Hey Non-Presenters…
One of the things I’ve noticed recently (and I am kind of ashamed that it took me this long to notice) is that every time an anonymous person speaks up to say they feel excluded from some aspect of the greater hypnosis community the way it gets “handled” is by the veterans talking amongst themselves about how to make people feel more included – without including the people who feel left behind.
So
What are your ideas? How can we make you feel more included? What are we doing that makes you feel less included?
(Give is the blunt and ugly truth, please.)
You know, I started a post about why I personally haven’t presented at cons*, but then I realized- I have. Not only did I help @daja-the-hypnokitten run her femme hypnotist practice session during Entranced, but @hypno-sandwich grabbed me last minute as a fill-in for Switchcraft. (Thanks Pynch!) Now both of these were pretty junior-level versions of presenting- in the practice session I mostly walked around and observed and Switchcraft is mostly a big discussion that Pynch ably moderated**- but thanks to these two lovely and trusting people, I feel much more comfortable about any future presenting I might do.
I know there has been some talk (mostly on Skype groups) about establishing a mentor program for new presenters. I wonder if having junior presenters could be a form of this. Let’s say, for example, that I’m an experienced presenter who has taught a well-respected bimbofication 101 class for several years. I kind of ask around and vet a new or newer presenter who is also interested in bimbofication to help me at the next con. It’s still primarily my class with most of my original outline, but I discuss the presentation with the new person throughout the year. We trade ideas and they co-present and do demos with me during con. Then next con, this new person might feel comfortable enough to present their own spin on bimbofication, they might decide to present something else, or I might step down and teach a new subject/a new nuance for a year while this person teaches their version of bimbofication 101.
This idea addresses several barriers to new presenters: lack of experience, being intimidated by more experienced presenters, being intimidated by wanting to present something that feels “owned” by somebody else. It might not be successful in opening up presenting to people who are brand new since those people likely don’t have the connections yet to be trusted as junior presenters. It also maintains the same KIND of classes, just different spins. (And I really like it when new people present on completely different things.)
What do you guys think?
(Also- side note: if there’s something that you would like to see me teach at a future con, please let me know!)
*Briefly: Not being able to think of a topic that would interest others, not having time to prepare, general worries about incompetence either in presenting or public speaking, worries about messing something up and instantly being a pariah, etc.
**And, to be fair, if I HAD gotten time to prepare for Switchcraft in advance, 95% of that time would have likely gone into designing the World’s Most Needlessly Convoluted Switch Fight Strategy. There might have been a flow chart.
Like I said, I don’t present at hypno cons, but I have done a lot of presenting at other types of cons, and this is exactly how I got into it–I transitioned from helping friends, to formally copaneling with them, to meeting “big names” and copaneling with them, to doing my own things, and now I’m moderately quasi-big? (I have “automatically accept anything this person submits” status at a couple of conventions, but I haven’t quite graduated up to paid presenter, just comped admissions and occasionally free food or a gift card or something.)