Diverse Speaker Training Group (#WPDiversity)

Upcoming #WPDiversity Workshops

DATE#WPDIVERSITY EVENT TYPE
April 20, 2023Follow-up SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. Chat for ‘Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events AMER/EMEA’ on #community-eventsSlack chat
May 13, 2023Planning: Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events APACWorkshop
June 17, 2023Follow-up Slack Chat for ‘Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events APAC’ on #community-eventsSlack chat

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What is the Diverse Speaker Training Group (#WPDiversity)?

  • We are a working group in the WordPress Community team
  • Our mission is to create diverse speaker lineups and inclusive & diverse WP events for official WordPress MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCamps.

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What do we do?

We have 3 programs:

  1. Diverse Speaker Workshops: Helping people from underrepresented groups feel motivated to start speaking at WordPress events, including overcoming impostor syndrome by owning our expertise and finding a topic
  2. Diverse Speaker Support Channel #diverse-speaker-support: Connecting underrepresented speakers with opportunities to speak at WordPress events
  3. Organizing Inclusive and Welcoming Events Workshops: Helping WordPress MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers create inclusive and welcoming Meetups and WordCamps

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Who our programs are for:

  • Diverse Speaker Workshops: Underrepresented speakers in WordPress, WordPress event organizers
  • Diverse Speaker Support Channel: Underrepresented speakers, WordPress event organizers, speaker mentorsMentor 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 anyone who is interested
  • Organizing Inclusive and Welcoming Events Workshops: WordPress event organizers and anyone who is interested in championing this work

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How to get involved:

  • Join our working group. Our group meets every month in #community-team on Slack.
    • 2nd and 4th Wednesdays
    • at 17:00 UTC (between March 12, 2023 to November 4, 2023)
    • at 18:00 UTC (from November 5th 2023 to March 10, 2024)
  • Join the #diverse-speaker-support channel
  • Learn how to hold the speaker workshop for your local Meetup or WordCamp. You can ask @jillbinder questions in the #diverse-speaker-support Slack channel about how to run the workshop.
  • Help us translate our workshop materials into other languages

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What languages do you serve?

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Read more details

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Program 1: Diverse Speaker Workshops

Have you ever had trouble getting people from marginalized and underrepresented groups (in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) to speak at your meetups and WordCamps?

Our group holds interactive, hands-on, transformational Diverse Speaker workshops for people from underrepresented groups in WordPress. The workshops bust through people’s obstacles to public speaking. Our workshop participants report a 20% increase in public speaking confidence. Our material covers:

  • The Myths of Being a speaker (aka Impostor Syndrome)
  • Finding a Topic for a WordPress Talk
  • Writing the Pitch for your WordPress Talk
  • Creating Your WordPress Talk
  • Becoming a Better Speaker
  • Creating Great Slides

We hold both live workshops and watch parties in real-time for people from underrepresented groups and pre-recorded workshops are available to everyone on learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4; English Lesson Plan; Japanese lesson plan, Spanish (Latin American lesson plan), Portuguese BR (Brazil) lesson plan), Italian lesson plan. Closed groups help workshop participants open up about vulnerable challenges and it gives people immediate feedback on their topics, pitches, and outlines. Both of these are key to helping people overcome Impostor Syndrome.

Some of the benefits we’ve seen from communities attending or hosting these workshops include:

  • Tripling the number of speaker applications from underrepresented groups.
  • Groups who’ve started at 10% or fewer speakers from marginalized or underrepresented groups have grown to have 50% or more speaker representation.
  • More dynamic and interesting events and communities – when people see themselves represented on the speaker lineup, more people want to come to your events.

“Before taking the workshops, I didn’t have the confidence for public speaking. Thanks to these sessions, I can relax, gather my thoughts, and proceed with my presentation. I would recommend this workshop to people of color in the WordPress ecosystem. You belong here; it’s a no-judgment zone where you can find your authentic voice.”

– TC, Learner Advocate, @codebrother1, USA

“The Diversity Speaker training workshops we ran at local meetups using this material
were highly successful and helped us achieve an unprecedented 60% of women speakers
that year. I highly recommend it to anyone who is conscientious of encouraging more
women and other diverse groups to speak at WordPress events.”

– Nichole Betterley, 2017 WordCamp Seattle Speaker WranglerWrangler Someone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors.

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Questions and Answers:

Question: “I have a meetup or WordCamp coming up and would love to have this workshop for my community. Can we do this?”

Answer: Yes! We would be happy to hold a workshop to help you get more diverse speakers for YOUR upcoming WordCamp. Or you can hold one yourself — we show you how. Please fill out the form below to set either of these up.

Question: “But there are no people from underrepresented groups in my community!”

Answer: Time and again, when the event is posted properly (which you’ll learn how), we see folks who have never come out to an event before attend this workshop and then start participating in the community.

Question: “I’m an organizer and I want to take this workshop myself. Can I?”

Answer: Most of our workshops are open to organizers as well. We would love it if you yourself attended a workshop or watched our videos online. It would be great for you to get to know our work better, plus also help improve your own public speaking confidence. It is also one of the ways to learn how to hold the workshop yourself.

Find out about upcoming workshops here

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Program 2: Diverse Speaker Support Slack Group

With the loss of in-person events, the road between workshop and speaking has become harder. We want to help community members get on stage more quickly — and to help WordPress event organizers develop more great speakers as soon as possible.

The #diverse-speaker-support Slack Channel offers a forum where speakers from marginalized and underrepresented groups, WordPress event organizers, and speaker mentors can build community. This Slack channel is for:

  • Anyone from your community who takes the Diverse Speaker Training workshop.
  • Event organizers seeking speakers for diverse and inclusive events. 
  • Experienced speakers and community members who want to mentorMentor 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. new speakers.
    • We ask that speaker mentors take our Inclusion workshop first.

It’s a great, supportive, safer space in which community members can workshop their talk ideas, pitches, and outlines with the group.

Join our channel here now:

  1. Watch our video on how to join the WordPress Slack: http://bit.ly/setupwp2slack
  2. Join our Slack channel: #diverse-speaker-support

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Program 3: Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events

Do you want to organize diverse, inclusive and welcoming WordPress events, but don’t know where to start or worry that you’ll ‘get it wrong’? This workshop is for you!

We train WordPress event organizers and WordPress contributors with the “Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events” workshop. Past participants reported a 52% increase in preparedness to hold an inclusive event.

This is not only for WordPress event organizers, but for anyone who wants to champion a diverse, inclusive and welcoming WordPress community.

We cover 5 topics:

  1. Mindset shift: Shifting the way you think about diversity
  2. Community: How to attract and foster a diverse community
  3. Environment: Creating a welcoming environment, both in-person and online
  4. Speakers and Leaders: How to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to be speakers and leaders
  5. Allyship: How to better support community members from diverse backgrounds

This program is offered in quarterly cohorts:

  • Month 1: A private, supportive, hands-on, interactive workshop over Zoom. You will walk away with an action list to start making changes right away.
  • Month 2: Public Slack coaching on #community-events on the WordPress Slack
  • Month 3: Public Slack accountability on #community-events on the WordPress Slack

Once you complete one quarterly cohort, you are invited to continue on in future quarters with Slack coaching and accountability. You are always welcome to take the workshop again as well.

“I loved taking the “Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events” workshop along with other organizers and hearing what they’ve done. The checklists in the workbook are helpful in terms of tracking what I have done and what I can still improve. I’d love to see ALL THE ORGANIZERS go through this. This felt like a great complement to other material that WordPress has about not disparaging people; the focus of the Inclusion workshop was on how to be actively welcoming.”

– Sallie Goetsch, organizer, East Bay WordPress Meetup

To be notified of upcoming workshops, please join the #community-events channel on the WordPress Slack:

How to join:

  1. Watch our video on how to join the WordPress Slack: http://bit.ly/setupwp2slack
  2. Join our Slack channel: #diverse-speaker-support

Questions? Comments? Want help getting on the WordPress Slack?

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Get Involved

There are many opportunities to help out. From big roles to occasional help. Watch our 30-min video.

You’re a good fit if: You have a strong desire to bring more diversity to WordPress events around the world, and you want to help shape how that happens. You do not need to have any prior experience, but a willingness to share ideas, collaborate, and help define and tackle tasks would be amazing. 

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Please Note

We need volunteers to help move this important initiative forward. If you have signed up for something, we are relying on you! We understand that things do come up, so if you commit to a task and are unable to complete it or fulfill your role, please tell us as early as possible. The sooner you tell us, the easier it is to make sure your task is covered!  

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To Sign Up

If you have any questions, or if you are ready to volunteer, please DM @jillbinder on Slack.

Thank you very much for your time and dedication!

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Meetings

Our meetings are optional but recommended. They are text-based chats held on the #community-team Slack channel on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at:

17:00 UTC (from March 12, 2023 to November 4, 2023)
18:00 UTC (from November 5th 2023 to March 10, 2024)

You are welcome to drop in to any meeting at any time just to check it out!

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