Recruit Presenters

Presenters process

1. Create application form
2. Collect application answers, put them in a spreadsheet
3. Create survey for judges to rank applicants
4. Email out to judges
5. Calculate judges rankings
6. Email presenters results

We recommend having 3 or 4 presenters at your event. Fundamentally you’re looking for ideas or projects that aim to benefit the local area. Groups to potentially approach for presenters could include: schools, universities, religious organisations, community centres, business associations, startup incubators, artists and not-for-profits. In the past we have used newsletters of similar organisations and local Facebook groups to help spread the word about our events. Fundamentally you’re looking for projects that aim to have a social/environmental benefit to the relevant area where you will be holding your SOUP event. We’d suggest defining the geographical boundaries for where projects have to benefit as your suburb, town or city, but again that is totally up to

Example projects

• Community members keen to refurbish a local park
• An individual with a plot on a community garden who wants to teach people about growing vegetables
• A community group fundraising for a new initiative to give young people something to do
• An entrepreneur with a socially/ environmentally conscious business idea
• A local community cupboard providing free food for those in need

Importantly, for us a presenter cannot be ‘too early’ on their journey. In fact, the earlier on in their journey from idea to fully functioning project, the more they are likely to gain from getting up at SOUP and sharing with the audience. One element that has been passed on to us from the original Detroit SOUP is not to focus on a particular topic, and instead deliberately leave things open to a range of issues and solutions. The diversity of thought attracts different people and allows for very mixed conversations, again contributing to the fact that each event feels unique.

Once you have applicants interested, direct them to fill out an application form (see Google forms template in appendix). Having them fill out this form not only allows you to run a judging process if you’ve more than 3 or 4 applicants, it also helps keep a record of people that can be encouraged to apply again if not selected for your upcoming event. Get in touch if you’d like specifics on how we run our judging process for applications. We have our application form on our website, but you can also just send it to interested projects via email or facebook. Having them fill out this form not only makes it easier to select the top 3, it also helps keep a record of interested projects that can be encouraged to apply again in future if not selected as one of the 3 for your upcoming event.