Are you an expert in something? Have a STEM background, or a nerdy passion and a lot of fun facts? Pitch an idea to for a future show! We will be casting 3 presenters every month for future Nerd Nite Asheville events.
Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in 100+ cities around the world during which folks give edu-taining presentations across a variety of subjects: STEM expertises, crafts like glass blowing or metalworking, interesting jobs, nerd fandoms, and much more! To participate as a presenter, you would create a 15 minute presentation on a specific theme within your expertise accompanied by a slide show with complementary visuals (this can be made for free using Google Slides). Humor and hijinks highly encouraged!
Presenter slots are paid! Plus you can promote yourself, your business, etc. through your participation.
We are currently casting for the October 12th, 2023 show, and will need 3 presenters every month thereafter. Shows are held on the second Thursday of every month (except December, which will be on the 7th). If we don’t slot you into the upcoming show, there is a very good chance we will ask you to present soon, so email today! Not sure if you’re a good fit? Ask anyway!
Guidelines for pitching:
Find something specific within your area of interest/expertise. You will not have enough time to give a broad overview of your subject, so pick one idea and build around it.
For example:
Don’t: “Bears: an overview”
Do: “The weirdly specific grooming habits of bears”
Your presentation must be fun! This is not a classroom or a lecture hall. Your audience is a bunch of tipsy nerds in a bar who want to be entertained, so your presentation should have a fun factor.
Audience participation, props, demonstrations, etc. are all encouraged! Get creative!
You can project video and audio with your presentation. We love visuals.
Once you have your idea, send a 1-2 sentence description of what you’d like to present and a little about your background to .
Time commitment:
You must be able to commit to creating the slideshow for your presentation on a specific timeline. A full draft will be due one week before show date. This is a casual show, but we depend on presenters to be prepared and on schedule.
The show will take place on a Thursday, and you must be at the venue (RAD Brewing Co.) before 7:30pm to do a quick tech rehearsal.
Subject choices:
While we LOVE having a wide variety of different subjects at Nerd Nite, not every subject is suitable for our shows. We generally do not have presentations that are strictly opinion-based (except perhaps relating to nerd fandoms–Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, etc.), or present subjects that are in the realm of self-help seminars or anything that is not about the science, history, or technique of that realm (i.e. the science behind a self help technique is a yes, but your personal self-help philosophy is a no). We also may decline presentations on subjects that are not sufficiently rooted in fact, regardless of our personal feelings towards those subjects.
Your subject may or may not be a good fit for Nerd Nite, depending on how you pitch your idea. We don’t just do science presentations, but there needs to be an element of nerdiness: fun facts, interesting techniques, information most people don’t know, the history of something, and so on. Please feel free to pitch your idea, even if you are unsure!