Speaking FAQs

You’re hopefully here because you’re interested in me speaking at your event, which is exciting for me because I always like getting those emails. So that we can make sure that we’re the right people for each other, I’ve put together some common questions and answers, along with what’s really useful for me to know about your event.

I have to choose my speaking engagements carefully so as not to interfere with my job, and to ensure that I can give you a great, polished performance. The following should give you an idea of what I typically do, but if you’d like to talk about something a bit different then please get in touch.

Useful things for me to know

Whenever I get an email about speaking, I almost always reply asking the following questions. If you could let me know the answers to these when you contact me it would be great:

In the run-up to the event it’s also really useful for me to know technical details including the mic options available, a confirmed slide ratio, what kind of display connections will be available etc.

What do you get when you hire me to speak?

My talks are usually educational and inspirational, and I typically blend some aspect of development culture with more broadly accessible themes. You can watch some videos from the table of previous talks if you’d like to get a better feel for this. I’m not fazed by large crowds, big stages, or events with translation services.

I will always reply to your communications promptly, and have a bank of assets like headshots and bios that I can send over easily. I’m happy to work with you to make my talk as relevant as possible to your event’s themes and audience’s interests, and can share slides in advance (although these will change right up to my talk). I’ll do my best to promote my involvement and to help sales through tweets, and I often blog about events before or afterwards.

I always use my own laptop, because that way I can guarantee that there will be no nasty surprises to catch me out in the setup, and everything is as I have rehearsed with. I completely understand that you may want to use a central laptop for everyone, but I’d much rather that we spent some time doing a proper tech check and I use my own kit. I’m used to quick switchovers, and as long as we do a tech check this won’t be a problem.

Speaker fees

I’m lucky enough to work for a company who are supportive of speaking at conferences, but I don’t believe in paying to speak - whether that’s me, or my company. If you pay your caterers, venue hire, or AV people, you should be paying your speakers.

To speak at your event, I’ll either need to have travel and accommodation covered (plus a speaker fee if you’re a for-profit event), or we should have a chat about the sponsorship package available in return for covering costs. My work are great, but they can’t pay for everything, and if they do end up covering it you’re going to end up with a much more corporate talk than if you don’t.

What if your event is free to attendees and unsponsored? If you’re not making any money, or are in a country that has a vastly different economy from the UK then let’s have a chat

Tell me about your event!

Hopefully that all sounds good to you, in which case I’d love it if you sent me an email at sally [at] recordssoundthesame.com telling me all about what you’re planning. Hope to hear from you soon!