Sample keynotes
Leadership:
You Have More Power Than You Think
Having experienced and witnessed communities grapple with cancel culture, burnout, and inequality, Vivek Shraya is always evolving her ideas of leadership to continue to take risks and apply the out-of-the-box thinking necessary for creating change and opportunity. In this presentation, Vivek will share personal stories on how she went from being a bullied teen to a leader in her communities, and the lessons and principles she picked up along the way.
As someone who is actively involved in giving back and supporting her communities, Vivek will share the importance of caring for those around you, and will inspire you to recognize the power we all have to create change.
Mental Health:
How Boundaries Impact Our Wellness
Through art and storytelling, Vivek shares her relationship to mental health and how setting boundaries with herself and others has been an essential part of her self-care. Challenging the idea of “wellness” as a static destination, Vivek highlights connections with physical health, identity and oppression, and the importance of accepting an ongoing relationship and struggle with mental health.
With practical takeaways that audiences can apply in their own lives, Vivek shares how boundaries can have an essential role in caring for mental health. Whether it’s learning to say no more often, taking breaks from our online lives, or rethinking the “how are you” catch up with a friend, Vivek will illustrate how small changes can make a big impact on our mental health.
Reimagining the Workplace:
Supporting Diverse Needs At Work
The value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace is well established, but how has it changed the way we work? In this presentation, Vivek helps organizations reimagine what the workplace can look like when we proactively design practices and environments that make all team members feel safe and supported. After all, as one onboarding specialist shared with Vivek, “If we want to hire diverse people, we need to be able to support diverse needs.”
Inspired by her own experience as an educator, community leader, and safe space coordinator, Vivek shares meaningful and practical steps to help make your whole team feel safe and supported at work. Key takeaways include:
- Challenging bias during the hiring process
- Supporting trans and gender non-conforming staff
- Importance of clear policies and processes around anti-discrimination, anti-racism, sexual harassment prevention, etc.
In Conversation With
Vivek Shraya
An opportunity to ask Vivek anything. She will share from her experience as a multidisciplinary artist for over 20 years, and as a brown, queer, trans person of colour. From college to corporate audiences, Vivek shares experiences that will impact any group, on themes of allyship/coming out, developing your creative practice, navigating arts industries, creating inclusive communities and workplaces and more.
In what is often the most popular part of any of her events, Vivek delivers raw and honest answers to questions like:
- How do we make our workplace more inclusive?
- How can we celebrate and support diversity in our workplace in an authentic way (and which is not just tokenizing)?
- How can I be a better ally?
- What does community mean for you?
- How do you manage fear?
- How have you managed failing in your work?
- How did you come out to your parents/family?
- How do you support someone who is coming out?
- How did you get published?
- How do you organize your schedule to do multiple jobs/tasks?
