WordPress Community

Sponsors: Make a big impact now!

Want to transform the WordPress community worldwide in a massive, impactful, and tangible way? Care about Diversity and Inclusion in WordPress? It’s easier than you think!

My name is Jill Binder. I have been leading the Diverse Speaker Training group in the WordPress Community Team since late 2017. We help WordPress meetups and WordCamps attract and develop more diverse speakers.

We do this with a short, 4-hour hands-on workshop that busts through Impostor Syndrome. Groups all around the world are having this issue with their speaker lineup diversity but don’t know that there is a solution. Our goal is to let as many meetups around the world know that this exists and train them how to run it themselves.

WordPress meetups around the world are hungry for this work. We have given support to 64 meetups in 27 countries so far!

The results speak for themselves: The 21 chapter meetups in 9 countries who have run it so far had started at 10% or fewer speakers from underrepresented groups, and within months, most had 50% or more. Can you imagine? Incredible! Achievable

This is my passion and talent. Automattic is sponsoring 50% of my available work hours. Be the forward-thinking company that sponsors the other half.

This work furthers the goals of WordPress.org, so yes, it counts in your Five For The Future.

By funding my leadership, your sponsorship dollars will:
1. Scale our efforts to reach more of the 800+ chapter meetups
2. Create sustainable systems to create a better experience for the meetups, especially as we scale large!

Let's start the conversation
pie charts: before (10%) to after (50%)
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  • Testimonial

    Jill’s work helps the WordPress contributor base become more diverse.

    Matt Mullenweg, Co-founder, WordPress; CEO, Automattic

    Automattic is sponsoring Jill Binder’s work on the WordPress Diverse Speakers Training Group. I would love to see the WordPress contributor base become more diverse, and training people from marginalized communities to speak at WordCamps is a great way to help that along. Read Matt's blog post

  • Testimonial

    Jill’s work has done a lot to further the diversity and inclusion effort in WordPress.

    Andrea Middleton, WordPress Community Organizer

    Jill's work has done a lot to further the diversity and inclusion effort in WordPress. I would heartily recommend her. The initiative she helped develop has already had a powerful impact on WordPress communities.

    Read full letter from Andrea

Leadership Team

Who we are

Jill BinderFounder and Chief Consultant / Trainer

Jill Binder

Founder and Chief Consultant / Trainer

Jill Binder is the Founder and Chief Consultant/Trainer of Diverse Speakers in Tech. She leads the Diverse Speaker Training group in the WordPress.org Community Team (with a 50% sponsorship from Automattic) which encourages folks from underrepresented groups to speak at WordPress events. She helped organize the first BuddyCamp and for three years co-organized WordCamp Vancouver. She was a Featured Person on WordPress.org in 2019, named one of the top 100 Influencers of WordPress in 2014 by Torque Magazine, and listed one of the top 10 Women of WordPress by CloudWays.

  • Testimonial

    From underestimating my experience to becoming more comfortable and confident.

    Kirsten, Web Developer, Vancouver

    It had never occurred to me before that I had anything worthwhile to offer the WordPress community. Through the workshop, I saw that I had been underestimating my experience and perspective, and I became comfortable and confident about speaking on a topic I felt would be of interest to others.

  • Testimonial

    An unprecedented 60% growth of women speakers thanks to Jill.

    Nichole Betterley, 2017 WordCamp Seattle Speaker Wrangler

    The Diversity Speaker training workshops we ran at local meetups using Jill’s material were highly successful and helped us achieve an unprecedented 60% of women speakers that year. I highly recommend it to anyone who is conscientious of encouraging more women and other diverse groups to speak at technical events.

  • Testimonial

    Jill helped us find the strength we needed to overcome our fear of public speaking.

    Simona Simionato, WordCamp Milan Italy organizer 2018

    At WordCamp Milan 2017, we had only 4 women out of 19 speakers. After we ran the workshop as well did some personal outreach, in 2018 45% of applications were made by women and there were 11 women out of 21 speakers! One of them was also an LGBT community member. The workshop helped people find the strength needed to overcome the fear of speaking in public, and helped folks find topics – solving the “I do not know what to say” issue.

  • Testimonial

    Jill’s diversity work paved the way for the highly effective public speaking workshop at Automattic.

    Kathryn Presner, Theme Whisperer/Happiness Engineer at Automattic, Montreal

    Jill Binder’s diversity work paved the way for the public speaking workshop I developed with my colleagues at Automattic. I’m really excited to see Jill expanding her diversity work and would highly recommend it to anyone looking to broaden their speaker rosters or other professional pathways.

  • Testimonial

    I highly recommend Jill to anyone who is trying to increase diversity at their conference.

    Morgan Kay, Founder of WordPress Study Group for Women, Seattle

    I can attest that Jill’s workshops are very effective at getting a much more diverse speaker pool. I highly recommend Jill and her work to anyone who is trying to increase diversity at their conference or event.

  • Testimonial

    The impact of Jill’s speaker diversity project is highly impactful and inspirational.

    Angela Jin, Community Organizer at Automattic

    I’ve really enjoyed the work we do in the WordPress Diverse Speaker Training group, and can see its impact. It is super inspirational!

  • Testimonial

    I would recommend Jill to conferences and organizations looking to push the envelope and do things they never believed possible.

    Nicolas Demers, Web Developer, Vancouver, Gay

    Before Jill’s workshop I did not think I had it in me to speak in front of a crowd. But she gave me the confidence and tools to get on that stage and deliver a well-received presentation. I would recommend Jill to anyone looking to push the envelope and do things you never believed possible.