I can bring your conference to life through an engaging, powerful and thought-provoking performance, which shares your conference story. As a conference storyteller, I weave together key themes, talks and informal discussions through spoken word. This summative piece is performed at your conference finale, uniting participants in a common vision and ending with a strong call to action.
What is a conference storyteller?
A conference storyteller highlights key themes, talks and informal discussions at conferences and events through spoken word. This piece is performed at your conference finale.
Why hire a conference storyteller?
Over a multiple-day conference, participants are often inundated with information. A conference storyteller weaves together key ideas and stories in an engaging and thought-provoking way. Some takeaways for participants:
- Key themes, ideas and stories are highlighted
- Shared community and connection, united in a common vision
- Engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking performance, adding an extra "wow" factor
- Different method for participants to receive information in a new way
- Strong call to action
Why hire me?
I have worked with more than a dozen conferences, including corporate, non-profit and education organizations to bring their events to life. My approach is creative, thought-provoking, engaging and accessible. I offer a diverse perspective as a queer woman of colour and highlight themes that often go unnoticed.
I work closely with you and do extensive research before the conference on your themes, speakers, audience and goals of the conference. With a background in journalism, I am skilled at listening, asking questions and being a conduit in a short amount of time, which is rare during real-time experiences. I end my performance with a strong call to action, inspiring participants to carry the themes and vision of the conference forward.
Examples
What happens when we share our stories? Change leaders from across Canada gathered at the Ismaili Centre in Toronto for the #ChangeUp2015 conference, Inspirit Foundation's first national convening.
Click to read my piece at the Inspirit Foundation Change Up Conference .
Click to read my piece at the CKX Summit.
Conferences
“Wow! It was an absolute joy and privilege to work with Jenna at C2UExpo 2017 – For the Common Good. For three days Jenna met with delegates, talked to students and listened carefully to plenary and concurrent sessions. At the end of the conference she brought us all together with a very powerful performance of her reflections. Here she demonstrated the depth of her listening skills, her mastery of spoken word art and added tremendous value to a conference designed to bridge diverse perspectives. I would work again with Jenna in a heartbeat!””
“Passionate. Engaging. Inspired. This is how I’d describe Jenna’s contributions to the inaugural CKX Summit. Jenna was omni-present as our poet-in-residence over the course of the three day exercise in community knowledge field building that was CKX. She listened to, engaged in and recounted her thoughts and experiences with participants through story and poetry. Her workshop on spoken word poetry was among the most popular sessions at the Summit and her spirited and passionate Culture Shock performance – featuring a pair of original spoken word poems performed at the event’s closing – were brilliant reminders of the power of stories and storytelling in creating social change.””