online events, where both presenters and attendees are not constrained by location.
  • Look within your meetup group. Your meetup group is made up of all sorts of tremendously talented and experienced individuals. Frequently people don’t think of themselves as presenters because no one has given them the opportunity or training to be a presenter. Open up speaker requests internally to your group, and encourage first-time speakers.

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