Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a GHC Speaker

Mar 23

Mar 23 Top Tips for Speaking at GHC

First thing’s first - what is GHC? GHC aka the Grace Hopper Celebration (yep the C stands for celebration not conference!) is the largest gathering of women in tech globally. Even last year when GHC went virtual for the first time - there were still about 30K+ women that attended workshops, watched talks, networked, connected with companies, and so much more! When it was in-person, GHC meant that thousands (26K+ in 2019!) of women in tech all gathered for a multi-day conference experience. As the largest women in tech conference annually, speaking at GHC is a huge opportunity where you can share your expertise with thousands of other women in tech.

Related | What to Know About GHC

Last year I presented a workshop at GHC for the first time! This was a bit of a dream come true for me - I had wanted to speak at GHC ever since I first attended all the way back in 2017. Speaking at GHC not only gives you a tremendous amount of visibility for your personal brand, but it also allows you to connect with so many people (I literally had hundreds of LinkedIn requests after presenting my workshop!).

What I didn’t know then (but I know now) is how competitive it is to present at GHC! Due to it being such a big event with so much visibility AnitaB.org receives hundreds of talk proposals but only has capacity to schedule about 4 days worth of programming. This means that your chance of speaking at GHC hinges entirely on your ability to convey the essence of your presentation in a 2-4 page written proposal.

I’ve both presented a workshop at GHC and I’ve been a committee member responsible for reviewing proposals. I’m going to share the process of becoming a GHC speaker and what you can do to maximize your chances of having your presentation selected to present.

The Review Process

It’s really important to understand how the presentations for GHC are selected. All of the proposals are reviewed and scored by committees - one per track. The committees are 100% volunteer run and volunteers have to submit an application to become a reviewer. The application is pretty straightforward but it does require that a volunteer have a compelling background in whichever track they choose. For example, when I applied to the career committee in 2020 I highlighted the fact that I run this blog, have led career development workshops at hackathons and also mentor interns and new hires at work.

From my experience, it is easiest to first be selected as a scholarship reviewer and then use that experience to apply for another track in subsequent years. I highly recommend looking through the list of tracks - there are a lot! The year I graduated, even though I put the career committee as my top choice, I was selected to be a scholarship reviewer.

I think it goes without saying but one of the best ways to understand how the talk submissions are reviewed … is to become a reviewer! As a reviewer, you will be assigned multiple submissions and asked to score each one based on a rubric. The combined score will be the overall score for the submission and the highest rated submissions from each category typically make up the program. Unfortunately this won’t help you too much this year. While you can still sign up to become a reviewer, the deadline is April 14 which is the same day the presentation proposals are due so this is a future investment in the event your presentation isn’t selected.

Even if you don’t review proposals as part of a GHC committee, you now know who your audience is. The volunteers for these committees are women who are very passionate and knowledgeable about the track they are on so you need to be detailed and specific in your proposal!

Deciding your topic and format

Before you can write a proposal you need a topic and you need a format. For each of these you should take a look at the list of Tracks, which are the topic categories, and the Session Formats which tell you more about the different types of presentations. Most importantly, you cannot submit the same presentation to multiple tracks. Figure out which one is the BEST fit and apply to only one. If you feel that your presentation could be adapted easily into a different format, then you are able to submit a proposal for more than one session format e.g. you could submit a talk proposal and a workshop proposal.

One thing I’ve noticed is that sometimes submitting a talk proposal on a very buzzy topic (e.g. blockchain) can mean a lot of others will also want to present on the same topic. There can’t be 100 talks on blockchain! I think it’s most important to find a topic that you are passionate about and convey why it is so important for an audience to care about that topic. For example, I’ve attended a talk on AI that I found too general and underwhelming, but I attended another talk on test driven development that I found super well organized and walked away with a ton of takeaways. Think about what YOU specifically can offer an audience on a topic and convince the volunteer reading your proposal why it would benefit GHC attendees.

Writing the Proposal

Once you have a presentation in mind - it is critical to read very very carefully the submission guidelines and speaker expectations. There are rules about how many speakers you can have, how long your presentation should be, and most importantly - there is a proposal template. Depending on the format of your presentation (talk, workshop, panel, etc.) there are different proposal templates provided by AnitaB. Be sure to follow the specifications. The last thing you want is for the proposal you worked so hard on to be docked points because you forgot to change the font or your abstract was too long. This year the proposal is due by April 14th, 5pm PT and decisions will be announced sometime in June.

AnitaB also provides an example of a highly rated previous submission. This example is a close as you’re going to get to seeing the grading rubric that reviewers use - figure out what this model submission does well and try to emulate those qualities in your own proposal.

Speaking from experience as a reviewer - I can absolutely tell when someone has a talk well thought out. The smallest details and focusing in on a specific stance or angle really stands out from a general proposal. This brings me to another very important piece of the proposal - your audience. You should absolutely tailor your presentation to a specific audience! I’ve noticed that talks that are meant “for everyone” tend to assume too little background for people with experience, and too much background for those who are unfamiliar. By narrowing in on an audience (early-career, mid-career, etc.) you ensure that your talk won’t get tossed into a pile of “too general” and that you stand out from other proposals on the same topic. Find a perspective or angle on your topic that is unique and be sure to pitch why you should be the one selected to talk about your topic. Your experience and expertise are super relevant so be sure you are highlighting your credibility as a speaker on your topic.

To lend credibility to your topic - find relevant articles, papers, talks, etc. that contextualize why your topic is relevant and why it’s important for GHC attendees. It’s important to convey that you know what you’re talking about and are basing your presentation on good information! In addition to the content of your presentation, you also want the reviewer to understand why you’re an expert on your presentation topic. Be sure to address in your biography information any experience as a public speaker and your background on your topic.

Last but not least, the theme of GHC this year is “Dare To”. You should absolutely incorporate this theme into your proposal and share your “dare to” statement. Luckily this theme is fairly broad and open ended so you should be able to pretty easily incorporate this theme into your presentation regardless of your topic!

Speaking at GHC is a fantastic opportunity for visibility, public speaking, and sharing your insights with the women in tech community. It’s also really competitive and takes a lot of time! Your presentation will be assessed on your proposal so it is worth it to invest the time in writing a strong proposal. Good luck!