Speaking conditions

Speaking experience

I have been a public speaker since 2012, giving talks in different formats: podcasts, interviews, workshops, meetups, keynotes, panels and round tables, local, national and european events, in French and English. (BlendWebMix, MiXiT, The Web Conference, Agile Lyon, Agile Grenoble, Forum PHP AFUP, TakeOff Conference, Journées du Logiciel Libre, Forum Pop Sciences, Codeurs en Seine, etc.)

Biography & portrait

Long bio

Marie-Cécile Godwin Paccard has been a designer for more than 15 years. She practices design with strong values, advocating for respect of all living things and inclusivity by design. As a freelance UX designer, she supports people and organisations through the definition of their fundamental values and purpose, bring in a systemic angle and focusing on uses. Hand in hand with her clients, she designs practical solutions which are in line with the reality of challenges on the field. Marie-Cécile publishes her research and gives talk about design and topics such as Anthropocene, burnout, design of the self, inclusion, sexism and racism in tech. She is a member of IxDA Lyon and was part of the core team who made Interaction 18 happen. She takes an active part in the local design ecosystem in Lyon and co-founded the Common Future(s think tank).

Topics

Here’s a non exhaustive list of the topics I favour. If you would like to see me speak on a particular topic, let’s talk about it!

• Anthropocene and the role designs plays, externalities, designers’ accountability, defuturing,
• design of the self, how to define one’s value and set one’s intentions,
• use centered design, UX research,
• burnout and contemporary management / work crisis,
• inclusivity, racism and sexism in the tech and design industries,
• design’s political aspects,
• free and open source software, commons, attention economy, surveillance capitalism,
• intersectional feminism, ecofeminism (and their application in design & tech)
• empowerment of people through new technologies…

Speaking format

I am more at ease with slots around 45 to 60 minutes, but I am able to adapt to all formats: lightning talks, 15 or 30mn. I am able to perform quick and powerful mini-talks as well as digging through a topic while keeping a narrative progression.

Fees and travel costs

I am a freelancer and my rent only gets paid when I work. All my talks are written with care on my working time, requiring several weeks of research, writing and design for any new talk. Hence I will favour speaking at events that are able to at least take over my travel costs (and accommodation if the conference is outside of Lyon’s area), especially if people are paying to attend your event. An honorarium is deeply appreciated, even small. In return, I am happy to contribute to your conference’s content and quality with a researched, in-depth talk and a professional and rehearsed performance on stage or online. As I don’t like to repeat myself, I never give the same talk and always revise and enhance the ones I have already given so no one gets bored 🙂

Code of conduct

I favour events and teams who share strong values. This includes aspects such as:

• speaker diversity: I refuse to be part of all-male panels or being the only woman, furthermore white. I will thoroughly scan your event lineup, especially if it is vastly made of cisgendered white men. I favour events where visible effort has been put to reach out to female speakers, non-white, non-binary, disabled speakers. Event organisers have the responsibility to reflect the reality of our world, especially in design and tech. If you would like some tips on how to attract more diverse speakers, there is now a vast amount of people who published very good advice on how to do that. The White Guyde to the Galaxy by Tatiana Mac is a perfect starting point (white woman version also available)
• a comprehensive code of conduct and enough planned human and means to enforce it before and during the event: this code will have to describe thoroughly what would happen in case of harassment, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, fascism, etc and list the actions that will be applied in case these behaviours happen. Your org team will have been trained and you will have planned enough means to spot said behaviours and act as soon as they happen and enforce your CoC fairly, recognising the abuse suffered by the victims. A good CoC also addresses topics such as:
  • respect of everyone’s gender expressions and pronouns: I swear it’s not that hard. Read people’s bio or have a look at their website. You will find their pronouns. In doubt, just ask politely how this person would like to be addressed. If the audience reacts negatively to you or your team using someone’s chosen pronouns, you will have trained staff that will adequately act to explain your position. By the way, my pronouns are “she/her”.
  • accessibility: of course, live captioning of all talks is not always feasible and costs a fair amount of money and efforts. I’ve been there (yet we made it). It is very important for me to know that you have included accessibility early in the process of your event’s design. Accessibility has infinite shapes and includes a multitude of little things to accomodate people with different hearing or vision abilities, neurodiverse people, people with chronic diseases or major illnesses, people who are not fluent enough in your event’s main language, and so on. Disability is not just using a wheelchair.
• a fair pricing : if conference tickets are sold, it is fair for speakers to get a compensation, at least travel costs covered. I also love when conferences enable diversity tickets.
• a lineup that keeps known toxic people away: the tech industry is sadly populated by an enourmous number of toxic people, especially toxic men who are known to harrass women and people. Unfortunately, a lot of them are too famous to be called out by organisers. I shall stay away from any event which lineup gives them exposure.
• a decent sponsor list: it is really sad to see giants of surveillance capitalism sponsor events about privacy, for instance. This aspect also plays a big influence on my speaking choices.

This page has been vastly inspired from Fen Slattery’s speaking requirements as well as Tatiana Mac’s speaker rider.