I am creating a list of people who are willing to talk about Open Access at events – to academics, to students, and to non-academic members of the public.

There are many conversations about Open Access to scholarly outputs taking place online on twitter, mailing lists and blogs, and while this it is really valuable, these conversations don’t reach all, or even many, academics. Rather than just talking to each other about Open Access, pro-open access advocates need to be taking these discussions offline and talking to academics and researchers who have never heard of Peter Suber, Cameron Neylon or SPARC.

Over the next few months I’m going to be setting up a number of events around the UK to do just this, and I’m keen to find speakers who can talk at events taking place near to them. I also get a number of requests from people putting on Open Access events at their institution, so I’m hoping a list of speakers can also be a resource for them!

While my focus at present is in the UK, I’m really keen for this list to include people from around the world. Discussions about Open Access are taking place in many different countries, and I’d love this to be a resource for the global community.

Please take a minute to fill in this (very short) form if you want to get your name added to the list. It doesn’t commit you to anything at present! And if you are unhappy at the idea of filling in a Google form or have any questions please send me an email.

I’ll be publishing this list soon, but if you want any suggestions for speakers before I’ve found time to post it online, please get in contact.