Not everyone is a natural-born public speaker — it takes a certain kind of personality to feel comfortable standing on stage in front of a bunch of strangers. But with conferences and networking events popping up left and right, public speaking opportunities have never been more plentiful.
Visible Opportunities wants to expand access to these opportunities and help feel more confident in public speaking. Launched in Tampa Bay in November, the service aims to connect experts with event organizers and media outlets in their community and around the country. Visible Opportunities is soon expanding to 14 other regions around the country, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
“People are always looking for speakers and panelists to host their events, whether it's a meetup, a group of 12 people, a mini conference or conferences of 80,” said Stacy Waite, founder of Positive Return, the parent company for Visible Opportunities.
One of Waite’s primary concerns is to solve the pervading diversity problem in tech and finance, by boosting visibility for women and people of color, who are serially underrepresented as speakers at events and in the media. Waite described two recent local events, where she witnessed a jarring lack of diversity: an artificial intelligence conference, where one out of eight speakers was female, and an IT event, where female speakers accounted for only one out of fourteen people on stage.
“When I reach out to organizers [of these events] they typically say they couldn’t find anyone,” Waite said. “Well I can help them find people. We’re creating equal access by democratizing the speaking opportunities.”
Visible Opportunities is a boot-strapped, subscription-based service. Individuals pay between $35 and $49 for increased access to media and events in their city or $75 to reach a national audience. Waite said she also wants to offer public speaking training workshops for individuals and companies. Her goal is to make speakers confident and audiences more energized.
“How many times have you sat there and been bored to tears by the speakers?” she asked. “Or heard the panel veer off in a direction it wasn't supposed to? You feel like your time is wasted as an audience member."
Waite credits her personal skillset and social proclivities as key for helping clients gain access to these events. “I’m a master connector,” she said. And as a master connector she hopes to support people for whom speaking isn’t second nature, as well as give them access they might otherwise be denied.
“We’re going to up-skill individuals here in the Tampa Bay region, so they are better panelists, speakers and moderators,” she said. “And we're going to give them the visibility.”
