Jo Taylor {TEDxCardiff, 2010}

Jo Taylor is the Head of Marketing & Communications at the Wales Millennium Centre. Jo shared her passion for live performance and explained how the traditional performing arts are removing barriers to participation in order to reach new audiences. She talked about the importance of anticipation and how sharing a single, unrepeatable moment with audience and cast members makes live performances unique. One of the lines that has stayed with me since seeing Jo speak is this:

"[when I go to a performance after work] the live performance rescues me from the stresses of the rest of the day. It rescues me from real life ... in fact it is life at its very best."

The really special thing about Jo's talk was when she finished by introducing two singers from the Welsh National Opera who performed an excerpt from Hansel and Gretel and instantly proved what Jo had spent the previous 15 minutes explaining - their performance challenged my preconceptions of opera and left me with tear-stained cheeks - just amazing!

Elizabeth Gilbert {TED, 2009}

Elizabeth Gilbert does a brilliant job of demystifying the creativity process, talks about how she keeps on writing even when she's terrified, and asks why we have collectively accepted that creativity and suffering are intrinsically linked.

er, hello, is this thing on?

Where *does* the time go eh? I was tempted to delete my previous post and pretend that this is a brand new blog but I wanted folks to know how things have progressed for me personally over the past (cough) ten months. I also think it's okay if ideas take a long time to come to fruition ... I encourage a long fermentation period :) Go slow, say I!

Well first things first, I'm proud to say that I have grasped the whole 'scared witless of public speaking' issue by the horns and have presented not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times but *six*(count 'em!) times since last October. The audience sizes have varied from terrifying to quite terrifying ... er I mean small to not so small ... and three of the talks were captured on video so I had to deal with the double terror of having my soul stolen via the camera lens as well as the fear of speaking.

... But you know what, it hasn't been all that bad really and while I'm not sure I'll ever look forward to public speaking, I'm determined to keep on trying and to keep getting better at sharing my story and my ideas and (hopefully) inspire other women (and men) to take to the stage to share their stories too.

I'm going to post details of the talks I've done on a separate page of this blog but in the meantime you can get to them via my GeekSpeakr profile ... yes, you heard me right ... my GeekSpeakr profile - which means that I've effectively announced myself as 'on the market' for future speaking opportunities ... done in a brief moment of bravery/madness.

My most recent (and in many ways most cool/surreal) was in a yurt at the wonderful Green Man Festival this last weekend ... very rock and roll even if I do say so myself :) I am still wearing my 'Artist' wristband as a reminder of what I managed to achieve.

So anyhoo that pretty much gets us up to date :) My plan for this blog is still the same, to share the great female speakers I've seen talking in person, or on t'interweb. I'd also like to hear about the female speakers you've seen who have inspired you so feel free to share your favourites with me via the comments box.