About this event
Please note: This event is now being held at Best Western Calcot Hotel, 98 Bath Road, Reading, RG31 7QN.
Join us for a powerful double-header evening that addresses the two biggest challenges facing professional speakers today: building a viable business and creating truly inclusive content. Join us with Sam Warner and Beth Thomas delivering our two keynotes tonight.
Whether you’re just starting out or refining your established practice, this session combines business strategy with transformative insights on inclusive communication. You’ll leave with practical tools to test your business ideas AND the knowledge to ensure your message resonates with diverse audiences.
Plus, we’ll also have a Q&A panel at the end of the two keynotes to conclude the evening.
Keynote 1: Leaning in to the Lean Canvas
Presented by Sam Warner, Neurodivergent Communication Specialist
The Challenge
Too many speakers fall into the same traps:
- Rushing to package talks, courses or books before checking if anyone actually wants them
This session flips that habit. - Think they can help everyone, and then wonder why their can’t get any gigs or clients.
- Don’t know what to charge or how they will make their business pay.
- Are unable to articulate their unique selling point (USP) or their unfair advantage over others, and so don’t stand out.
Sound familiar? The Solution:
You work through the Lean Canvas to stress-test your business ideas, starting with real problems, real people and real buying behaviour.
This isn’t theory. It’s a practical, hands-on session. You leave knowing whether your offers are viable before you waste time, money or reputation. Each attendee will start their own Lean Canvas in the session. This session is practical, honest and designed for speakers who want ideas that stand up in the real world.
What You’ll Learn:
- ✓ Stop building in your own echo chamber
You will learn how to separate what you like from what your audience will pay for.
You identify clear problems, early adopters and proof that demand exists.
Ask yourself. Who is actively looking for this right now? - ✓ Craft a value proposition that earns attention
You will shape a one-line message that speaks to outcomes, not features.
Something you can use on your website, speaker page and pitches straight away.
If you can’t explain the problem, solution and the benefit fast, why would anyone buy? - ✓ Spot weak business ideas early
You will map revenue, costs and key metrics before committing fully.
This helps you avoid six months of effort on something that cannot sustain you.
Better a quick rethink now than a painful lesson later.
This session is practical, honest, and designed for speakers who want ideas that stand up in the real world.
Keynote 2: What if the label was the lifeline?
Presented by Beth Thomas, Neurodiversity Specialist, Speaker and Consultant
In a world polarised by the concept of labels, we’ve confused naming with limiting.
In this keynote, Beth, a late-identifying neurodivergent person and neuroinclusion specialist challenges one of society’s most well-intentioned myths: that labels are harmful.
Blending lived experience and professional insights, this talk reframes diagnostic and identity labels as tools for survival, access, and self-understanding, not sources of damage.
The real harm, Beth argues, comes from the ableist beliefs we attach to those labels- beliefs rooted in fear, misinformation, and a narrow definition of “normal.”
This is not a talk about political correctness.
It’s a talk about precision, permission, and psychological safety.
By listening to this, you will learn that:
- Avoiding labels doesn’t reduce stigma, it reinforces it.
- Our beliefs are engineered to be ableist, with tips on what we can do to shift the narrative.
- Labels and language can be the difference between distress and success, and how to incorporate this learning into your own speaking practice to be more inclusive.
Why These Two Topics Together?
Business viability + Inclusive impact = Sustainable success
You can have the most inclusive message in the world, but if your business model doesn’t work, you won’t be around to deliver it. Conversely, you can build a profitable speaking business, but if your content excludes significant portions of your audience, you’re leaving impact (and income) on the table.
This evening gives you both: the strategic foundation to build a business that lasts AND the inclusive communication skills to ensure your message reaches and resonates with everyone who needs to hear it.
This event is essential for:
- Speakers at any level – from aspiring to established professionals
- Business owners who speak as part of their marketing strategy
- Coaches and consultants building or refining their speaking practice
- Anyone serious about creating a sustainable speaking business that serves real needs
- Communicators committed to inclusive language that creates psychological safety
- Leaders and HR professionals who want to understand neuroinclusion in practice
Keynote speakers
Sam Warner is a Neurodivergent Communication Specialist and uses her lived experience to work with leaders across multiple industries to improve their DEI policies to help them attract and retain talented Neurodivergent (Autistic, ADHD, Dyslexia etc) employees. Organisations enjoy loyalty, diversity of thought, innovation and increased profits whilst spending less on recruitment due to attrition. She delivers keynotes, workshops, training and coaching to clients such as Nokia, Ocado, The Royal Ballet School, GirlGuiding, and the NHS to name a few.
Sam has an energetic delivery style that leaves the audience with engaging memories and inspiration. She has worked in multiple industries herself including, IT, Manufacturing, The NHS, The Police Service, and in many different roles, such as Project Manager, Quality, Governance & Risk Management. She is also a Professional Speaker, a TEDx Speaker, TEDx Curator and Speaker Coach with 25+ years experience.
Beth thomas is a recognised neurodiversity specialist, speaker, and consultant. Late-diagnosed herself, Beth combines lived experience with professional expertise to help organisations move beyond performative inclusion and build environments where people can thrive authentically.
After experiencing burnout within systems not designed for neurodivergent minds, Beth’s work focuses on sustainable inclusion, psychological safety, and neuro-inclusive leadership. She has supported hundreds of individuals through transformational change and now partners with leaders, teams, and organisations through coaching, consulting, and keynote speaking to unlock both human and organisational potential.
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