In an attempt to share knowledge for Speaker Mentorship with other community organizers, we decided to open to the public our knowledge and processes. This way, we can share our experiences, events, and the structure we follow.
Speaker mentorship is a programme that was introduced a few years ago. Its purpose is to support first-time speakers, people from underrepresented communities, and everyone who feels they need help with their proposal or their talk during EuroPython Conference. Additionally to mentorship for EuroPython, since 2023 we are trying to connect our mentees with their local communities, by introducing the Speaker Placement Programme.
The main goal of this programme is to help every person who requires help to deliver their proposal, or if they are accepted as a speaker, their talk. In other words, we aim to make all people requesting mentorship, feel that they are not alone and they will have all the help they need.
The format of the Programme has 3 different events/processes. The main process is the one-to-one mentorship, but we also have side sessions in order to support and get to know our mentees, or interested people in general.
- One to One Mentorship: During this process we open a registration form and we ask for mentors and mentees. One week before the CfP (Call for Proposals) is closed we match the mentees to a mentor.
- Ask Me Anything about the CfP: In this QnA session we invite all people interested in the CfP. During the session we encourage people to ask questions about the CfP to our programme team.
- First-Time Speaker's Workshop: This is a panel session, where we invite experienced speakers to share their knowledge and experience for the Conference. For the audience we share a registration form and everyone can join. We only make sure that we communicate this form to all of our accepted speakers.
As mentioned this is the main process of the Programme and the goal is to match mentees with a mentor in order to get help to deliver their talk. Registration Form For registration we use the same form for mentees and mentors. We open registration for mentors two weeks before the CfP opens, in order to have a "pool of mentors" and on the day of CfP opening for mentees. The contents of the form are:
Info
- Description of the Programme
Questions General Information:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Role (Mentee or Mentor)
[If role==Mentor] Mentor Application
- Have you presented at EuroPython before? [YES/NO]
- What is your speaking experience other than EuroPython? [Short Paragraph]
- If you are taking on mentee(s), do you want to use any language(s) in addition to English with your mentee(s)? [YES/NO]
- If "yes" for the above, which language(s) are you happy to use? [Short Answer]
[If role==Mentee] Mentee Application
- Have you presented at any conferences/meetups before? (In-person or online, not including lightning talks) [YES/NO]
- Are you a member of an underrepresented or marginalised group in tech industry? [YES/NO]
- Do you want to use any language(s) in addition to English with your mentor? [YES/NO]
- If "yes" for the above, which language(s) are you happy to use? [YES/NO]
- All responses are gathered in a spreadsheet so we can manage them easier.
One or two weeks before the CfP we announce the matchings of mentees with mentors. In case we don't have enough mentors we ask them all if they would like to take more mentees in order to help.
On the day of the matching announcement, we send the following template to each mentee, having cc'ed the mentor. In the email, we recommend to the mentor to schedule the following things:
- Prepare the CFP submission (the week before the cfp ends)
- Review the CFP before submission (the week before the cfp ends)
- If the mentee is selected, help them prepare the talk. If the mentee is not selected, help them submit to another meetup/conference.
- Help mentees rehearse for their talk (A month before the conference)
As mentioned above this is a Q&A session for the Programme and the Call for proposals. We invite all people interested and we communicate the session through our social media. In order to attend to the event, one should first register to a form that we provide. Some days before the session we communicate to all interested people the link to the session.
Other than the audience, we make sure that we have all the necessary people from our teams that have knowledge on the following topics:
- Programme
- Financial aid
- Visa Applications
- Mentorship Programme
A recording for this session can be found here: https://youtu.be/HpSbrqmiSeI
During this event, we aim to make first-time speakers feel more comfortable by sharing advice and experiences from more experienced speakers. So, after the list of the selected speakers is announced we host a workshop (online session).
We like to have a public format for the event, so we create a registration form and everyone is welcomed to join us. We only make sure that all accepted speakers are invited via email. The usual structure of the event is a panel discussion with some invited experienced speakers from the community, some past mentees who can share their experiences, and the programme team who can answer questions about programme or other topics.
A recording of this session is here: https://youtu.be/79IaKHo7qEA
The full timeline of our speaker mentorship programme is:
- [1 Month before the start of the CfP] - Complete registration forms for mentees and mentors
- [2 Weeks before the start of the CfP] - Call for mentors
- [The Week when the CfP starts] - Call for mentees
- [One Week before the CfP closes] - Match Mentees and Mentors.
- [One Week before the CfP closes] - Host the Ask me Anything for the CfP session
- [One month before the Conference] - Host the First-time Speaker's workshop
The speaker placement programme aims to connect past mentees to their local communities. That said, we are trying to engage more the people who needed help the past years and make them feel comfortable in contributing more.
There are two main actions for this programme: Call for organizers and Mentee - Event matchings.
In order to have a pool of available events, the first goal of this programme is to create channels and connect with local event and community organizers across the world. This way we will be able to connect more mentees to their local communities.
As a result a form is created here: https://forms.gle/CZdhXdw2hFGVyeG67
The next step for the programme starts when a mentee expresses an interest for the programme. To do so, we are oftenly communicate our programme to past mentees. So once or twice a year we send them information about the programme, along with a registration form where they can express their interest.
Inside the registration form we ask them for the following information:
- Where are you based? (please provide city and country information)
- Title of your talk (If already have one)
- Abstract of your talk (If already have one)
- Which of the following meetups you are interested to speak at? (- a list of meetups -)
- How far are you happy to travel to? (- a list of distances -)
If you have any questions regarding the programme, please contact us at mentorship@europython.eu