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Writing a speaker bio


goldendesign

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Advise and criticism welcomed. 

The short of it is I have been doing weekly speaking engagements for a data science bootcamp going on almost a year now. Mostly introductory run throughs of DS subjects/technologies like Python, data visualization, etl and modeling, and some ML/AI introductions. Crowd size has been about 7-30 people per event. It's been fun and a great way to network in the tech community in Tampa. Lately they asked me to start handling their online webinars, a few each week, with 80-250 virtual attendees. Sounds even better; less prep time, can do it at my house, hours are more flexible. Easy peezy.

This is where it gets interesting. My company developed a pretty interesting deploy-able elastic neural net. We've gotten some traction on it on the sales side for our platform but it also came with an offer to talk at the Global AI conference in Boston this year. I attended last year, our company had a booth and I was a booth bitch. My COO feels I have the best oratory skills and I am now the "billed" speaker for this even. This has snowballed into me also being a breakout tech speaker at the biggest tech symposium in Tampa next year.

I like public speaking, I even like coming up with the content, writing, and all the stuff afterwords. My thing I could use a hand in is the posted speaker bio section. I have a rough outline; will post here later, that I've worked on but don't have too many places I can post something like this for review. This "influencer" position in the tech community has kind of blossomed from nothing and I am wanting to take it and run with it. I'd like to have a fairly polished bio I can submit to other paid/unpaid engagements to continue to promote myself. 

If you've done something similar what did you do? What would you want to see in a bio for a speaker? 

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I have done this as I write articles that go out internationally and speak to people way more educated than I am.

I wrote my bio to answer the questions "Who is this guy?" and "Why should I listen to him?"

You want your bio to add weight and validity to the material you are presenting.  Just a few brief lines.

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Quote

Wayne is an experienced data engineer and business intelligence implementation specialist for Inzata Analytics. Working with companies from such industries as Agriculture, Automotive, Insurance, Banking, Healthcare, and local Government to deliver the best practices in sound data-driven business intelligence. He loves to bring structure to chaos, designing a clear road map of sound data driven implementations, and the proper training procedures to guarantee long-term success.

Wayne is an accomplished orator with highly active role as a Community leader for Thinkful. Bringing together the vibrant tech community in Tampa with expertly lead workshops in practical applications of Data Science and Data Analytics. He focuses on making data technologies approachable, easy to grasp and worthwhile.

This is my first draft

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5 hours ago, goldendesign said:

This is my first draft

Drop the adjective "sound". Then it reads more crisply.  You might want to eliminate the orator section  --only relevant if you have spoken a lot at conferences.  

Something, Wayne enjoys sharing xxxxxxxx as an active leader in the Community of xxxxx.   Do you need the last sentence?  The concept is already repeated in the lst paragraph.  

Otherwise just fine.  And congratulations for things going well, career-wise.

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12 minutes ago, Airehead said:

I would also add a one liner about what you value outside of work. If space permits.  It gives an opportunity for you to be more relatable to the audience. If space is tight delete this. 

I enjoy whiling away the hours with my virtual friends on a pathetic Internet forum. 

Something like that. 

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While you are keeping it crisp and succinct for the WRITTEN bio in the program, people are not going to read paragraphs. It is a balancing act as you can provide detail and background without overwhelming. Now let's shift to the ORAL introduction. ALWAY, ALWAYS, ALWAYS write it yourself, typed double spaced in largish font (16-24) for the introducer to read. Never rely on the introducer to wing it. While your written bio in the program gives basic background and credentials, some of which might be referenced (one sentence) in the oral bio/introduction it is also your opportunity to frame the mindset of the audience to what you are about to present, ending with "Let's give a warm welcome to..."etc). 

Reference to Hulk Hogan??? That could be dicey in Tampa/Clearwater as local resident and well known mansion on the Bay.

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7 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Do you use caffeine or something stronger?

No, but choice of material depends on weight.  Got to make sure things are properly rated to handle the load.

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You've gotten some good advice here and I wouldn't suggest changing that.  What I might suggest, if you are still concerned about the bio when you are done banging on it, is to convince your employer to send it through a PR firm.  They are asking you to represent them.  They should be able to spend a couple hundred getting pro advice.  That advice might include creating a couple different versions of the bio.  Your bio for a local in person event might be different from a local on-line event and those different from a national event.  The attendees all care about different things.

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33 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

You've gotten some good advice here and I wouldn't suggest changing that.  What I might suggest, if you are still concerned about the bio when you are done banging on it, is to convince your employer to send it through a PR firm.  They are asking you to represent them.  They should be able to spend a couple hundred getting pro advice.  That advice might include creating a couple different versions of the bio.  Your bio for a local in person event might be different from a local on-line event and those different from a national event.  The attendees all care about different things.

I bet they tell him to include his religious and political affiliations.  Knowing the little details about people really brings an audience closer.

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3 hours ago, Kzoo said:

You've gotten some good advice here and I wouldn't suggest changing that.  What I might suggest, if you are still concerned about the bio when you are done banging on it, is to convince your employer to send it through a PR firm.  They are asking you to represent them.  They should be able to spend a couple hundred getting pro advice.  That advice might include creating a couple different versions of the bio.  Your bio for a local in person event might be different from a local on-line event and those different from a national event.  The attendees all care about different things.

Hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion.

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