Why I write the bios for the guest speakers that I invite?

When you ask people to write a bio, when they don’t have one yet, this can feel overwhelming for them as this is all new to them. It might be the first time they speak at an event, or their first time doing it remotely, so there is a lot of novelty. This means that as the organizer you’ll wait weeks to get a bio, and you’ll have to often check in to remind people to do it. 

So it’s quicker for me to write the bio myself and then ask people to correct it. And for most people it’s much easier to correct something that make it from scratch. 

How I write the bios for the guest speakers that I invite?

Write the bio using plublic information 

LinkedIn is the source that I use. Most guest speakers I invite are professionals who also have a LinkedIn profile that contains their professional journey. From there it’s really easy to take a few elements of that journey and turn it into a short bio. 

My process usually looks like that:

• Intro: Start with « Firstname Lastnane is a … » here I mention job titles that people have or the definition they use at the top of their profile 

• Current job: continue with the current job they have and give a few infos about the company where they work. Usually the company LinkedIn profile gives you the elements you need for that. 

• Community implication: if relevant mention what community work this person does, where does she contribute for the wider design community?

• Past experiences: then finish with something like « Before that Firstname worked as XX, YY, ZZ… ». Here the goal is to show that the person has a rich experience. If there is a company name they worked for that is well know mention it here too to enhance the feeling of expertise. 

In the bio I try to highlight elements from the person’s career that relate to the topic of the event. 

Pick a photo from their social media profiles 

I then select a photo that the speaker has already used on a social media profile or on their company website. 

Integrate in a registration page

I then Integrate the bio and the photo in a registration page using a template. 

Send for review

This hidden registration page link is what I then send to the guest speaker for validation. I tell them something like this:

Hey, I’ve created the hidden registration page already. Can you check that everything is correct, especially the bio?

Once I have your go I’ll publish it all on the official website. 

About half of the time people have no corrections and we’re good to go. And for the other half they come with small corrections.