Speak Easy is a technical conference diversity initiative. It focuses on new voices from testing community to bridge the gap, in particular with number of women speakers. Founded by Fiona Charles and Anne-Marie Charrett, Speak Easy operates through forming alliances with conferences and pairing new speakers with mentors helping them succeed with their talks. Over its existence, Speak Easy has been a significant contributor of new voices and high-quality content to international testing conferences.

Speak Easy is about to start a new chapter under a new leadership team, that wishes to pay tribute to the great initiative.

Speak Easy 2.0 will:

• Support partnering conferences in finding quality speakers, while funneling speakers also for open calls for proposals, local meetups and conferences, and international webinars.

• Increase diversity focusing on women and people of color, while within possibilities offering mentoring help for any new speakers. Support first time international conference speakers, yet also help speakers grow all the way to keynote grade with Speak Easy support.

• Extend beyond a core practice of mentoring speakers to being a platform for sharing lessons on being and becoming a speaker.

• Grow speakers from test community to contribute to and engage with the general tech community.

• Continue to support speakers within the focus of quality software delivery while finding stages across a wider range of software delivery conferences.

• Raise money through voluntary fees for finding diverse speakers, to be used for running the operation and offering travel scholarships.

New leadership team is Ash Coleman (USA), Kristine Corbus (Germany), Abby Bangser (UK) and Maaret Pyhäjärvi (Finland). Join us in helping take Speak Easy forward. We are looking to work with speakers, mentors, and organizers of conferences, meetups and webinars. Get in touch!