Every now and then, I have the pleasure of presenting at a new event. This time, it was at the Data Community Day Austria, held at the Jufa hotel in Vienna.
Before getting into the details, at the time of writing, I’m not fully OK. It’s not a full burnout, but dangerously close. I wrote about it on LinkedIn; not going to repeat it here, but it colours my experience.
Travelling
Usually, travel is quite easy. And for the most part, it was this time. The only thing is that I’m not really good friends with the public transport app. Whenever I try to find a route to or from the airport, I have to account for at least 2 hours. Where it should only take about 20 minutes. So I was very lucky to have rides with other speakers to and from the event. In these cases, Uber or taxis are my best friends.
Speaker dinner
Usually the highlight of the event, as this is the best place to catch up with other speakers. We share stories, have laughs and generally enjoy the evening. I still did and had great conversations, but it took quite a bit of energy.
The dinner was held at a special restaurant, Das Wirtshaus, specialising in knoedeln or dumplings. And not the Asian ones, but made from potatoes and different fillings. I had never heard of this before, and it was very much worth trying out. The portions were huge, so quite a few people skipped dessert.
The organisers ensured we had bus tickets for the route to and from this location, making travel very easy. Get on the bus, don’t fall asleep and get out close to the hotel.
Main event
The ease the organisers demonstrated during the speaker dinner carried over to the conference day; rooms were easy to find, and, most importantly, the tech just worked. It’s not something you can take for granted, but this was nothing but connect and go. The hotel lobby served as the main expo for the sponsors and as the place for two of the organisers’ opening and closing talks.
New session
I premiered my new session, a follow-up on load testing Microsoft Fabric. In essence, I’m doing stupid things inside of Fabric to see when and how it breaks. This is not a session to mock Fabric in any way, but to provide insights into the differences in cost, behaviour and error messages. If you know how things break and when, you can account for this. And yes, I’m having a bit of fun along the way.
I had around 30 attendees in the room, who interacted nicely, asked good questions en seemed genuinely interested. In the end, the main goal of presenting a session is to help out at least one person in the audience.
After my session, I usually choose to hang out with other speakers or join sessions. This time, I choose to retire to my room and decompress. It felt a bit weird, but Traci Sewell was close to kicking me to my room. And that was a very good strategy; it helped recharge my battery.
The session reviews were good, as it was a brand new one; feedback is essential to iron out the creases. I received positive, actionable feedback that I can take with me to improve the session. Thank you for filling in the feedback! Also, one person wrote the following:
After a good lunch, I went into volunteering mode, helping out at two sessions. Damir Matesic on JSON in SQL Server and Traci Sewell on Burnout. Both good sessions that sparked inspiration.
After event drinks, dinner, and more drinks
After the event closed, most speakers and helpers hung out at the bar, chatting and having fun. This continued through dinner and drinks afterwards.
It was also time to find new speakers (some of whom are on their way to New Stars of Data) and to have impromptu mentoring sessions. One of the things I firmly believe in as a not-new speaker. Help the new people out, give them advice or just listen to them. This also led to offers for speaking slots at my Meetup. When I started out, people in the data community were kind enough to offer me spots to practice. Yes, speaking is a skill that needs to be honed. And practice makes perfect. Now that I’m hosting a user group, it only feels logical and fair to return the favour.
So, a little advertising here: when you look at the Meetup I’m organising with Ynte Jan Kuindersma, you’ll see two extra, online, sessions. If you can, join these sessions and make sure you provide feedback!
Overall
I think this is another great event you should consider going to as an attendee, submitting to as a speaker or volunteering. The organisers (Ben, Marcus, Thomas and Wolfgang) are great people who will do their utmost to help you out. They’re also wonderful people, great to have a chat with.
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