Speaker Portal

 Contact

Lucia Garcia, Senior Conference Producer, Routes 
Email: lucia.garcia@ubm.com
Phone number: +44 (0)161 234 2761 
Mobile number: +44 (0)7966 134208

 Venue

Address: 80100 Serena Rd, Mombasa, Kenya

Opened in 2015, Pride Inn Paradise Hotel was the first hotel in Mombasa to receive a five-star rating and has excellent conference facilities, making it the perfect event venue for the event.

Routes Africa delegates can benefit from preferential room rates for the Pride Inn Paradise Hotel by booking their accommodation through our official hotel provider, HotelMap. The only official hotel provider for Routes events, HotelMap’s innovative booking tool allows delegates to effectively compare and sort hotels by distance, price and TripAdvisor rating.

Visit the venue website for more information.

 Speaker Registrations/Badge Collection

You will be able to collect your badge from any of the registration desks on the following days/times:

 Speaker Arrival Time

Please ensure you arrive at your theatre 30 minutes before your session is due to begin. This allows time for your session to be set up, run through procedures and check slides if necessary.

 Location of Conference Theatre

The Conference Programme and the Airline Briefings will take place in the Keynote Theatre.

 Official Hotels

HOTELMAP are our only Official Accommodation Partner. For more information on the official hotels please click here

Email: Adam@HotelMap.com
Contact: 020 7292 2320 

 Networking

Our Hosts welcome you to join them for the comprehensive hospitality programme, specially designed to offer a flavour of Mombasa and an opportunity to network with industry peers in a relaxed setting.

Welcome Reception: 

• Day: Sunday 8th of December
• Time: 17:40 – 20:00 
  
• Dress code: Smart Casual
• Location: TBC

Networking Evening

• Day:  Monday 9th of December
• Time: 19:00 – 23:30
• Dress Code: Smart Casual
• Location: TBC 

Content/Sessions Information

When you arrive, please make sure you have collected your badge from any of the registration desks and please make your way to your theatre. There will be a hostess and AV technician in the seminar theatre to assist you with any questions / technical queries. Please do make sure you are in the theatre and ready to go 15 minutes before your session is due to begin.

Pre-Event

To promote you across our various channels we require content that demonstrates your expertise. It shouldn't give too much of your presentation away, but instead act as a teaser to make the people who could potentially attend think 'this sounds good, I'm going to make sure I'm there'.

If you're interested in doing some pre-event content please get in touch with David Casey, Online Editor. There are several types of content you could produce:

• Interview: Answer around 5-10 questions related to the content of your talk. This can be done either by email, over the phone or video.
• Blog: Write around 600 words related to the topic you will be discussing/ an interesting opinion you hold of a case study you've worked on. Think about including images, a couple of slides from your presentation/ graphs to illustrate
• Whitepaper: If you have any research papers which are related to the content of your talk, send them to us and we can distribute to a target audience.
• Twitter Q&A: Use live Twitter 'event' as a way to build an audience in the weeks ahead of your appearance

Once your content has been published by us, we would also encourage you to share it widely with your own networks, via LinkedIn, Twitter, any association newsletters you may be a part of, or any other channels you deem suitable. We can supply you with event banners for use on websites, emails and social media to help you with this.

Panel Sessions

Even though you won't be delivering a formal presentation, it is still essential that you prepare for a panel discussion. The best way to start preparing is to understand your role on the panel and understand the audience.

You would have been invited to join the panel because of a specific perspective you offer, and you should find out a bit about the other panellists (see the programme and speaker page here) so you know you can contribute that they can't.

The moderator will make contact with you and the other panellists prior to the event to discuss topic and questions that will be covered in your session.

Please also see below some handy tips to help you prepare for your panel session.

Nuggets of Gold: without it seeming forced, it is useful to have 'nuggets of gold' in your front mind to bring into the conversation. An unexpected metaphor, joke, quotes, powerful facts, list of three or buzz phrases. These all add variety, depth and emotional buy-in to a talk.

Short, sharp stories: Stories resonate like nothing else. If you want to be remembered and you want your ideas to stick, few things beat a well-told story. Come prepared with anecdotes, examples and stories that capture your points. That will be a lot more effective than dumping a ton of data and information on your audience. Remember to be succinct though. Keep your stories short and focused so you don’t dominate the conversation.

Grab the moment: Unlike a speech, you do not have total control as a member of a panel. It’s unlikely that you’ll tell your whole story in one go. A panel is an exercise in navigation, and requires a speaker to build perspective through smaller sound bites. You have to spot the opportunities and grab them. Opening introductions is your first chance to offer a short summary of your point-of-view, and you’re likely to be designated a slot of time that is entirely yours. Other moments you can include relating to your story to a question from the moderator, providing a build from another panellist or using a question from the audience as a way to launch another dimension of your story.

Listen to other panellists: When the other panellists are talking, listen to what they have today and extend the conversation. Refer to points a fellow panellist has made and build on them (or point out areas where you respectively disagree –everyone likes a panel where speakers argue different points of view). Using bridging phrases such as ‘I’d like to address that question...’, ‘let me add something to that idea...’ or ‘we take a different perspective at my company...’ makes for a more fluid and engaging discussion.

Keep your energy up: Keeping up your energy is essential. If you have to be seated, don't slouch or lean back as that will drain the energy right out of you. Lean in and stay physically engaged.

Be prepared to assert yourself: Inevitably there’s a playground bully lurking in the audience, and it’s up to you to keep him in line. Anticipate though questions, correct inaccuracies from the floor and take control when questioning becomes difficult. Phrases like ‘let’s step back and look at the bigger picture...’ can give you the ability to reframe a discussion. Most importantly, don’t let the hostile questioner derail the event. If you have to, suggest continuing the discussion at another time.

Those speaking on a panel session will not be required to prepare a formal presentations/PowerPoint slides.

Presentations

Presentations should be in 16:9 PowerPoint format (widescreen) and emailed to Lucia Garcia by EOD 5^th December. Please let Lucia know as soon as possible if you are unable to meet this deadline.

Please also remember to bring your presentation on memory stick as backup should there be any technical problems on the day.

PowerPoint Tips

• Clear fonts & colour
• Text no smaller than 20pt
• No more than 8 bullet points per slide
• Avoid lots of text on one slide - pictures and diagrams are ideal
• Each slide should normally take one minute of speech

Video Content/AV Equipment 

If you are planning to embed video content into your slides, please provide the video files separately to the PowerPoint presentation as we may need to re-embed the file - the AV tech can help with this on the day if needed.

The following equipment will be available:

• Screen
• Laptop
• Remote slide changer
• Lectern
• Handheld & Lapel microphones 

If you would like to use your own laptop/Mac, please let Lucia Garcia know as soon as possible. Please ensure you bring the relevant connection cables (i.e. the appropriate VGA adapter for your Mac Model)