
At Women Talk Design, we’re on a mission to see more diverse speakers on stage.
We elevate brilliant women and gender non-binary speakers and their talks so organizers can better discover them, provide tools, information and resources to organizers on how to design more inclusive events, and offer training, events, and community for new speakers.
We believe everyone – of all genders, races, religions, ethnicities, abilities, and backgrounds – should be able to attend an event, look up on stage, and see someone giving a talk on stage that looks like them, and think ‘that could be me’.
Women Talk Design was started by Christina Wodtke, an author, professor, speaker, and designer. As a conference speaker, Christina often found herself the only woman on stage. She was tired of hearing excuses from organizers, and she created Women Talk Design in 2013 as a directory of women speakers in design.
In the summer of 2017, she initiated a GoFundMe campaign to hire a paid design intern to research and redesign Women Talk Design. Thanks to hundreds of generous donors, Melissa Kim and Jennifer Kim spent the summer researching, architecting, and designing a new website for Women Talk Design.
In the fall of 2017, Danielle Barnes came on board as CEO to create a sustainable and impactful organization, as well as a broader vision for Women Talk Design.
Today, we offer a platform to highlight incredible women and gender non-binary speakers in design and tech. We are also a resource for conference organizers on designing more inclusive events. In addition to working with event organizers, we want to see more talented women and gender non-binary practitioners and leaders raising their hands to speak. We organize events and training to empower new speakers and an online community to connect new and experienced speakers to ask questions, offer advice and share speaking opportunities.
We hope this site can be a resource for you – no matter where you’re coming from. If you are an organizer looking for speakers, a speaker looking for opportunities, someone looking to get into speaking, or a company looking to develop speakers on your team, we want to help. Check out our directory, On Speaking and On Organizing resources pages, our training and events, and get involved page for more information.