Public Speaking

Although I wouldn’t count many of my school presentations as positive steps in my development as a public speaker, I can probably pinpoint my start as being near the end of my high school years when I joined the drama group. Since that time, I’ve had numerous encounters with microphones and the public eye thanks to my involvement with the music industry, veganism, and more.

In terms of the music scene, while running a venue (the Ceilidh Connection in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) and doing interviews both for it and various other events within Atlantic Canada, I also spoke on panels during the Rock Can Roll Conference in Newfoundland and Labrador in both 2005 and 2006.

Ryan managed to make the difficult task of managing an intimate discussion of chatty vegans look easy. And it wasn’t easy.
– Insufferable Vegan

Thanks to my work with T.O.F.U., my first solo talk was in 2013 at the Vida Vegan Con (VVC) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., and I eventually hosted a similar discussion in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at one of the largest vegetarian festivals in North America, the Toronto Vegetarian Association’s Veg Food Fest. Similar to my time in the music industry, I also spoke on a number of panels internationally on such topics as activism, publishing, and more. Recently, I also moderated a panel during the first annual St. John’s VegFest in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Along with these experiences, I’ve also held a position as a Youth Facilitator for a non-profit based in Nova Scotia, Canada that involved partaking in the international Gross National Happiness Conference in Thailand in 2007, a Youth Resilience camp in 2011 on an island in Nova Scotia, and an anniversary conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2017. During all of these events, I was expected to hold a leadership role and speak publicly in various capacities.

Finally, I’ve hosted a number of discussions, both live and pre-recorded through YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I also launched the magazine’s first podcast, #OurNewNormal, which was a limited series to share the experiences of vegans around the world in relation to the global event.

Oh, I’ve also hosted a college radio show with a friend of mine during the Junos in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, but that was all a bit of a happy coincidence.