The past few weeks I’ve had the honor to speak three times at two different online events. In this blog I’ll quickly run through the experiences, hoping it might encourage you to enter the call for speakers next time.
The first of the three was SqlFriday where I talked about monitoring Sql Server with Zabbix. In the run-up to the event, Magnus kept me informed about date and time and shared a speaker card on Twitter and LinkedIn. I reshared these and there was an audience when speaking. Magnus is as kind as you can be and creates a relaxed atmosphere. Sessions can last about an hour but if you want to run over, no problem. The recording keeps going so you can do some deep diving. My session ran a bit short (I planned too much time for Q and A) but no problem. The experience was very positive.
Next up was dataweekender CU5 where I had a lightning talk on Hyperscale. When you’re selected for this event, you’ll get a number of emails making sure you’re on the right track (there are five), right time (because time-zones suck) and you can test your equipment in the week leading up to the saturday. Just as with SqlFriday, no prescibed slide deck. You can (re)use what you already have. My track had a Whatsapp group as well for chat and emergencies. Again, no obligation but just an extra service. I really liked that.
Between this session and my last public session, I had a few company sessions where I mainly talked about Azure and it’s possibilities. It’s so much fun to see cowokers and customers write down the things they want to investigate themselves. To spark their ‘learning flame’ is so very rewarding!
The last public session was today SqlFriday, again the Hyperscale lightning talk. Just like last time an easy run into the session where Magnus keeps all the speakers at ease, but at the same time making sure everyone knows that it’s 10 minutes. When I saw the line-up for the session I was part of, well, I felt a bit out of place. Great names and me. I was last to speak and that had one major drawback. The content of the speakers before me was at times mindblowing. To keep my mind together was a challenge in itself.
All in all a lot of positive experiences that make me long for more. Let’s see what the future brings!
If you think about starting to speak, please try it out. There are more and more conferences adding a newcomer track to get you going. I got my speaking career started at new stars of data and haven’t regretted that for one second.
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