2027

Pre-Conference Sessions

Do you want to go deeper at the Speak Up Conference? Sign-up to attend one pre-conference session. Sessions will take place in person on July 8th at 9:00 AM. You can go through the pre-recorded sessions at your own pace.

Buy live Session $100 Buy Pre-recorded $50 BUY PERSONAL WRITING CRITIQUE $50

If you have a Plus or VIP ticket, one live pre-conference session valued at $100 is included.

In-Person Session Options

All live sessions cost $100 each; the special session opportunity for a Speaker Sizzle Reel is $250. Attendees can only attend one session. If you have purchased a Plus or VIP ticket, one pre-conference session was included.

Click on a purple title to learn more about what each session will cover!

Sessions For Speakers ($100)

Design an Encounter (Not a Speech)

$100
3 hours with Karen Porter

Karen Porter is obsessed with how your audience receives your messages. In this interactive 3-hour session, writers and speakers will learn new tools for taking your reader forward and getting your audience on the edge of their seat. This pre-conference session goes beyond preparation and outlining all the way to audience transformation. We’ll answer the questions, “What will they remember six weeks from now?” and “How do I create the moment that something changes for the audience.” Technically good writing and speaking can still leave people unmoved. You will never again leave your audience or reader unchanged.

Building a Sustainable Speaking Ministry

$100
3 hours with Robyn Dykstra

You can’t have a speaking ministry without places to speak. If you’re tired of wondering where your next event will come from—or feeling awkward talking about money—this practical workshop will give you the confidence and strategies to build a thriving speaking ministry.
Learn how to find the right events, turn inquiries into bookings, confidently navigate conversations with event planners, negotiate your honorarium with professionalism, and create win-win solutions that lead to more invitations and a fuller calendar.
You’ll leave with:

  • Proven strategies to find speaking opportunities and turn inquiries into confirmed bookings.
  • Practical tools for leading conversations with event planners and confidently discussing your fees.
  • A simple framework for negotiating honorariums that honors your ministry while creating win-win partnerships.

Sessions For Writers ($100)

Book Proposal Intensive Clinic

$100
3-hour session with Dave & Cindy Lambert

This session is limited to 25 registrants

Prerequisite:

Complete and bring with you a working proposal. Please download and use one of the following templates, or you may use a proposal model you’ve found on your own.

A winning book proposal is a tool that entices seven audiences to grasp a contagious vision for a book and then equips them to successfully play their parts in placing the book into the hands of its ideal readership.

In this three-hour intensive clinic, you will be introduced to the following:

  • The business side of publishing decisions
  • The real details behind the closed doors of editors and publishing boards
  • The craftsmanship to write an enticing proposal that captures the interest of publishing professionals.

10 Steps to Expanding Your Author Platform

$100
3 hours with Susan neal

Unlock the full potential of your author brand with this essential class designed to broaden your reach and increase your following. We will guide you through a comprehensive 10-step strategy, covering critical aspects of building a robust author platform. Delve into the creation and optimization of your author website, maximize your impact on social media, craft compelling lead magnets, engage audiences with captivating newsletters, refine your author profiles, and master the art of book marketing. This course is your key to developing a powerful presence in the literary world.

Bible Studies: From Personal Discovery to Life-Changing Lessons

$100
3 hour Hands-On Workshop with carol Tetzlaff

You’ve filled journal pages, marked up your Bible, and thought, “I would love to help others discover this!” But how do you turn those discoveries into a Bible study? Bring your curiosity and your ideas, and let’s begin building one together!

In this hands-on workshop, Carol Tetzlaff will help you connect the pieces: studying Scripture in context, finding the central theme that ties your lessons together, organizing your discoveries, and creating a rhythm readers can follow. You’ll practice weaving teaching, illustrations, thoughtful questions, and meaningful application into lessons that invite readers to engage with God’s Word. We’ll also explore ways to get your study into readers’ hands through marketing, church connections, and bulk sales.

A few weeks before Speak Up, you’ll receive a Scripture passage to explore ahead of time. Bring your observations, questions, and discoveries—we’ll use that passage to develop a study together, practicing the process as we go.

Whether you have a fresh idea or a project already underway, you’ll leave with tools you can use, the beginnings of a workable framework, and a clear next step for your own Bible study.

Bring your Bible, a notebook or laptop, and your study idea if you have one. Come ready to discover, discuss, and create!

Sessions For Ministry Development ($100)

The 15-Minute Appointment Lab

$100
3-hour session with Jenn Dafoe-Turner

Practice Before It Counts

For many attendees, the 15-minute appointments are the most exciting — and the most intimidating — part of Speak Up. Your palms sweat. Your heart races. You replay what you’re going to say a hundred times. Then, suddenly, you’re sitting across from an editor, agent, publisher, or speaker coach, wondering if you’ve forgotten everything you meant to say.

I know that feeling. At my very first Speak Up appointment, I sat down, smiled nervously, and said, “Hi, I’m Pastor Jenn. I don’t know what you can do for me, but I felt like I was supposed to meet with you.” Let’s just say… it wasn’t my finest moment. What I didn’t realize then was that confidence doesn’t magically appear when you walk into the room. Confidence is built before you ever pull out your chair.

This pre-conference workshop isn’t another lecture about appointments. It’s a laboratory — a place to practice, make mistakes, receive encouragement, coaching, and honest feedback before the appointments that matter most.

Participants will spend the majority of the session actively preparing, practicing, and refining their conversations. By the time they sit down across from an agent, they’ll have already had six conversations, six rounds of coaching, and six chances to get the nerves out.

Creating & Connecting with Substack

$100
3 hours with Christy Lynn wood

YPlatform sometimes seems like a bad word or an unattainable dream, but what if there was a tool that rolled social media, newsletters, collecting email addresses and podcast hosting into one easy experience? What if it was free but held the potential for you to make money? What if your audience could find you without you trying to reel them in through giveaways and gimmicks? What if you could easily network with fellow writers, editors, and agents?

Substack is a growing and evolving online space where readers and writers have a chance to connect through short notes, longer articles, videos, and more. Many well-known authors have Substacks along with editors, agents, and others in the publishing industry. You can subscribe to your favorites and get their latest posts in your email inbox or just follow them in your feed to see their recent notes. Readers can find and follow you as well. More than an entertainment stage, Substack is a thoughtful, literary community.

Attendees of this pre-conference session will:
• Learn how Substack can help grow their audience.
• Find ways to connect with other writers and authors
• Discover the benefits of Substack like free podcast hosting and paid subscriptions.
• Create or tweak their own Substack site with support.
• Learn how to transfer their podcast hosting and email lists to Substack.
• Have the opportunity to ask questions and get assistance from someone who is familiar with Substack.

Christy will share how she has used Substack to:
• Grow her email list organically.
• Connect with favorite authors.
• Guest on various podcasts.
• Sell copies of her book.
• Find other writers who want to collaborate.
• Submit writing to literary publications.
• And become part of an online writers’ group.

Attendees will have time to:
• Brainstorm individually and collectively about their message, audience, and what they are offering their community.
• Explore Substack.
• Start their own Substack with personal guidance from Christy.
• Ask questions and get feedback about their accounts.

Attendees should bring:
• Their laptop or tablet.
• A digital headshot or profile picture.
• A short bio.

Personal Writing Critique ($50-$100)

(These can be added in addition to an In-Person Pre-Con.)

First Step Manuscript Review with Blythe Daniel

$50
First Step Manuscript Review with Blythe Daniel

Literary agent Blythe Daniel is offering to do critiques for up to twenty attendees prior to the conference. She will read ten pages of a book proposal or manuscript, whichever you prefer, in Word format. She will provide detailed feedback with comments and recommendations for the next steps. Submissions are due before June 1, and critiques will be returned by email by June 15. The conference director will connect you to Blythe for your manuscript submission upon purchase.

Pre-Recorded Session Options

All pre-recorded sessions cost $50 each. Pre-recorded pre-conference sessions are NOT included in the basic, plus or VIP tickets and should be purchased separately. Attendees can purchase as many pre-recorded sessions as they want.

Click on a purple title to learn more about what each session will cover!

Book Proposal Intensive Clinic

$50
3 hour session | Presented By Dave & Cindy Lambert

We’ve all heard it said, “Write to your audience, not to yourself.” Good advice! Many authors, however, may know the audience of their book but have no understanding of the true audience of their book proposal.

In this three-hour intensive clinic, you will be introduced to the business side of publishing decisions, discover what really happens behind the closed doors of editors’ meetings and publishing boards, and learn how to craft an enticing proposal that captures the interest of editors and publishers.

Broken into four segments, this hands-on interactive clinic will begin with an in-depth presentation, then offer individual time to work on and refine specific proposal elements of your own, then break into small groups for fiction and nonfiction personal feedback and critique, and finally come together again for advice and guidance to launch you into the world of meeting with editors.

Increase Your Influence and Find Your Stage

$50
Presented By Jill Savage

Years ago, a speaker’s primary stage was one he or she actually stood on in front of an audience sitting in chairs. The internet and social media have completely changed that. There are dozens of stages you can “stand” on each and every day. In this 3-hour pre-conference session, you will:

  • Expand your understanding of what a stage is.
  • Identify next steps to embrace each kind of stage.
  • Discover different audiences who need your message and influence.
  • Learn the language of online marketing and educational platforms.
  • Be inspired to broaden your influence.
  • Strengthen your ability to deliver a power-packed message on any stage.

Upon purchase, you will receive video link instructions automatically via digital download/pdf.

Marketing and Platform: Turning These Twin Dreads into Your Biggest Assets

$50
Presented By Cheri Cowell

They ask, “What is Your Platform?” and “What is Your Marketing Plan?” These two dreaded questions are part of the publishing reality. But how do you get a platform if you don’t have one, and what are you to do when the whole marketing thing overwhelms you? In this class you will learn to build on your strengths while tapping into a plan any writer can put into place. You will leave this class with a step-by-step course of action so you can confidently answer the twin questions with, “Yes, I have a platform and marketing plan, let me show you.”

Key concepts we will cover:

  • Are you a speaker or someone with a message?
  • Becoming the “expert”
  • Getting the gigs
  • The business side of writing- dollars and cents
  • Marketing verses Promotion
  • Getting more done with templates
  • Social Media, Article Writing, Networking
  • Begin before the book is written
  • A blueprint for action

Upon purchase, you will receive video link instructions automatically via digital download/pdf.

Prepping and Polishing your Pitch

$50
Presented By Katie Reid & Michelle Nietert

In this hands-on workshop you will learn how to prepare and design each element of your One Sheet. Authors, speakers, and marketers, Katie M. Reid and Michelle Nietert will also help you find a unique angle and give you time to practice and polish your elevator pitch. As a result of this interactive session, you will have a professional-looking One Sheet and a game-plan for standing out during your one-on-one appointments. 

Upon purchase, you will receive video link instructions automatically via digital download/pdf.