Thank you for asking me to present at your event.

Based on personal experience, here are some pointers that can help us deliver a good event together.

Fees

For internal/group/commercial conferences, I charge a fee (negotiable) to present (especially if it’s a keynote). I run a non-profit and don’t think it unreasonable to charge a fee to support the teams that support me.

I also do many unpaid events: it depends.

Conference biog – short, commercial

Gavin has created over a dozen companies, employing 100’s of people, and delivering $100M’s in measurable impact. He co-chaired the development of the Open Banking Standard and was the founding CEO of the Open Data Institute. He has mentored, chaired, or been a non-exec of over 40 organisations across diverse sectors. He currently runs IcebreakerOne.org to help accelerate our Net Zero Future.

You can find a longer biog here. Please feel free to edit as you wish.

Socials

You can find me online at

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinstarks
• https://mastodon.social/@agentGav
• https://twitter.com/agentGav
• https://agentgav.medium.com

Citations

This is a mandatory requirement if you would like me to speak.

In any printed or online materials related to me or my presentation, please include a link to the organisation I am speaking from, as follows:

1. For Icebreaker One, please include a link to https://ib1.org or https://IcebreakerOne.org
   Please also note the spelling of “Icebreaker One” (it is not “IceBreaker” or “Ice breaker 1”)
2. For Dgen, please include a link to https://dgen.net
3. For Demand Logic, please include a link to https://demandlogic.co.uk

Photo – click for high resolution/print version

About slide presentations

Given much of my work is on data, open markets and interoperability, these are important points.

Often, I’m asked to send slides in advance. If this is absolutely critical, I might be able to. However, having given many, many hundreds of presentations I prefer to tweak my presentations after I arrive on-site, based on seeing who is in the room and gauging the mood.

I’d rather plug in my laptop if possible. I will also provide a PDF file.

Having run very large-scale events with hundreds of speakers, good production companies can accept slides just before going on stage. Some seem to want to ‘combine’ everyone’s slides into a single deck: this is generally a bad idea. Why? Because (a) it is supporting a monopoly position of one software company, and not an open market, and (b) it almost always messes up people’s formatting.

I don’t use Powerpoint or Keynote. Usually, I develop presentations as Google Slides.

This enables me to instantly share the slides online (and I will usually embed them in a post on my website), and in a manner that is open to comment by anyone.

Be aware that while Google Slides can “Export to Microsoft PPT”, because of the ongoing market dynamics between them, they are usually not interoperable and badly mess up formatting. 

The only consistent format for presentations is PDF (the Portable Document Format) and I will include a PDF copy and will also publish it online for anyone to download.

About logistics

Please make clear in advance (you’d be surprised what even ‘seasoned’ events fail to do sometimes)

• do not offer a presentation as a ‘keynote’ if it is not actually a keynote slot
• if you are providing any transport, accommodation, per diem, or logistical support
• if any food, drink, or green room is/are being provided
• if any rehearsals, or additional meetings are required
• what the post-event follow-up will be (e.g. when archives will be made available, when delegate lists can be shared, if there are opportunities for other media or social media follow-ups)