How to get invited to speak at conferences (Tips & Reflections)

On Monday afternoon at PICC, I found myself seated and then up on stage receiving an award beside people I follow on Linkedin. The faces of thought-leadership in their respective fields such as the CEO of Angkas, Head of Business for Digital Payments at Smart Communications and former college professor, Director of StartupVillagePH and AIM schoolmate, Co-Founder of multi-awarded Cubo Modular, a music industry veteran from Elements music camp, and the CEO of hardware startup Vaquform.

While we’re waiting at a VIP table, I can’t even start a new topic. I ended up pretending to skim my work emails and getting my second cup of coffee. In my head, I wish to ask Angeline, CEO of Angkas, how they approached the government regulations and how she transitioned from Grab to the “the Founder of Gojek in the Philippines.” But I didn’t. I was both in awe and felt unworthy to be with them.

Looking back, I just realized how privileged it was to attend, connect with fellow facilitators, and speak in a venue like PICC. Events that I can only wish I could attend back when I was still studying and clueless in High School or College

So in this blog post series, I’m excited to share some reflections about speaking engagements, how much to charge, and how I got those invitations.

So, how to get invited to speak at conferences? Here are some reflections.

1. Be great at your craft and be nice. Some of the biggest invitations I got were random inquiries in between a heavy work week. At Benilde, a senior officer from our course organization invited me to speak about Technology for impact even if I moved to a non-IT industry after college. In a speaking engagement at UE, the biz dev officer of one of our supplier partners' sister was an organizing officer for a talk, In my speaking engagement for an insurance company, our project advisor referred me. At the DTI Wellness talk, I got a random personal message. In my first speaking engagement for Philippine Marketing Association at Sofitel, our agency network CEO encouraged and assigned me. For an upcoming invite at Benilde for a PR organization, an advertising legend sent me a random FB PM. In my two paid speaking engagements, I didn’t expect people who invited or referred me. The pattern I realized is that just being good at your craft and organically getting referred or invited is better. It can indicate that they trust you to deliver a talk and you have something worth sharing.

With DigitX teammates who visited my first Philippine Marketing Association talk at Sofitel, and Boss Donald Lim, who invited me to share our work.

2. Write and share what you’re good at. Whether in a Facebook post, Instagram photo, medium article, or Vlog, share some learnings and give value to other people. This is something I wish to do more, so I’ve started publishing a few videos under the Techy Juan Facebook page about my electric scooter experience as a primary mode of transportation to work. Writing and publishing about a certain topic is a passive way to associate your interest with certain expertise. I haven’t been doing this yet, but I think “Corporate Innovation” is a topic not many people are contributing to and deciphering further. I hope to write and share more content about it soon!

Vlogs publishing on fb.com/techyjuan.ph and my first Linkedin article about “Innovation”

3. Organize or co-organize an event. If you have a network of friends who have spaces and venues that you can partner with, you can consider collaborating and organizing events. Especially for a topic that you think is underserved. In 2018, my former partner organized a “Night of passion for millennial entrepreneurs & nation-builders” in partnership with Shumate of The Office Project Coworking space.

Level Up, Scale-up event. A night of passion for Millennial Entrepreneurs & Nation-builders.

4. Volunteer as a speaker. I’ve done this once to see if I’ll get accepted to speak at an Internet of Things Conference in SMX Megamall, and when I knew we had a solid case study to share for the IoT Summit. I reached out to the contact us form of the IoT summit, shared an outline I had in mind, and asked if this is something that fits their schedule and objective. It turns out, that one of the organizers was also my former thesis advisor. Getting a free event ticket is one but the creative confidence to live up to the expectation is another. And in a deep tech-heavy conference like IoT, thought that an honest and fresh perspective would help. Consider an event where you can provide something fresh and relatable.

The most technical audience in my talks. Sharing our project Probbie — our lobby robot receptionist at the Internet of Things Summit 2018, SMX Megamall

Some events even have “Apply to speak” as the primary call to action. At some local conferences, you can nominate a speaker to invite or submit a topic to talk about for consideration.

5. Don’t overdo it. Ask for referrals, but don’t squeeze yourself. My former boss speaks at regular digital marketing conferences. She once invited me to talk about CRM since I manage several Email send-outs for a former Telco client in Havas. I politely turned it down and referred a colleague instead. I knew this was not something I could speak about with confidence, authority, and excellence. I have work experience, but I wasn’t sure where my experience was benchmarked in the industry. In a separate event, one of our consultants who wrote a book about UX microcopy randomly mentioned that she’s not yet publishing a second book since she doesn’t have much work or content to share. In the same way, this made me realize that it would be better if you always have fresh and new content to share. A case study 5 years ago might not always give the best impression.

6. Reach out to potential mentors who usually speak at events. Most industry speakers have day jobs or want to spend more time with family. Thus, they can’t accommodate all speaking engagements, especially on weekends. It might be good to ask for a referral, and they’ll forward your contact if they trust that you can speak on a certain topic. Plus points if you have a website with your profile, photo to use for poster, and topics you’ve covered before.

Inspiration Stage. Our Arooga Health story in Innovating the Healthcare Industry at an internal transformation acceleration training by an Insurance Company.

7. Represent an organization, showcase case studies, or leverage expertise. Though character and actual work are better than Titles and Certificates, my IIDM and MSIB title did help get me considered for speaking engagement for the perception of mastery and expertise. Your project, learning process, and insights can sometimes make a talk more interesting and different from a random Youtube video about the same topic. It also gives a stronger RTB or reason to believe for an audience to consider attending your session or talk. For volunteer-run organizations, there are also opportunities to represent an organization and speak about your cause.

Media Conference for Marketing Students at UE Alabang featuring Ramon Bautista and Paul Soriano as Co-Speakers

If I were to select just one tip, it would be the first one — be great at your craft and be nice. Speaking engagements should not be a measurement of success and worth. I know great designers, builders, and entrepreneurs who prefer not to speak at conferences and instead focus on doing great work. However, it can also be viewed as an opportunity to inspire, give back, and give clarity to a topic.

Do you remember someone who inspired you to push through with the course or career you have right now? Imagine influencing the next generation of talent who will exceed what we’ve done and contribute to a better future. That’s exciting.

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Woot! That’s the first part of this blog series. It was nostalgic to go through these speaking engagements and find the photos that aren’t even shared on my social feed.

In my next posts, I’ll share how I got paid for speaking engagements, how much you should charge, and more reflections.

Thanks for dropping by, and leave a comment if you learned something new!