How to be a ‘speaker’ in my Creativity Chat Twitter Space

I’ve been embracing live audio by running a weekly Creativity Chat Twitter Space on Mondays at 4:30pm London time. It’s sometimes a risk doing something new for the first time, something that might require tech adoption, trust and an established audience. In my case, it's been a risk well worth taking! I absolutely love running these alongside my co-host Picca Neri who is a UX designer and trainer, learning from her and from the other speakers who've so brilliantly participated.

In my effort to make these Spaces useful to attendees and speakers alike, I've been inviting people I know to be a speaker in my Space and have experienced some success and some failure (let me be clear - the failure has been on my side only) with this.

I feel that there has been a little bit of confusion when I've asked friends, contacts and collaborators to be a 'speaker' at my Creativity Chat Twitter Space. I chose Twitter over other platforms like Clubhouse simply because the barrier to entry for me seemed low. I was already an active Twitter user with a small audience and I had already participated in other Twitter Spaces and enjoyed them. So I had, over a short space of time, embedded myself in the concept and tried out various Spaces as a listener and as a speaker. So when I started my own Space and began to ask people to be a 'speaker' in my Twitter Space, a few challenges came up and some confusion arose, in a few cases.

When asked to be a speaker, traditionally, that might involve preparing a talk, thinking that you are the only speaker, or one of a few guest speakers and doing it to share your knowledge and raise your profile. Well, sharing knowledge and raising your profile are definitely both part of being a speaker in my Space, but needing to prepare a talk and being the only speaker are not.

Here is some insight into what I mean when I ask you "Would you be a speaker at my Creativity Chat Twitter Space?":

• Join in the live audio-only conversation via the Twitter app within my scheduled Twitter Space
• Join from the mobile Twitter app (currently, you can only listen via the desktop)
• Being a 'speaker' in my Space, simply means 'to talk' - to join in the conversation
• Being a 'speaker' in my Space does not mean that you need to prepare anything to speak about - the conversation flows organically, usually around a set theme or topic which is clearly outlined in the Space
• Being a 'speaker' in my Space does not mean that you have to talk initially and immediately - feel free to ease into it by being a listener first
• Request to speak and I will enable that from my end (Twitter Space hosts can enable, mute or block users within the Space)
• Once you've become a speaker, keep your mic on mute when you're not talking
• Raise your hand (virtually) if you'd like to start talking and I'll ensure you get the chance to speak (the raised hand emoji is the last emoji option on the right)
• I might invite you verbally to share your opinion or experience and I'll say "Over to you (and your name)" or something similar to indicate you can start talking
• Remember to un-mute your mic before you start talking
• Use the emojis to show support of other speakers when they are talking
• Of course you can simply join as a listener which is wonderful
• If it's a busy Space with lots of speakers and you don't get the chance to speak, please know that I will have tried my best to get to everyone - come back again!
• The Space is 1 hour and you do not need to join for the entire hour - pop in when you can

And here are a few tips to leverage your time as a speaker (or as a listener) in my Twitter Space:

• Introduce yourself and say who you are and what you do
• Make sure your profile has useful information about who you are and what you do (including a profile photo)
• Create a Tweet and ask me to share it to the Nest (this can be something that references what you're talking about e.g. if you've recommended a book, create a Tweet with the link)
• Prepare a Tweet which has some information about yourself and where people can find out more about you e.g. a link to your website/podcast/newsletter/article and ask me to share that Tweet to the Nest
• Join for as much of the hour as you can so you can hear what others say and respond to them - making connections with others is a great way to utilise my Space
• Be polite, speak clearly and ensure there's not too much background noise
• If you request to speak and I don't know who you are, I will check out your profile before I enable you as a speaker
• Include a few Calls to Action when speaking, where relevant and appropriate
• Follow up with others in the Space by following them on Twitter, and connecting with them on LinkedIn as well
• Become a regular Speaker in my Space

I hope this is helpful!

I do try to let people know what's happening as and when they join by peppering the conversation with welcome notes and a reminder of what the theme/topic is, who I am and who my co-host is. I might verbally reset the Space by giving my initial introduction and inviting you to request to speak.

We've had speakers and listeners from all over the world and although the themes are generally topics around design, UX, creativity, and business, we've actually discussed all kinds of things from learning to fail and overcoming imposter syndrome to ideation and building communities.

And finally, I apologise ahead of time if I mispronounce your name or get your name wrong in any way (sometimes profile names are nicknames or company names).

I look forward to welcoming you to my Creativity Chat Twitter Space!