Speaker Biography Rant

I'm not heavy handed about writing or speaking "rules," and tend to favor well-rounded communicators who have good stories to tell. When asked to give a presentation or talk to a group, there's often the request to provide some sort of biography or resume, which can be used to:

1. verbally introduce you
   
2. provide audience members with a snapshot of who you are in meeting materials
3. remind meeting organizers who you are and why you were invited
   

Writing your own bio shouldn't be a big deal, but you may want to treat it the same way as a job cover letter, customizing it to each audience. Imagine what your typical audience member might want to know about you and don't bore them with a laundry list of accomplishments. Better yet, ask the meeting organizer what info they'd like and how long your bio should be.

I write this having returned from a meeting at a nearby urban center on business funding mechanisms where each speaker's bio was presented as part of the meeting materials. These bios ranged from 1 1/3 pages single spaced to two lines long. The bio that sparked this post, however, got under my skin immediately because it seemed so wierdly unprofessional. Here are my complaints:

• picture with spouse and child: um, I thought you were invited to this gig as a professional, and the pic of your family is creeping me out. I'm not getting whatever message this is supposed to be sending.
• youngest person to...(x 3) OK, I get that you've accomplished a lot for your age, but mentioning it three times is a bit much. I think you should consider trying to be the oldest person on some of your committees just for balance. We all know you wrote this, so take it easy on the bragging.
  
• religious affiliation This seems as inappropriate in a bio for a business meeting as mentioning your sexual orientation. Who cares? If I'm not your religion will this be an issue?
  
• elementary school and high school graduation info I have a hard enough time placing colleges and universities, so providing this extra info seems extraneous. Here's a shout out to my Gribben Elementary School homies who were down with the Alphabet People.
  
• home location, marriage date, list of children Too much info.
  

This speaker presented their talk well and clearly has ambitions in urban center politics, so I'm wondering if this bio was meant to give the audience feel a sense of this individual's wholesome, family-valued, faith-based integrity. The problem is, I don't care. Really, I was just looking to see what info would be provided and what the speaker's qualifications were for dishing out that info. Now that I know where the speaker lives and who their kids' names are I feel like I've been invited to stalk them...no thanks. Keep your bios pertinent and brief...we can swap personal info after business hours if it's mutually agreeable.