We're Publishing a Book!
Women Talk Design
Join the waitlist for Present Yourself: The Book ?? womentalkdesign.com/book
At Women Talk Design, we’re on a mission to see a more diverse representation of speakers on stage. And we're publishing a book to get our message, tools, and resources to more speakers.
Who We Are
Women Talk Design was started by Christina Wodtke , an author, professor, speaker, and designer. As a conference speaker, Christina often found herself the only woman on stage. She was tired of hearing excuses from organizers, so she created Women Talk Design in 2013 as a directory of women speakers in design.
In the summer of 2017, she initiated a GoFundMe campaign to hire a paid design intern to research and redesign Women Talk Design. Thanks to hundreds of generous donors, Melissa Kim and Jennifer Kim spent the summer researching, architecting, and designing a new website for Women Talk Design.
In the fall of 2017, Danielle Barnes came on board as CEO to create a sustainable and impactful organization, as well as a broader vision for Women Talk Design.
Today, we organize events and training to empower new speakers, offer resources and tips to speakers through our website, and have a supportive online community to connect new and experienced speakers to ask questions, offer advice, and share speaking opportunities.
We also offer a platform to highlight incredible women and gender non-binary speakers in design, tech, and beyond. We are a resource for conference organizers on designing more inclusive events.?
What We Do
We elevate brilliant women and gender non-binary speakers and their talks so organizers can better discover them, provide tools, information, and resources to organizers on how to design more inclusive events, and offer training, events, and community for new speakers.
We believe everyone – of all genders, races, religions, ethnicities, abilities, and backgrounds – should be able to attend an event, look up on stage, and see someone giving a talk on stage that looks like them, and think ‘that could be me’.
领英推荐
Why This Book
You know somebody out there who is waiting for their turn to speak. Maybe you are that person. That's why we're creating this book—and we need your support to make it a reality.
We believe everyone’s voice needs to be heard—especially those we don’t hear from enough.
Public speaking, whether on stage or in presentations to colleagues, can help get your ideas out in the world, start conversations, and change people’s minds. Speaking can help you communicate who you are and find your people.
There’s a lot that stands in the way of women, non-binary folks, and marginalized individuals speaking up and sharing their ideas—systemic bias, a lack of psychological safety, being talked over and interrupted, not being asked, not being listened to. This book won’t gloss over these issues. Instead, it will provide practical tools and techniques to help you speak up even in light of those challenges.
Maybe the stage isn’t your dream. Even if you’ve never had an interest in public speaking, chances are, you’ve had to present for work. Maybe you’re a researcher who presents findings to others on your team. Maybe you’re an architect who presents a proposal to clients. Maybe you’re a marketer, an analyst, a designer, an engineer, a strategist, or an entrepreneur who needs to present to stakeholders about your work. You may not always feel as confident about speaking as you want to—and this book is here to help with that too.
Present Yourself is the Women Talk Design hallmark eight-week online public speaking course. For five years, attendees have learned how to craft compelling presentations and have cultivated the confidence to deliver them. And now, we want to get this information out to more people through our Present Yourself book!
While we’re writing this book for women and nonbinary people, we think everyone should read it. Everyone—regardless of gender—will find themselves in positions where they need to speak publicly and there are tools here that can help you. We also want you to understand the systemic biases that stand in the way of women and nonbinary folks speaking up and being heard so you can be part of the solution.
Learn more and contribute to the campaign to help us make this book a reality!