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Conference bios

Learn how to write a short biography for a conference programme.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Reading text

Julie Wong

Julie Wong is a leading researcher in the field of Robotics and AI. She has been published extensively as author and co-author of over 50 papers in highly regarded, peer-reviewed journals. She frequently speaks at international conferences and was awarded the prestigious Royal Academy Simone Fielding fellowship in 2012. Julie lives with her family in a smart home she designed herself.

Terrie Sharp

Best-selling author Terrie Sharp knows how to tell a good story or two, having twice won the Olive Crime Writer Award. Born on the housing estate with the highest crime rate in Glasgow, she learned to keep quiet, stay out of trouble and how to open car doors with a knife. Luckily, she only used her knowledge to write her novels and she's not so quiet these days, appearing on popular daytime shows like Police Today and at writing conferences throughout the UK.

Ahmed Modine

Ahmed Modine started his first business at age 14 and retired at 32. Along the way he went bankrupt twice and lost his house and car once. What he learned about starting again from scratch became the number one most popular online course on U-Learn.com: From up to down to up again – How to succeed when everything sucks. What he doesn't know about turning an idea into a profitable business isn't worth knowing.

Tips

  1. Bios are often written in the third person, especially for conferences, events and books. Social media bios can be less formal and in the first person.
  2. Use your full name in the first sentence and refer to an accomplishment to help people remember who you are. (Julie Wong is a leading researcher … / Best-selling author Terrie Sharp … / Ahmed Modine started his first business at age 14 …)
  3. Keep it short and interesting so people get all the key information before they stop reading.
  4. If the bio is for an event like a conference, only include the details that are relevant to this particular audience. For a general bio, for example on your website, you can provide links for readers to find out more.
  5. One or two personal details (e.g. Julie lives with her family in a smart home she designed herself ... / She learned how to open car doors with a knife. / ... he lost his house and car once) help create interest and a connection with the reader.

Task 1

MultipleChoice_MjMwNjE=.xml

Task 2

TrueOrFalse_MjMwNjI=.xml

Task 3

GapFillDragAndDrop_MjMwNjM=.xml

Discussion

When was the last time you had to write a short bio?

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Language level

Advanced: C1

Comments

hrahmani's picture hrahmani replied on France

It's been almost a year since the last time I wrote a bio. I invited a collaborator to present a scientific seminar in my department last spring. Normally, if the speaker is not working at our department there must be a short bio just before the seminar starts. Since I had invited the speaker I presented a short bio of my collaborator. Of course, given the professional atmosphere of the event I spent almost three minutes focusing on the career and activities of the speaker related the topic of the seminar.

ADELE's picture ADELE replied on Cameroon

I haven't got a chance to write a bios to someone alive, i will be proud of writing it. But I don't know if it's a chance but i wrote the entire bios of my late aunt. It's amazing to sum up the life of the person in some few lines. I was honoured to have been chosen to do it.