Speaker Rider

What is a Speaker Rider?

I love sharing my ideas and connecting with a community through giving talks and workshops. And it’s a huge privilege that I am able to so and that communities are interested and excited to hear what I have to say.

This document represents expectations and boundaries around such speaking engagements so that I can continue to give talks that I love and provide a high quality experience for communities in a sustainable manner. And perhaps I can use the privilege that I hold to help make these spaces more accessible, inclusive and beneficial for groups that have been historically excluded and marginalised.

I am incredibly grateful to all the conference organisers, workshop leaders, and so on, who have brilliantly hosted me thus far 🙏

Disclaimer

• This document mostly refers to speaking engagements where I have been invited to speak, as opposed to events I have actively applied to. In the latter case if I have sought out your event, you likely already cover many of the concepts listed here.
• I am very lucky that, so far, the vast majority of conferences and workshops I have spoken at already conform to the concepts I list in this speaker rider. Thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication in supporting speakers so far and providing a wonderful arena in which to connect 💖
• The concepts listed in this rider are things I strongly believe make a conference/workshop experience more enjoyable for speakers, organisers and attendees. Other speakers may have different perspectives I’ve not considered or, indeed, conflicting opinions. I do not wish to or attempt to speak on behalf of them, only myself.
• I will often choose to accept a speaking engagement anyway, even if all the criteria here are not met. This is usually because a conversation has demonstrated value alignment between myself and the organisers.
• I withhold the right to change this rider at any time. I will treat it as a living document and update it as my views change and/or I learn new things. For major changes, I will release a blog post explaining the change.
• You are welcome to use and adopt this speaker rider. I would appreciate a link back to this rider as acknowledgement.

In-Person Events

With the ongoing global pandemic, I am not taking in-person engagements at this time. These are my expectations of hosting when I return (date TBD).

Travel expenses

• UK conferences: Local transportation to the conference lodgings (rail and/or taxi; provided lodging is within walking distance from the conference venue)
• International conferences: Airfare and local transportation to the conference lodgings (provided lodging is within walking distance from the conference venue)

Accommodation expenses

• UK conferences: Full length of the conference, minus workshops/auxiliary events (unless I am participating in those)
• International conferences: One (1) full day of lodging before the conference + full length of conference and workshops/auxiliary events (if I’m participating) + evening that I speak (if not during the main conference)
• Provide the option to purchase all travel and accommodation on behalf of the speaker. While I opt to book my own travel arrangements, forcing the “reimbursement model” (where the speaker pays, then is reimbursed later) is exclusionary to folks who lack the disposable funds to do so.

Remote Events

Streaming

• Provide the option to pre-record remote talks, especially for events in very different time zones
• For live sessions, ensuring there is a back-up plan and run-of-show prior with tech check, etc.
• Q&A sessions need to be moderated by someone trained on your Code of Conduct (see below section) with strict no harassment policies

Chat spaces

• Chat spaces must have conference moderators who are trained to follow your Code of Conduct (see below section)

Pay-to-Speak Events

I will not accept invitations to speak at Pay-to-Speak conferences.

If you are new to Pay-to-Speak, this is where it ends up costing a speaker money to present at a conference. This is often specifically focussed on travel and accommodation, though I have also experienced conferences that did not cover registration or abstract submission fees (see section below) as an invited speaker.

If you are reaching out to me to speak at your event, I expect at minimum not to lose money in the process.

Speaker Honorarium

• See my pricing page for information

Ticket to full conference

• While I would expect this is a given, that has not always been my experience! See Pay-to-Speak Events.

Conference Logistics

Code of Conduct (CoC)

• Your CoC need to explicitly call out what abuse is with clear examples
• You must have clearly defined methods for dealing with conflicts when they arise with trained staff to address conflicts and be prepared to appropriately handle complaints. CoCs are only as good as their enforcement.

Physically accessible spaces throughout

• All areas that are part of the conference should be accessible, including:
  • Attendee seating
  • Stage areas
  • Social events tied to the conference (especially if being sold as networking)

Live captioning

• Ideally conducted by a live-captioning company, but auto-captioning as a “better-than-nothing” option
• Live captioning helps a vast array of people, from deaf and hard of hearing, to neurodivergent folks, to learning language speakers, and people at the intersection of all those things.

Representation

• No all-white and/or all-male panels
• If I am on a panel, it must be moderated, ideally by a trained moderator who will equitably ask questions
• Ideally, I’d like to see as many gender identities, ethnical backgrounds, ages and races as possible across a whole speaker set
• Provide places for new/first-time speakers and support them where necessary, for example, mentoring

Pronoun identification

• Provide stickers/pins/printed on/writing space for nametags
• Pronouns should be optional for attendees to self-identify, but provided nonetheless
• “They”, “she” and “he” at bare minimum, and options should be combinable
• Where provided, pronouns should be listed on website/printed materials
• Use someone’s name or “they” if you are uncertain
• Confirm with speakers before announcing them

Stage setup

• Accessible
• Wireless microphone option (handheld or lapel clip)
  • Utilised for all aspects of conference (Q&A from audience, workshop speakers, etc)
  • The idea of “my voice is loud enough” is incredibly disableist and asking the audience relies on people to self-identify their needs
• Confidence monitor or alternative space to setup laptop
  • Presenting from behind a lectern disadvantages shorter presenters, folk who present while seated, or folk who may use a mobility aid
  • A second monitor showing slides/presenter notes only visible from the stage or a small, adjustable table to position a laptop on are some alternative options
• Timer viewable from the stage
  • If you’re going to be strict about timeline, then you need to provide this. You can provide this with my laptop/a small kitchen timer/a phone timer.
  • You need to enforce this equitably. If you’re going to be strict, be strict with everyone. No allowing the majority-/centred-folks to go over and force everyone else to shorten their time to accommodate.

Intellectual Property

Slides in speaker-preferred format

• Presently, Google Slides
• I practice using what I’m comfortable with and what I know works well on my laptop

Slide publishing

• I publish my talk/workshop materials under a CC-BY license on Zenodo and often distribute a DOI link prior to my talk for folk who may use screen readers or have other reasons for preferring a local copy

Speaker option of presenting from conference computer our own device

• Given that I most often talk about how difficult reproducible computational environments can be, I know first-hand how nerve-wracking it can be to do a live coding demo on a setup that is not your own! Let people use and test their own machines.
• Provide an option for a laptop for someone who doesn’t have a laptop and the time to get their environment set/tested

Finally

If you are interested in having me speak, please provide the following:

• Confirmation you have read this rider
• Conference name, website, date of events, location, time zone (if remote)
• Budget for speaker honorarium
• What you are interested in having me speak about

Acknowledgements

This speaker rider was inspired by these resources:

• Tatiana Mac’s speaker rider
• Richard Bradshaw’s speaker rider