Women's History Month comes around every March, and every year organizers face the same question: how do you make it feel different from last year? A poster series and a lunch panel are a fine start. They rarely get people talking the next day.
Sports are one of the most reliable ways to change that. Almost everyone has a connection to a team, a coach or a game, and women's sports have one of the clearest stories of progress in living memory. Here are event ideas that work, and how to plan one around a women in sports speaker.
Why sports work for Women's History Month
Women's sports history is recent enough that the people who made it are still around to talk about it. Professional leagues for women have been founded, folded and rebuilt within a single career. Title IX is a law many of your audience's parents grew up with. That makes the history concrete. It is not ancient. People in the room can see themselves in it.
Sports also cross lines that other topics struggle with. A story about getting cut from a team speaks to a twelve-year-old and a senior vice president in the same way.
Event ideas for schools
An assembly with a woman athlete is the classic choice, and it works. Pair it with something smaller: lunch with girls' teams, a session with student leaders, or a Q&A for a class studying Title IX.
Some schools build a whole week. Morning announcements each day profile a woman in sport, from your own alumni to Olympians. Teams wear a patch or a ribbon for their games that week. The speaker visit becomes the peak of the week, and students arrive already curious.
For younger students, a girls' empowerment event works well with a speaker who is willing to talk about being a beginner. Kids remember the story about learning to skate far longer than the trophy.
Event ideas for companies
A women's network or ERG can host a keynote for the whole company, followed by a smaller conversation for members. A leadership team can invite a speaker to an offsite and focus on performance under pressure, a theme that sports speakers know from the inside.
Fireside chats work well in March. A moderator from your company asks the speaker about specific moments: a setback, a career change, a first. It feels less like a lecture and more like a conversation people want to join.
If your company sponsors a team or has a community program, tie the event to it. The connection makes the event feel like part of what you already do.
What to look for in a women in sports speaker
Look for someone whose story covers more than winning. The strongest talks include the parts that went wrong: being cut, being injured, being the only woman in a room. Those moments are what audiences relate to.
Look at life after playing, too. Many women athletes have moved into coaching, scouting, broadcasting or business. A speaker who has changed careers can talk to the adults in your audience about their own next move.
Finally, ask how they tailor a talk. A good speaker will want to know who is in the room and what you hope they take away. If the answer is a fixed script, keep looking.
Make room for everyone
Women's History Month events work best when the whole audience feels invited. Ask men in leadership to host or introduce the speaker. Invite boys' teams to the school assembly, not only the girls. Many of the people who opened doors for women in sport were coaches, fathers and teammates, and the story lands differently when they are in the room to hear it.
Think about access, too. Record the talk if the speaker agrees, add captions, and pick a time that works for shift workers or students with practice after school.
Planning timeline
Heritage months fill early. Start reaching out in the fall, ideally by October. Confirm the date and format by December, and send your brief in January. In February, share the speaker's story with your audience so they arrive ready.
After the event, keep the momentum. Post a short recap, share a few photos, and ask the speaker if they are willing to answer a few written questions you could not get to. March ends. The good events keep going.
Budget
Ask for fees early. Experienced speakers usually quote a fee plus travel, and many offer packages for multiple sessions in one visit. If you split costs between departments or with a partner school, a full day of sessions often works out to good value per person reached.
Considering Blake Bolden
Blake Bolden won gold at the first two U18 Women's World Championships with Team USA, captained Boston College, and won the Clarkson Cup and the first Isobel Cup. In 2020 she became the second woman to scout in the NHL, and today she is a lead analyst on Amazon Prime's Wednesday Night Hockey and for the PWHL.
She speaks to schools, women's networks and companies, and every talk is tailored. Speaking fees start at $7,500, and she is based in Southern California.