PARTICIPANT-ORGANIZED Talks

Participant-Organized Talks

The Stanford Executive Program (SEP) brings together unique and accomplished executives in a collaborative learning environment. You will have the opportunity to connect with each other inside and outside the classroom. We also have a Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) student tradition of student-organized talks. These talks take different shapes. 

Examples

• A personal talk: an opportunity to share your unique story and perspective related to where you are from, what matters most to you, or what drives you.

• An industry or topic focused talk: an opportunity to speak or organize a speaker from your industry or an industry or topic you are passionate about.

• A pitch session: an opportunity to organize class entrepreneurs and investors into an idea-pitching session.

• Please find the Participant Talk Request Form here. The form will provide more detail on the "Ted Talk" Style format for all participant talks. 

• Big Name Speaker/Guest Speaker Talk: an opportunity to bring a speaker to SEP who you would like your classmates to hear. During the academic year, the students organize the View From the Top speaker series.

  • • Guest speakers are different from our normal participant talks. We recommend finding guest speakers about topics or industries that are not covered in the program and would augment the faculty classroom sessions. Be sure to speak with a number of your cohort in order to understand how many people are interested in the topic or speaker.

    • Guest Speakers can pick a few different styles. The first is Interview style, in which you or someone in the cohort interviews this speaker for a candid, intimate-style talk. The second is a prepared presentation on a topic by the presenter. (2-45 minutes speaking, ~15 minutes Q&A) The third option is a prepared panel discussion with 2 or more guest speakers on a specific industry, topic, or theme.

    • A Guest Speaker Request Form will be shared when the program is underway. The form will also provide more detail on what a guest speaker talk can look like. 

Considerations and Standard Practices

• SEP Team staff are not able to provide assistance with recording a talk. 

• No outside guests (outside of the SEP cohort) are allowed to attend the talks, these talks are meant as a benefit the SEP cohort only. 

• If you invite an outside guest speaker, you will be responsible for stewarding the information, relationship, and experience for the speaker, including introducing them, inviting them to meals, being their main liaison with the SEP team, etc. 

• The time allotted for each session is 1 hour typically, in each session multiple speakers will be given about 10-15 minutes within the time period to make their own presentation. It will function much like a TED talk in format. Based on time, a few minutes can sometimes be allotted to questions. 

• Most Big Name Speakers/Guest Talk speakers will speak for 20-45 minutes, then leave the last ~15 minutes for audience Q&A. We can provide a larger venue if enough SEP participants sign up for the guest talk. 

• Remember that the cohort is comprised of a very broad set of senior leaders, this means the topic of the talk should take into account the audience, and be accessible enough to non-experts in that field. 

If you would like to organize a talk, please use one of the following forms, and the SEP team will be in touch to confirm the final details. You can find more details about the talk structure on each form. 

• Participant Talk Form

• Guest Speaker Form 

If you have additional questions, please email us at sep@gsb.stanford.edu.