Celebrating another great year!

Can you believe it! We're coming to an end of another year and #KeyNoteWomenSpeakers wanted to take the time to reminisce and celebrate all the accomplishments that have happened in 2023.

Our first highlight for this year was the launch of our new book, Redefining the Rules: Incredible Women On How To Embrace Equity. As the theme for International Women's Day was #embracequity , KeyNote Women wanted to support by writing a book on this as many people think equality and equity are the same thing. So we reached out to our directory in January and 17 speakers and community members from around the world put their hands up to share their experiences and tools on how to see a more equitable world.

We had aimed to have our book available online by the 8th of March to commemorate #internationalwomensday2023 but in fact we officially launched our book on Amazon on the 7th, which was 1 day earlier than our target! And within 24 hours our book became a best seller! A big shout out to Global Influencers who put our book on the map but also our authors who personally promoted the book at events and on their own personal platforms. If you haven't got your copy yet, please click the link on Amazon.

The highly acclaimed public speaking training programme from KeyNote came back in full force this year with the launch of their new two-level programmes. Level I provides basic skills for corporate presentations and conference speaking. Topics covered are defining your keynote topic, the magic of storytelling, how to structure a killer presentation and how to connect with your audience with confidence. Designed #forwomenbywomen , the programme had it's first Virtual cohort in May 2023.

Throughout the programme, participants are trained by top professional speakers and inspirational women, they also get the benefit from interactive workshops, personalized coaching, and opportunities to practice speaking in front of a supportive community of peers. Over 200 women have graduated from the KeyNote Public Speaking Training programme since the launch of its first in-person batch in 2018. In August 2023, KeyNote commenced it's 7th in-person programme in Singapore.

Throughout this year our female speakers have been featured in events such as the Asian Women in Leadership Summit (AWLS) as well as the International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends in Engineering and Management (ICETTEM 2023) which was organized by Amity University . We also got the opportunity to partner with organizations such as SpunkGo for their International Youth Day (#IYD2023) event - #SpeakUp , EGN Singapore (Executives' Global Network) for their Cross Functional in-person events and Sit-Down where KeyNote gets to inspire and engage with their members around the world, creating meaningful conversations and lasting relationships.

As we have reached the end of yet another remarkable year, thanks must go to the support from our partner organisations like AmCham, ADB DutchCham, EGN, SpunkGo, Katalyst India to name a few. We look forward to creating many more meaningful events with them, as well as welcoming new partners into the fold. If you would like to partner with us, please contact our Business Development & Partnerships Lead, Binu Balan .

KeyNote isn't just about finding speaking gigs but also investing in our community members by continuing to keep them updated with the new topics and trends through our MasterClasses and Upskilling sessions from global speaking experts'. If you would like to be a part our community you can by joining our training programmes or applying to become a directory member. Please visit our website or contact us at [email protected] for more details.

Congratulations to Mette Johansson (MBA, PCC, CSP, GSF) on her new book - 'Narratives: The Stories That Hold Women Back at Work'. Within these pages, she provides invaluable guidance on how to navigate and challenge these misleading narratives that often shape how women are depicted in professional settings. A special thank you goes out to Mette as she announced that she would be donating her first week's book profits to KeyNote Women. If you haven't purchased the book yet, it is now available to purchase from Amazon, Kindle and Kinokuniya Books in Singapore.

"As the year is coming to a close, it’s time to thank our clients, our speakers, our speaker trainees and of course our staff and volunteers for all the support in 2023. Looking forward to 2024 - another year of amplifying women’s voices!"

To reiterate what our Founder and Chair said, we are so thankful for all that has happened this year but we're also excited for what is to come. Here are some news and updates for all of us to anticipate in 2024.

Our Training programmes, Level I both virtual and in-person will be commencing first quarter as well as Level II later on in the year. Level 2 focuses on public motivational and inspirational speaking. This intensive training includes discovering your unique storytelling and speaking style, speech crafting and stagecraft, voice and improv, and how to get well-paid gigs. We'll be offering this level in-person in Singapore as well an intensive bootcamp in the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. Interested in improving your public speaking skills? For individuals you can get a 50% discount on any of our training programmes. There are limited seats so sign up here or contact us at?[email protected] for more details.

International Women's day 2024 is around the corner and KeyNote wants to get a jump start on it. We can help elevate Corporate Women's Day events where women leaders inspire not only females but the entire team or amplify women's voices by our Empowerment Bootcamp, two-day public speaker programme which we'll be doing in January or February. Ready for a transformative experience? Gain more insights by joining us for a Zoom call, please email us at [email protected] to set up a meeting.

With a new year upon us, there are new staff members and community members who have joined KeyNote to help support our mission of bringing more diversity to stages around the world. We'll be introducing them to you soon! But if you're interested in supporting our cause whether it is to volunteer or donate please contact our Managing Director, Maneesha Benedict .

On behalf of KeyNote Women Speakers, we would like to wish you a joyous Christmas. Be safe and well during this holiday season and we look forward to see you refreshed and energized for 2024. The best is yet to come!