The Matter of Speaker Introduction Script
The host will introduce you. You have sent them the bio. You will now rewrite the bio four times before the event.
The email said: please send a short bio that we can use for your introduction.
The speaker sent the bio at 2:14 PM on a Tuesday. The bio was four sentences. The bio was accurate.
I.
At 7:30 PM on the same Tuesday, the speaker reread the bio. The bio was fine. The bio referred to the speaker in the third person, which is standard and also uncomfortable to write about oneself, a discomfort that persists even after doing it professionally.
The second sentence said the speaker "works at the intersection of." The speaker reconsidered "at the intersection of." It is a phrase. It means something. It sounds like it means less than it means.
The speaker did not email an updated bio. The speaker noted the concern.
II.
On the Wednesday before the event, the speaker reread the bio again. The third sentence mentioned an award from 2019. The award was real. The year was specified. The year now felt both too recent and too long ago to mention without context, and the context would require a fifth sentence.
The bio remained four sentences.
III.
The introduction is supposed to establish credibility before the talk, yet the talk is what establishes credibility, and the introduction is just the part that makes the speaker briefly want to leave. This is known. This has always been known.
The speaker sent a revised bio at 11 AM on the Thursday before the event. The revision changed "works at" to "focuses on" and removed the year from the award mention. The host replied: thanks, we already have it loaded in the run sheet.
The original bio would be read.
IV.
At the event, the host read the bio. The host read it warmly and with appropriate emphasis. The audience received it correctly. The speaker walked to the front and thanked the host.
The bio sent at 2:14 PM on Tuesday was fine.
The bio that felt accurate was different and has not been sent and would not have sounded better if it had been. The speaker knew this at 2:14 PM on Tuesday. The speaker spent four days knowing it.
V.
The bio says "works at the intersection of." It still says that. It is still accurate.
The talk went well.