Founded in Vancouver in 2017, Shine Bootcamp was originally an incubator within Unbounce to support increased gender diversity at conferences through training and education.
Today, with the initial funding from Unbounce, Shine Bootcamp is now a women-led organization dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices through transformational professional speaking programs for women.
This year, Shine Bootcamp is offering $62,000 in bursaries towards registration and enrollment in their fall speakers program to help reduce financial barriers for both new and experienced speakers through their partners Unbounce, Thinkific, Clio, Microsoft, and more.
“We still see a lack of women speakers at tech industry events, because of this Unbounce has committed to using our conferences, events and platform to amplify underrepresented voices,” said Erika Finlay, Social Impact Manager at Unbounce.
“Partnering with Shine Bootcamp to offer bursaries is key to how we impact change in our industry, and live out our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion both inside and outside of Unbounce.”
The Shine Bootcamp Bursary Fund will support self-identifying women with financial barriers as they kickstart their speaking careers with training to refine their voice and message, craft compelling stories, build their network, and gain the confidence to deliver engaging presentations.
While Shine has always offered scholarships, enrolment interest has grown significantly and the co-creators knew there had to be a solution to increase more low-barrier options for those looking to participate.
“To us, Shine Bootcamp was not about making money, but rather using our privilege to provide others with the same opportunities that we’ve been afforded,” said co-creator Amy Wood.
Since its inception from the desks of co-creators Alejandra Porta, Amy Wood and Stef Grieser at the Unbounce offices, Shine has seen 270 women graduate from the programs with notable alumni speaking at global conferences such as Unbounce’s Call to Action Conference, TedX, SXSW, and Hubspot’s INBOUND.
Interested in participating in Shine Bootcamp? Interested applicants can apply for a bursary online by Friday, August 6th.
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