[Inpycon] Mentoring Speakers

[Vijay Kumar]

On Monday 30 April 2018 07:17 PM, Siddharth Prajosh wrote:
> [...]
>
> On Mon, 30 Apr 2018, 18:58 Haris Ibrahim K. V., <blucalvin at gmail.com 
> <mailto:blucalvin at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 30 April 2018 at 11:08, Anand Chitipothu <anandology at gmail.com
>     <mailto:anandology at gmail.com>> wrote:
>     > Hello Everyone,
>     >
>     > At the CFP workgroup, we've been discussing how to raise the
>     quality of
>     > talks while encouraging new speakers. Looking around we found
>     that our
>     > friends at PyCon AU[1] and PyOhio[2] have been providing
>     mentorship support
>     > speakers in proposing, preparing, or presenting the talk.
>     >
>     > A mentor will be an experienced speaker who is interested to
>     help other
>     > speakers.
>     >
>     > If you see, it is really a nice thing. It encourages the
>     first-time speakers
>     > to come forward as they have someone to guide them, increases
>     diversity
>     > (assuming we find diverse mentors) and improves the overall talk
>     quality. In
>     > addition to all this, it creates stronger bonds between people
>     in the
>     > community.
>
>     +2. The challenge, I guess, would be to find enough speak mentors who
>     has enough spare time to contribute.
>
>     > The plan is that the CFP team will come up with an initial list
>     of mentors
>     > and asks the group for more suggestions.
>     >
>     > We are still debating about how will the potential speakers pick
>     mentors. We
>     > have been discussing about three possible options. We will have
>     pick one or
>     > more of those options.
>     >
>     > 1. Publish a list of mentors and let potential speakers contacts
>     them
>     > directly
>     > 2. Have a google form and we moderate it
>     > 3. Have a public IRC/Slack channel to comminucate
>
>     Standing in the shoes of a first time speaker, I vote for this 3rd
>     option. Any one on the slack / IRC channel could initiate the
>     conversation if someone new joins and probably ping other speak
>     mentors maybe depending on their area of expertise or something.
>
>     > Do you think it is a good idea? Any comments or suggestions?
>
>     Lovely idea. :)
>
>     However, wasn't there discussions regarding not making PyCon India a
>     venue for first time speakers? I was, and still am against that
>     opinion and I personally feel that first time speakers should be
>     encouraged to present at PyCon India, but maybe those thoughts need to
>     filter into this discussion as well.
>
>
> I'd like to add to this from a first time speaker's perspective.
> I'm a first time speaker and wanted to propose a talk.
>
> I think it's better for the event to "miss a good talk than take a 
> risk with first timers"
>
> But it's just my opinion.

I think the "first time speaker", means "first time conference speaker".

Regards,
Vijay