Shine Talks

Mel Smith
Product Design @ DroneDeploy

Laura Suttie
Client Success @ Waypoint

Aakriti Agarwal
Product @ Blend

Jennifer Kim
formerly Head of Employee Experince
@ Lever

Why is this important?

- Speaking is a way to be seen as an expert in your field
- Most conferences prefer (or require) prior speaking experience
- Meetups are a common way to break into speaking
- People who plan meetups often end up asking their friends. Everyone's friends tend to look similar to them
- This leads to a cycle where its harder for women to break into speaking
- If women never get the first chance to speak, they'll never get the keynote

Our Format

3-5 women present on anything they are interested in for 10-15 minutes.
We record it to help them improve & to submit with CFPs.

Why "Shine"?

Shine Theory: "When you meet a woman who is intimidatingly witty, stylish, beautiful, and professionally accomplished, befriend her. Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn’t make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better.”From Why Powerful Women Make the Greatest Friends
by the wonderful Ann Friedman