Are you looking for a keynote speaker, workshop leader, panelist or panel moderator who gets the technical side of urbanism, and how it works in real life? Someone who can rally a group of long-working and suffering organizers? Someone who’s comfortable with all our jargon, but just as comfortable making the same speech on a table at the Waffle House? That’s me.
Download a copy of my speaking menu and booking information Ready to book? Come on over here. Or, check out a few of my past and present speeches below.
Here are a few of my classic speeches
In April 2012 I spoke at UNC-Chapel Hill on the African-American Great Migration. At the time, I’d not done my own version of the Great Migration. However, my insights on moving South still hold, along with the joy in seemly about to achieve the American Dream, even after some minor Great Recession setbacks.
In 2014 I delivered the diversity keynote to the APA Virginia Annual Conference, a speech called The New Diversity in Planning. In this case, I wanted to talk about alternative definitions of diversity and in the process, introduced a trademark of my speeches, my personal story and how it ties back into urbanism.
Additionally, at a breakout session at the same conference, I introduced this concept I like to call the civic-inferiority complex.
Here’s What I’m Currently Speaking On and Would Love to Present At Your Venue
This Black Millennial Southern Femme…
This is the presentation where I take my life story and use it to help illustrate how planning and development affects all of our lives. Watch the version above that I gave to the Urban Land Institute Memphis chapter in spring of 2018, then book a version for yourself and your event.
Keeping Civic Inferiority Complexes At Bay in Your City
This is the presentaion where I encourage everyone to love what they have and then connect with others who are either ready to do the work or who have been working in obscurity on the work. Watch the version I gave in Roanoke at the 2016 CityWorksXpo, then book a version for yourself and your event.
Six Things to Do When You Present Your Work
Part of my PlantoSpeak Training Series, this is the 90 minute lecture where I talk about how you can present yourself, your work and your firm. Attendees will receive a free one-page handout. This is perfect for your company’s lunch-and-learn, a shorter conference breakout session or a civic organization evening training. Book this for your event or venue.
How to Communicate in The Modern World
Part of my PlantoSpeak Training Series, we will spend a half-to-whole day together, in groups of 10 or less, starting from idea to complete brand package. We’ll start out with a written skills assessment, then based on what’s needed in each group, we will walk through the creation of basic logos, brand color palettes, brand font identities, website setup and create a plan to use the right social networks and online and offline communication tools. This is perfect for small businesses, organizations and firms who need help getting their initial branding, media outreach plans, websites and other communication and marketing needs together. Book this training for your group.
Creating a Blueprint to Go from Engaged Student to Engaged Graduate
This is a combination of my life story presentation and career advice I developed to help students and young professionals (and myself) sort through all of my advantages and disadvantages and find success. Over 90 minutes to two hours, I will present my story, the questions students should ask themselves and then answer any other questions they may have. This is appropriate for students in the 5th grade all the way up to graduate school. Book this now for your school or youth group.