[Inpycon] Mentoring Speakers

[Noufal Ibrahim KV]

On Mon, Apr 30 2018, Anand B Pillai wrote:


[...]

> Speakers don't grow on trees. Everyone has a first time in a
> conference.  I always advocated giving chance to new speakers. Speaker
> mentoring is a step in the right direction to welcome first time
> (conference) speakers to the fold.

True but cutting your teeth should be done at smaller events rather than
at the biggest conference in the country. I'm not saying that this
prospective speaker should have experience speaking at other conferences
but atleast at user groups and other smaller venues. Absolute first time
public speakers don't make good candidates for the conference. This is
my opinion and I'm willing to be argued out of it. 

> Good public speaking is an art and takes years to hon and get right.
> Mentoring is a good first step though on further thoughts, any actual
> speaker mentoring should involve at least the mentor watching the
> speaker giving a talk live and making notes etc. I believe this involves
> at least a few rounds of video conferencing via hangouts and similar
> channels - assuming the speaker/mentor dont share a city.

It's very hard. I mentor speakers at my local toastmasters club. It's
hard to do and takes a lot of time. 

The general idea about having speaker mentors is very good though and
I'm +1 for that. The devil, as usual, hides in the
details. Implementation etc. 

[...]


-- 
Cordially,
Noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in