Every conference has speakers. Not every conference can have speakers as awesome as Skepticon’s speakers! What makes our speakers so great?
First, Skepticon asks everyone we know and their moms who we should be listening to this year. (There’s also a speaker suggestion box at every Skepticon so that everyone can give their opinion!) We are constantly on the lookout for new speakers, with new things to say, and new perspectives to give everyone. Hey, we’ve all been to conferences where the same speakers are there every year with pretty much the same things to say and we’re looking to shake things up.
That’s not to say that we don’t invite speakers back! We have our favorite people speak again or hold workshops. Our returning speakers bring new and exciting topics each time, and deserve their places as Skepticon favorites. We look deliberately to balance new voices with proven favorites to offer the best possible con experience we can manage.
Skepticon is also known for its diversity of main stage speakers and workshoppers. We strongly support having our stage represent the diversity of the communities we want to serve. Their topics also reflect the interests of those communities to create a one, two punch of awesomeness.
What’s even more remarkable is that all of our speakers waive their speaking fees for Skepticon. (We do cover their travel expenses, comp their hotel rooms, and periodically stuff them full of hotel food.) This lets us put on a conference that’s free to attend, but also means getting big name speakers will be rare. That’s okay with us. Big name speakers tend to be very busy people who don’t have much time to hang out with everyone and we get that (even if we have the coolest con in town).
Skepticon speakers are much more likely to stay and talk in the hallways, go to game night and whomp you at Slash, or come to Skeptiprom and dance the night away. Our speakers are part of the community we love, and you’re going to love them, too!
And hey, those big name speakers were all once a bunch of n00bs. You never know which Skepticon speaker is going to be the next Big Name. Come see them here first!
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