This blog has been seriously overdue but I wanted to share my experiences on speaking at this event.
Beforehand, I heard a few stories of this being a nice, cozy and well-organised event. When confirmation came of my session being selected, it was quickly followed by an email that contained answers to all the questions I might have on the event. It immediately showed the experience of the organisers and their ability to think like a speaker. In the tv show Taskmaster, you’ll often hear ‘All the information is on the task’. In this case, all the information was in the email.
So it was time to mess things up for myself. I had planned the route, and it should take about 3 hours to get there. How wrong could I be. After about 90 minutes everyone on the autobahn got diverted for a nice trip through the countryside. This added about 40 minutes to my driving time. This made sure I fully hit the evening traffic around Bonn, making my trip a little over 5 hours. I was just on time for the speaker dinner. But really only just.
Ben Weissman made short work of me being a little stressed out. He caught me, calmed me down and after that I could really enjoy the lovely dinner at the riverside. With an amazing view and sunset.
And wonderful people to share it with.
The next day, the event started and after a really funny key note the sessions started. I didn’t catch as much sessions as I wanted for I needed some extra preparation time for my own. Reason being I got some really good feedback on a different session I did in Stockholm and that feedback needed to be applied to this session as well.
My session was in the penultimate timeslot and I hoped for an attendee. The session is on becoming a speaker, telling my story on how I get to stand in front of people and share knowledge. There was a 30 minute coffee break which gave me plenty of time to set up, check the screens and walk through the room. For some reason, I got the largest one in the building.
And it remained empty for most of the 30 minutes break.
Then one person walked in and started asking questions on another session I did. Which is totally fine, really happy that someone listened and actually did something with it. But at some point I had to ask if this person was in the right session. That was the case, the conversation was just a bonus. After that, three other people walked in and I got started.
My session ends with a small challenge, something small to get you going. We were discussing a number of things when all of a sudden one of the attendees rose to the challenge and just made it happen. This person did a miniature session.
That really made my day. Not only did I have 4 people in the room genuinely interested, but also one who seemed to ‘take the bait’. That was all I was hoping for; I can only hope that this person will rise to the challenge again, no matter what conference, no matter the audience.
As a speaker, I think one of our jobs is to pass the passion, the skills, the ‘fire’ on. The data community lives and thrives because people are willing to share the knowledge. By sharing, we all improve. By sharing, we get in touch with different people, different cultures and different backgrounds, something that makes us all grow as people. If you want to know more, get in touch! Any speaker will happily talk with you, answer questions and guide you.
After the session, I got some positive feedback from attendees and got to decompress.
As the building housed a Lego expo as well, I took some time to walk around and check out the magnificent builds people made. Some small chats with people there and thank you to the organisers. Events like this can only run very very smoothly if the work leading up to it has been done thoroughly. With Tillmann. Oliver and Ben, you’re in good hands and will have a very good time.
The ride home? Hardly any traffic, no diversions. I think I was home in less than 3 hours.
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