What Outspoken is Thankful for in 2020

There is no question that this has been a challenging year. All of the excitement surrounding 2020 was quelled early in the year by COVID-19. The pandemic proved to be life-altering in every way imaginable for the events space. Events were canceled—either permanently or temporarily—with no understanding of when it would be safe to gather in person again. 

At Outspoken Agency, we believe that looking back on this year’s challenges also allows us to be thankful for what 2020 brought us. While this year has been hard in many ways, there is still a lot to be grateful for. We are grateful for the support of our clients, speakers, friends and families during the early stages of the pandemic and the cancellation of live events worldwide. To keep our speakers and ourselves connected to our communities this year, we launched a new, exciting and free fireside chat series called Candid Conversations. Candid Conversations engaged our speakers on topics of their expertise and allowed them to share advice on managing what is now our new reality. Whether you need access to anxiety relief tools or managing your boss or innovating during uncertain times, there is a session for you. Take some time to check them out, as each video is recorded and archived on our website for your enjoyment!

The summer of 2020 brought about needed activism surrounding #blacklivesmatter. We were horrified by the injustices we saw play out. And although we are a white-operated business, we are a women-owned agency that has committed itself to amplify the voices of others. One of our main goals at Outspoken is to represent the underrepresented. The BLM protests this year reminded us to be outspoken about our support of racial justice efforts and renewed our mission to diversifying our roster. But our work is far from finished. Learn more about our commitment to diversify the speaking industry here. 

We are also thankful for the re-emergence of the speaking industry in the virtual space. Going virtual with events is not a new idea, but it certainly was necessary to connect with people while physically apart and still share our speakers’ ideas. Even when the pandemic ends, we expect to see the popularity of virtual events continue. Check out some of our most popular virtual speaker presentations here.

As 2020 comes to a close, we are thankful that there is now hope. Hope for the future of events, and hope for growth in sharing the messages of our speakers. We want you to know that here at Outspoken Agency, we will be doing our part to ensure the lessons that 2020 taught us are not forgotten. We will keep fighting for change to better our communities and spread the ideas of our speakers. We hope you will keep growing with us.