Your profile is your ticket to the stage! The more complete and personalized a profile is, the more likely you are to be invited to speak.
When you sign up for Innovation Women, you are building a profile that serves as an advertisement to event managers looking for speakers, to journalists looking for expert sources and other speakers looking for speakers to be on panels with them (or provide to event managers as referrals.) A completed profile is best.
- It all starts with a good picture! A professional head shot helps but it’s OK if you have a nice quality photo your friend took with their phone. Just keep the background clean and distraction-free.
- Connect your websites and social media. Often an important part of an event manager’s consideration is how much your visibility will help promote the event and put butts in seats. Don’t forget that as part of the Innovation Women network, we promote your speaking engagements. Just let us know about your activities (engagements, books, awards, promotions) to be included in our newsletters and via social media – and if you have conversation with event managers feel free to tout this – “I’m a member of Innovation Women and they promote my speaking engagements too.”
- Your summary is your biography. Consider what an event manager can easily cut and paste into their promotional materials. This is the place to mention your experience, your awards, the brand name companies you work (or worked) for and the important topics you address.
- Videos are important so an event manager can see you in action. You are four times as likely to get a speaking invitation through Innovation Women if you have a video of yourself speaking. No need for a fancy (expensive) sizzle reel with music, cheering crowds, testimonials, etc. Event managers want to see you speaking. Even a friend with a smartphone can get a good enough video if they sit in the front row. (We recommend a tripod. It helps! Good quality audio is important too.) Our site allows you to use a video from YouTube or Vimeo – just add the links.
- Pick your industry to reflect your primary industry and add any secondary industries into your topics (keywords) list.
- Location: it’s OK to put in more than one place. Live in the suburbs of a major city? Add both names. Is there a regional name you want to add?
- Getting paid – choose the appropriate option. If you don’t want to hear from event managers without a budget, choose “I always get paid.”
- Speaking of topics, these are the primary keywords event managers search on so get creative and use synonyms. Use the acronyms and the fully-written out terms. It’s not just HR, it’s Human Resources. Add functional terms like MC or workshop if you offer these skills. This is not the place for your branded signature talk title. Add “author” if you want to participate in our author promotional programs. Add “mentor” and/or “judge” if you want to participate in other visibility opportunities. Add #startwitheight if you are looking for funding to connect with investors. Add your college or university and tag organizations you belong to.
- Don’t skip the “passion” section! Whether it is helping inspire girls in STEM careers, supporting entrepreneurs, or your work in the arts, this section can help match you with speaking opportunities.
- Your origin story can be how you got started in your field, got to where you are today or your company’s origin story (if you are an entrepreneur).
- Event managers want you to be able to share stories and anecdotes. A dry recitation of facts helps no one. Give us an example of a story you might tell from the stage. This information and your origin story can also be an important part of how we promote and market you. We often have opportunities to place speaker profiles in media opportunities.
- Example talks are titles and abstracts from talks you have given before AND talks you want to give. Event managers love these examples which help them visualize you onstage. Helpful hint: on Friday mornings when you get your list of opportunities, you can open up your profile and cut and paste to save time. (Remember to do your own due diligence on opportunities – while we try to avoid any opportunity where you will be asked to pay, sometimes event managers are deliberately unclear on this.) Creating a new abstract for a call for speakers? Store it in your example talks. Include the kind of audience and/or where you have given this talk. (Example: “This talk is appropriate for beginners and I frequently give it at coworking spaces and accelerators.” Or, “I gave this talk at InterOp in 2018.”)
- Got a new job, a new title? Keep your profile updated. You can also change your email address – just re-verify.
But you’re busy, we get it! That’s why we’re here to help.
If you need our help, we can use your LinkedIn profile, your resume and other publicly available information to work on your profile, lightly customize and optimize it with keywords, so it’s ready to be featured in our newsletter and be found by the right people.
We understand if you need more help too. Need your biography rewritten? Need those abstracts polished? Our team help you. Pick out the advanced package.
Event managers or conference organizers will see your full profile and be able to have a better understanding of your speaking skills. Get on stage quicker with a completed Innovation Women speaker profile.
The cost of the basic service is $199. Get the works for $349. Learn more in our online store.