Tips for First Time Conference Speakers

Last week I received the extremely exciting news that my talk submission had been accepted for The Lead Developer conference in London this June. I had submitted my application for a talk about hiring diverse teams on whim, not really expecting to be chosen as I knew the competition would be fierce.

I’m by no means an expert and would say I’m only really at the start of my “career” as a regular conference speaker. I’ve spoken at a handful of big events, including Dot York last October, and have also amassed a bit more experience talking at local meet-ups such as Front-End-York and Code Pen Hull.

In preparation for June, I started to look out on the big world wide web for conference speaking tips, but found a lot of the articles were targeted at established or high-profile speakers. I decided to put together my own set of tips for people who are in a similar position to me and perhaps thinking about speaking for the first time, or looking to progress from small events to larger platforms.

Pitch an original or compelling idea

If you’re making a submission to a very popular call for papers/speakers, the likelihood is that there will be people pitching very similar topics to yours in a general sense.

In order to catch the organiser’s attention you need to make sure that your talk proposal has a USP that sets you apart from the other submissions. This USP needs to be compelling and ideally original.

If you have a story, experience or point of view that is unique to you - make sure you highlight that clearly in your application. Think about what you can bring to the table that can not be replicated by someone else - that might be an unusual career history, experience in a particular company or vertical, or a story about how you have overcome an unusual challenge.

Begin by looking for shorter speaking slots

This is how I started with speaking at conferences and I think it’s a really good route into becoming a regular speaker. Whilst conference organisers want to bring new stories and faces to their events, they also need to know people can deliver a compelling and engaging talk, which is hard to judge if you don’t have a track record with public speaking.

Many conferences offer small slots to less experienced speakers for this reason. Firstly, it’s less daunting for people with less experience to go up and speak for 5 minutes as opposed to 30, secondly if the talk doesn't go as well, it’s not a huge chunk out of the delegates day.

I started off with a 5 minute slot at UpFront in Manchester way back in 2017 and have built things up from there. (On a side note, also look out for conferences which offer first time speaker programmes. This is how I got into UpFront).

Practice a lot, but not too much

My personal opinion is that you can tell when a talk is over-practiced - it takes on a slightly robotic feel and just doesn’t feel as authentic.

Whilst I’d never recommend just turning up and delivering something off the cuff (unless you know for a fact that works for you), there is a point where practicing will deliver diminishing returns.

I usually stop when I can remember the outline of my talk in the order I want to cover each point, even if the exact delivery differs on each run through.

Get feedback from multiple sources whilst writing your talk

It is (hopefully) very unlikely that you will have a homogenous audience on the day of your talk.

In reality, you will be speaking to a diverse range of people from a spectrum of backgrounds, each with a different set of experiences and opinions. A particular point or story that resonates with one person, may not resonate with another.

I would argue that your job as a speaker is to try and connect with as many people as possible through your narrative, however this can be hard to judge if you’re relying on your own judgement or the feedback of a few people. As they say, you do not equal your user (or audience).

To counterbalance this, try and get feedback on an initial outline of your talk from as many people as possible. Ask them what worked/or didn’t work for them and why - from this you will be able to gauge whether your talk has that wide-reaching impact.

It’s also useful to get feedback on the finished talk as your practicing, if only to understand if you’re talking to quickly or not enunciating properly.

I’m definitely not the canonical expert in public speaking, so I asked my community if they had any more tips to share with you:

Not conferences specifically but have done public speaking for large groups. I never scripted. I had bullet points and did prepare but delegates will forgive it being rough around the edges as long as you talk to them, look at them and engage. In my opinion of course. :-)

— Love Cheese (@Lovecheeseyork) February 9, 2019

Pauses are your best friend. Allows points to hit home. I never knew what to do with my hands so good advice is to keep elbows by your side, start gesticulating with one hand and the other naturally follows.

— Andy Bowman (@Bowman_A_B) February 9, 2019

“Be yourself, breath and smile - very simple but people often forget the basics when they are perhaps nervous or in panic mode 😄” - Sally Parker, MD Pick & Mix Marketing

I always find going through my presentation or what I want to say outloud before I write any slides, really helps me feel confident in what I’m saying.
I’m also a big fan of mostly winging it, then if it goes wrong or you forget something it’s less of an issue ☺️

— Rebecca Rafferty (@RebeccaRaff10) February 10, 2019

“In addition to the good advice so far, watch ex US President Bill Clinton’s speeches - in particular the way he scans every part of his audience, making sure of apparent eye contact with all, wherever they are seated. Note also his measured pace of delivery, avoidance of repetition and absolute absence of “err”, “erm”, and other filler words such as “like” and “basically”. Clean, crisp and to the point. Don’t be afraid of using short silences throughout your delivery. A short silence following an important point is an effective reinforcer of the point. Avoid subjecting the audience to what I term a continuous “ torrent of words”. Give them time to think about and absorb the crucial points in your delivery. If using PowerPoint or similar, avoid looking back and speaking to the projection screen. Keep eye contact with the audience and use your tablet/laptop screen in front of you to glance at the presentation for prompts etc. Avoid over-running, especially if yours is one of several successive presentations for the audience in that session. Finally, try to add some humour as appropriate - it always helps!” Bob White Managing Director at Blue Oak Consultancy

Be careful not to pack too much information into your presentation. You should be able to fit everything in and still have time to speak at a gentle pace, pausing and reflecting when needed. It's not a race to the end!

— Claire Davies (@greedywordsmith) February 9, 2019

Keep smiling when it goes wrong. The audience only notices when you look uncomfortable.

— Rachel Willmer (@rwillmer) February 8, 2019

“1, Plan your talk over weeks not days. Every time you get an idea write it down on a scrap of paper. Then after a few weeks arrange them into a structured talk - start, middle and end. 3, be a storyteller. Use advice from Hollywood script writer Michael Hauge 4, learn it without needing notes. Abraham Lincoln would read his aloud to make it stick. Do this over a few weeks. 5, if you feel nervous tell yourself it's ok. You only feel this way because you care. It's a healthy stress that helps. This is a stress challenge response not fight or flight. 6, Be enthusiastic and show lots of energy 7, get the audience involved. Ask them questions. 8, learn to be a feedback junkie. Learn to accept all feedback critical stuff is the best. 9. Do it often. The best speakers are those who practiced the most. “ Alex Burbidge, Founder of Pro Safety Management and Big Smiles

Make sure to take your time , and don’t try to fill in the pauses with unneeded words :)

— GirlsinScience (@ScienceGirlsin) February 8, 2019

“Great question. I’ve done a fair bit of speaking. Here’s what I do: 1. Get super clear from the event organiser why I’m the speaker invited, what they need this session to achieve for the audience. 2. Edit out everything I enjoy sharing that doesn’t suit this audience/event/occasion. 3. Eliminate anything I don’t know to be true or worthwhile. I’m asking people to trust me with their time and attention; trust may be lent but never, I think, taken for granted. 4. Bring warmth into the room. Invite listeners to think with me. Sometimes that’s as simple as listening well to who’s spoken before me, and make respectful links to what together we’ve all heard. 5. Keep to the time. Nothing strangles a memorable close than an anxious Master of Ceremonies who needs to wrestle the mic and make up for time lost. 6. Prepare for the tech setup the event organiser described ahead of time, but be ready for technology to fail or falter. Whatever the circumstances, “the show must go on”. 7. Afterwards, if you meet people who were in the audience, thank them for their time and attention. Ask them about their whole day. If they mention your contribution, ask them if they have any questions or fresh angles on your topic.“ Kate Hammer, Founder of Throughline

Not a first time conference speaker, but I would advise practicing your talk in front of friends and relatives to avoid stage fright

— Graeme Robinson (@grobiwebdesign) February 8, 2019

“I'd suggest the basics of making sure you wear something comfortable and appropriate for your audience. Especially comfy shoes. Practise standing still as this can add gravitas to your words. And be you! Don't try to be another speaker be you!!!” - Jules Wyman, Confidence Coach, Speaker & Author

Don’t put too much written content on a PowerPoint slide - people will read ahead and won’t focus their attention on you and what you’re saying.

— Megan Hallinan (@MeganRex) February 12, 2019

Understand the audience, what can you do to help them achieve their goals.

Have a q&a if you can.

— Peter Mawson (@HighFarndale) February 12, 2019

Two things I did for my first conference talk:
Practise until you find the content a bit boring
While talking, focus on looking at different parts of the audience, avoid looking just for the friendly faces

The latter makes everyone feel you’re speaking just to them

— Scott Walton (@scott_walton) February 12, 2019

The best public speakers are the ones that seem confident in what they're saying. It's not about knowing everyone will love your talk, it's about not worrying if they don't. https://t.co/yzr0gLe1Ri and https://t.co/hv3OOS2hco Are great for more tips too.

— Sam Beckham (@samdbeckham) February 11, 2019

How I Created and Developed an Ethical Certification

Being British, I find it extremely uncomfortable to talk about myself in a positive manner. I generally try to deflect all compliments with some form self-effacing comeback - "oh I wasn't really that involved in the project" or "It was just luck."

With this in mind, I'm going to do my best to talk about the best thing I have ever created (even writing that makes me cringe internally, despite the fact I honestly believe it). 

The thing is though, I am seriously proud of what I have made. 

Even if the whole thing was rendered wholly non-existent tomorrow, I know I worked hard to put together something that speaks to a bold and unambiguous goal - "How do we make this world better, for everyone?"

This is the story of how I made said thing.

The beginning

In 2014 I took on a business, Bright Ethics, which at the time was operating as a marketing consultancy that was working on the idea of building an ethical assessment.

The owner wanted to pass on the business for personal reasons and during discussions both the name "Bright Ethics" and idea of an ethical assessment really excited and intrigued me. (I know you shouldn't buy a business for a name, but hey, a good one doesn't hurt things).

Despite the fact I had no idea what I was doing - I took the leap and acquired the business with a couple of other directors. 

Start at the problem

All good business ideas start with identifying and solving a problem.

That's start-up orthodoxy 101 right.

Ours was a simple one:

How do you know whether a business is a good business? 

(E.g. one that doesn't screw over it's workers, treat the planet like garbage or invest in a supply chain riddled with examples of modern slavery - we will come onto more nuanced definitions shortly though!)

This leads to a secondary question - can you trust a business when it says it is a "good" business?

E.g. lots of organisations like to talk about being "green," "eco-friendly" and "sustainable"

But what do these terms actually mean? How do you quantify them? Can you quantify them?

Research, research, research

The second rule of a start-up is surely - do your damn research. 

Unfortunately due to my limited knowledge and understanding of ethical business subject area, I had to start at the beginning. 

First there was the issue of what we were actually measuring when it came to "goodness" - who decides what is good and what is bad? This is where the term ethical started to come into play, which unfortunately led into even more questions:

What does ethical mean? 

What about morality vs ethics?
What does it mean to be an ethical business?

Over the next couple of years I spoke with hundreds of people - from friends and family, to business owners, executives, front line employees and academics. 

Responses to the questions above were broad and also convergent in many respects, which was actually quite surprising. What really struck me though was the strength of feeling which surrounded the issue of ethics in business - many people were just as passionate about it as me!

During this period I also sifted through a wide range of academic texts on ethics and ethics in business. Whilst some of these were perhaps slightly too esoteric, there was much value in understanding and subsequently standing on the shoulders of giants. 

A positioning statement

After a lot of discussion, research, debate and general hard thinking - we came up with the following defining statement to position our work:

"When talking about ethics, it is important to define the context within which your definition is operating.

For the purposes of assessing ethical business practices, we are not concerned with meta-ethical questions dealing with the origin and nature of ethical principles (e.g. religious interpretations about what is good and bad). Arguments surrounding ontological, semantic and epistemological meanings will always remain unresolved and widely debated.

Ethical behaviour in this context concretely relates to the principles and standards which guide behaviours and decisions within organisations.

Judgements regarding the positive or negative status of principles and standards are developed and upheld by societies, forming a part of everyday life.

These judgements are part of the social contract and are therefore subject to shifts as this contract is renegotiated through cultural and societal developments.
At the heart of an ethical business is the recognition of the needs of wider entities whose interests exist beyond the core purpose of the organisation
– which is usually to maximise profit. These external individuals and entities include (and are not limited to) staff, customers, community, environment, planet and the economy.

An ethical organisation is one that will take external concerns into account when developing policies, procedures and actions.

Through consciously re-thinking and re-imagining its activities, an ethical organisation will seek to mitigate any negative impact on external entities and maximise opportunities to make a positive impact on them. It will work alongside them on a consultative basis in order to understand this."

Time for nuance

Once we had an overall concept of what it means to be an ethical business, it was time to start digging into the meaty underbelly of the behaviours, policies and procedures that mark out a business that truly is ethical in both speech and act.  

This is where the initial research became pivotal, as we had three sides of a coin that needed to be minted into something acceptable for all parties.

On the one hand we had the general consumers idea of what an ethical business should look like, on the other there is the academic understanding and construction of ethical business practices, on the third hand we had the businesses themselves and their own perceptions of acceptable ethical behaviour and the financial limitations of adopting further responsible regimes. 

After all, to be an ethical business, you need to still be in business. 

This is where the exercise really became about finding common threads between all parties and working out the lines which when crossed, would be unacceptable to one or more of the three groups.

After a lot of analysis, we came together with five key ethical headings under which distinct ethical behaviours, policies and practices could be described:

* Values and Leadership - how is ethical behaviour framed and how is it championed from the top?

* Customer Experience - How does the organisation ensure its customers are treated with respect?

* Environmental Sustainability - how does the organisation demonstrate a positive commitment to the planet?

* Sourcing with Integrity - How does the organisation ensure its supply chain benefits society, the economy and the environment?

* Positive workplaces - how does the organisation ensure ALL employees are respected, rewarded and appreciated?

During this stage we toyed around a lot with the idea of including ethical financial practices, especially those around paying tax, in the list. However the folks at Fair Tax Mark have got this well covered, which is ace!

The Bright Ethics Standard

Years of work have cumulated in a set of ethical standards that represent a rigorous and ambitious blueprint for ethical businesses. 

I believe that we have created something that is both achievable and challenging for businesses/organisations - a process that quantifies and forces them to understand how they can positively impact the world, whilst also providing clear and actionable guidelines on how they can make this happen.

I also believe that we are providing something of equal value to consumers. We have created a hallmark which stands up to the challenge of being the trusted symbol which indicates that the organisation you are buying from does care about people and planet - and can prove it. 

How does it work then?

Basically the Standard lays out the set of criteria that an organisation has to meet when they undertake the Bright Ethics Assessment, all grouped under the five headings described above. 

In order to be awarded the Bright Ethics seal of approval, an organisation has to demonstrate that it meets a minimum threshold of ethical criteria across all sections. 

The Assessment is undertaken by an trained assessor, who measures compliance using both documentation and an on-site assessment.

This in-person element was really important to me, because I felt that answers to some of the criteria stated in the standard, e.g. "There is a work-life balance strategy which meets the needs of employees and employers" could only be truly collected and evaluated through staff interviews. 

A note on assessors - after working on the standard documentation for so long, it became clear that I did not have the required expertise needed to be an assessor - we needed the help of professionals. 

(Recognising that you need external help is an extremely important lesson I had to learn throughout this entire process.)

We are currently partnered with The Centre For Assessment, who are experts in delivering a number of globally recognised certifications. We are extremely proud to be able to call on their expertise and depth of experience!

There is no straight path

I will be the first to admit that the entire Bright Ethics journey has not been without frustration, tears and sprinklings failure. 

Throughout the process I made numerous errors and sidesteps, I mean hell at one point I was ready to pivot the entire business into an e-commerce platform selling ethical products!

I've come across people who have literally called me crazy to my face and others who have wholeheartedly embraced the concept - it's like anything. Some people will love an idea, others will hate it.

The key really is to listen to your own gut instinct and keep on experimenting and iterating. Eventually, with enough trial and error, you will end up with a viable solution. 

Thank you

I must end with an acknowledgement that I do stand on the shoulders of giants and that creating the Bright Ethics Standard was not the work of one individual. 

Over the years I have had the input of numerous people - friends, academics, colleagues, acquaintances and random friendly folk in bars who have put up with my incessant drunk questioning of "what does it mean to be good... no really.. like REALLY good"

Most importantly, I must thank Zach Lowens, who provided extremely knowledgeable and deservedly critical feedback on my work so far. His recommendations have further enriched the Standard and ensured that each section represents an ambitious and impactful outline for ethical businesses to work towards. 

Want to read the Standard for yourself or find out more about Bright Ethics?

Find more info here

The problem with Black Friday

Black Friday has been regarded as the most important day of the Christmas Shopping season in the US since the mid 20th century. Whilst it is not an official holiday on the other side of the pond, it falls on the day after Thanksgiving, which is often taken off by US employees to create a 4 day festive weekend.

Here in the UK, Black Friday reached our shores fairly recently, first cropping up as a distinct entity in 2013, when Walmart-owned ASDA announced that it would be bringing "Black Friday" deals in-store.

Over the next few years many retailers adopted Black Friday style deals both online and offline to help further boost pre-Christmas sales. This stimulus was especially important for the high street here in the UK, as brick-and-mortar stores were increasingly underperforming due to the rise of online sales. 

In-store discounts proved extremely popular, with several large retailers having to call in the police to deal with the volume and ferocity of the bargain hunters, many of whom had queued for hours to gain access to exclusive deals. 

Online the picture has also been rosy for retailers. According to the BBC last year from Monday 21 November to Monday 28 November, online sales rose to an estimated £6.5bn, with £1.23bn spent on the "official" Black Friday day. Many retailers are hopeful that this year sees a repeat of this staggering level of spending, especially as the Brexit pinch starts to restrict household spending. 

A retail phenomenon in a holiday's clothing

Fundamentally Black Friday is a marketing ploy, designed solely to push consumers to spend more in the run up to Christmas. Retailers have gone to great lengths in order to present the day as part of the festive calendar and therefore as an event which is elevated culturally to the status of a tradition. 

In my mind, many of the discounts are applied only to stock the retailers know will be reduced anyway come January (I also suspect many of them design their original prices around this fact and subsequently intentionally inflate the pre-sale price.)

I must admit that I do resent the fact that Black Friday has become such a phenomenon here in the UK, not because it is American, but because it represents the increasing importance we as a society place upon consumption and ownership of material goods.  

Whilst I wholeheartedly admit that I'm a bargain lover, I do baulk at the idea of buying something simply because it is cheap(er). I have no appetite to fill my life with things that I do not need, nor wanted until they were presented as a bargain basement deal. 

Manipulation by online retailers

I just want to take a second to deconstruct the online presentation of Black Friday deals, because I find it both problematic and interesting from a professional point of view.

Many of the deals are presented on a carousel or on an aggregated page with other items that are also discounted. 

This type of display causes people to search through page upon page of deals, rather than searching for a distinct item. Forcing the user to browse in this way is an excellent move by the retailer, as it puts the user in front of items they would not normally consider and also forces them to adopt a browsing mindset. In this state, the user is much more likely to add supplementary items to their basket and therefore spend more than they originally intended. 

Another trick which is becoming more common is the introduction of limited availability (by stock or time) deals. Amazon uses this technique throughout the year on its "deal of the day" which shows a live timer counting down. This is designed precisely to install a sense of urgency motivated by the fear of losing out on a deal.

What is the cost?

With household spending under pressure due to inflation and stagnant wage growth, I understand why many feel that Black Friday deals are a welcome addition to the pre-Christmas retail landscape. 

Also let's face it, buying new and interesting things makes us feel good. Briefly. 

Our brains also evolved to be rewarded by novelty, a tendency exploited by product designers and advertisers. This preference was preserved in our genetic heritage because it gave us a survival advantage; without it, we wouldn’t have explored new things or been able to invent novel solutions to the problems posed by constantly changing circumstances.

Harvard Business Review, March, 2017

The problem with feeding our desire for novelty is that we are also fuelling the forces which are fundamentally destroying the planet.

Every item you buy, no matter the season, has been produced through processes which contribute to greenhouse emissions and environmental destruction.

By putting profits over people and planet - pushing consumers to spend more on goods - retailers are explicitly disregarding the numerous warnings that our current levels of material and energy consumption are not sustainable.

What I learned about the future of marketing at Turing Festival

Last week I was lucky enough to attend Turing Festival!

Turing Festival is a two day tech conference in Edinburgh comprising of two days of expert speakers focusing on Product, Marketing, Engineering and Strategy.

As a Marketing Manager, I spent most of my time in the Marketing and Strategy tracks, with a couple of Product topics thrown in for good measure.

I came away feeling enlightened, inspired and to be honest, slightly overwhelmed. The speakers were all incredible and obviously at the top of their game. There was so much information to take in and many new ideas to reflect on as we move forward into the latter half of the year.

To both share some knowledge and selfishly help digest it myself, I thought I would write down some of the key takeaways from my two days up in Scotland.

1. User experience is everything

"Everything is a product and every product has a user experience" - @sitar

If I take anything away from my two days at Turing Festival, it's this.  UX and its vital role in marketing/product came up in pretty much every single talk I attended.

If you ignore the user, they will ignore your product.

2. We need to start thinking about voice search

This again was a frequent observation made in the Marketing track, though few speakers could define an absolute strategy for dealing with this shift. 

I got the impression many were adopting a "wait and see" position, especially whilst the war of dominance plays out between Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

3. Do fewer things better; go deep and narrow to focus on three to four outcomes (Supriya Uchil)

4. A customer is someone who is paying you money - focus on them. (@JohnJPeebles)

The number of "users" your product has is a vanity metric, focus on the people who actually pay you money for what you're selling.

5. Growth is a product of both successful acquisition and then retention of customers. It should also be measurable, repeatable, predictable and scaleable. (@andyy)

6. We need to start leveraging AI and ML to gain insights from big data as marketeers (as demonstrated by @wilreynolds)

7. We need to rethink team structures to organise around growth (@joannalord)

"We need to start thinking of growth as a decentralised responsibility"

Instead of sitting in our traditional silos (Product, Marketing, Engineering etc.) Joanna convincingly argued for interdisciplinary teams, which all work towards the same goal; growth.

8. Chatbots will be (and basically are already) the next frontier of engagement and interaction. (@purnavirji)

The rise of AI assisted chatbots will fundamentally change SEO as we know it, as answers will be served by seeimgly stand alone intelligent progammes rather than aggregate search engines.

Purna highlighted how brands will have to shift their marketing strategy as a result of this from asking customers to "buy now" to asking "what do you need right now"

9. We are playing in Google's world, but we can still find ways to win. (@randfish)

We can't change what Google does when it comes to algorithms and rankings - marketeers have to be reactive in some respects and adapt to the conditions imposed on them.

There are however a few things we can be in control of:

Our brand - we need to make our content so engaging and useful that users come to us first, without even needing to perform a search.

The usefulness of our content - this ties in with the point above, but we need to get people engaged before they realise they have a problem and provide them the answer before they have formulated the question. (E.g. provide answers to multiple logically connected questions in one post, rather then just answering a small section of a larger topic.)

Why I'm standing as a Green Party General Election candidate

This will be the first and last time that I will mention my politics directly here on the blog, as I'm aware that not everyone a. is interested, b. shares my views.

However, I do want to take this opportunity to clarify why I have made this rather large and important decision, if only to give an insight into my inner thoughts...

We are in a period of seismic shift, both globally and domestically. Historians will probably undertake their usual partitioning of time and declare that the watershed occurred with the financial crash of 2008. Some will argue that it stretches back to the horrific events of 2001.

Regardless of the start date, it is clear that the world is changing and it is changing quickly.

Old and longstanding societal structures are being challenged by new technologies which have disrupted businesses across the globe and even the labour market, giving rise to brand new industries and the gig-economy.

These structures are also being challenged by new globe-spanning methods of communication. You only need to look at the rise of Trump on Twitter to see this new age of "mass communication" at work.

This is why the Tories message of “strong and stable” is so powerful, because it speaks to a fear that the world is changing in a way which supposedly will impoverish and diminish this country and its inhabitants.

The message of fear - fear of the immigrant, fear of the benefits cheat etc. - has successfully been instilled in the population by the current government for seven years now.

Underneath this is the idea that there is not enough to go around. That only the “strivers,” the morally deserving, should have a slice of the economic pie.

I believe this is simply not true.

There is absolutely enough, the fundamental problem is the unequal distribution of wealth and resources.

“I am afraid that if you don't find peaceful domestic solutions to our inequality and social problems, then it's always tempting to find other people responsible for our problems.” Thomas Picketty

Instead of “strong and stable” (what does that mean really in a country that has been explicitly divided by the actions of a certain party) the current status quo is dangerous because it offers only a stagnant and regressive future for this country.

The British people deserve a country which is ambitious and hopeful, a country which embraces the future and provides for all.

I joined the Green Party because I fundamentally believe in the common good. I believe that the needs of the many should outweigh the desires of the few.

I decided to put myself forward as a Green candidate for the General Election (which was then confirmed through a vote in our local party) because I could no longer sit by and watch everything I believe in either be dismantled or disregarded.

A short and not exhaustive list of some of those things...

• A freely available and fully funded NHS

• The scrapping of tuition fees

• A welfare state which protects and supports all those in need

• Environmental protections

• The creation of an ambitious "green" economy

I am proud to be part of a party which is open to a progressive political debate, which is willing to stand down in seats in the best interests of the people, as we have done locally in York Central.

Most of all I am proud to represent a party which recognises that there is another way of doing things. 

We don’t believe in playing games. We believe that progress, prosperity, and people’s rights are more important than party politics. 

Our values are what drive us and guide us.

Which means that at this election - in fact, at any election - if you vote Green you know what you are getting. 

Whilst we are indeed fighting against an unfair electoral system, every Green vote is a clear signal of support for Green policies and values.

You can follow my General Election campaign on Twitter