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Went out tonight! I missed basically every other chance to see him but the show was amazing! Sadly, my horrible super power is being able to see people's work stress, so I didn't want to bother him with nerd stuff. We just said our congratulations and let him go. (at Chicago Improv Comedy Club) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2avrsJnWid/?igshid=zymus0o3jzqj

Introvert's Guide to Conferences

How I barely survived 6 weeks of meetups and #techconferences: #Introvert Guide to Conferences

In three months, I spoke at five events in three months including APItheDocs, AWS Summit, Revolution Conf, AWS Community Day, and PearConf, all differing in size and target audiences. During this time, I also participated in partner meetings on behalf of my company and had to go to a family funeral. Unfortunately, I have a moderate level of social anxiety which meant I simply did not have the…

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#introvert #social anxiety #tech conferences

In three months, I spoke at five events in three months including APItheDocs, AWS Summit, Revolution Conf, AWS Community Day, and PearConf, all differing in size and target audiences. In that time, I developed a standard structure that helped me build my talks faster. Having a standardized structure also alleviates my social anxiety, as it allows me to speak quickly and improvise quite a bit, especially when I stray into anecdotes.

The First Five Minutes

Title Slide

This should have the title of your talk, where it’s being delivered, and your name. Basically, whatever information people need when they gloss over the thumbnail in the slides gallery. When speaking, this time should be spent telling attendees what the talk will be about and whatever hook you want to keep audiences in the room. If this requires a minimal amount of experience, this would be the time to mention it.

Intro Slide

This should not be your resume. Unless you’re in college or presenting graduate research, don’t bring up college. It should also include only the most relevant parts of your technical journey. If you put a job on your intro slide, it should have something that leads back into your presentation. It should also say why you’re qualified to give this talk now in a very simple way.

The Next 3 – 5 Minutes

Boilerplate Slides

These slides explain the topic in detail. It should explain all the key words and jargon in your topic abstract and establish a common base of knowledge to work from, and why they’re important to know about.

Each Five Minutes After

Content Slides

This is when you present each topic of your talk. An easily digestible topic will take about five minutes to explain as if you were reading a two or three page blog post. You can have either one slide with bullet points or several slides with screenshots and videos. If a topic goes drastically over five minutes, consider breaking it up into two topics and packaging them accordingly.

Last Five Minutes

Wrap up Slide(s)

These slides should list all of your bullet points, including defined words and topics, things so someone reviewing your deck knows generally where they were among your slides. It should also make sense for someone taking photos in the audience to be able to make sense of.

Resource Slide (Optional)

In the case where you’re citing documentation, quotes, or other tutorials, you should have a slide of where these would exist as well as links to them should they download the slides for themselves.

Contact Slide

In lieu of a Q&A slide, put up your contact information. Again, it should be useful enough for someone taking a photo in the audience. It should have follow up information, such as your Twitter or LinkedIn, and the title of your talk. At this point you would ask for questions and leave up this contact information while you go over it.

To see this structure in action, you can view the recording for my talk Gateways to Gateways: API Development in the Cloud I presented at APItheDocs in April 2019 hosted by Provonix.

My post on how to structure a technical talk! #technicalspeaking #cfp In three months, I spoke at five events in three months including APItheDocs, AWS Summit, Revolution Conf, AWS Community Day, and PearConf, all differing in size and target audiences.

#cfp #public speaking #tech conferences #technical speaking #technology

Before April of 2019, I had never spoken at a technical conference or meetup before. By the end of June, I would have spoken five times on various Serverless Subjects. It was an insane period of growth. One might call it a Serverless Spring! Given the opportunity, I would do each event again and recommend them for most people.

APITheDocs

Gateways to Gateways: API Development in the Cloud

Date: April 19, 2019 Target Audience: Technical Writers View Slides on Provonix

This was a one-day, single track conference about API Development and documentation. As a spin-off from WriteTheDocs, the focus was API Documentation and Developer portals. It took place at the American Writers Museum which was a surreal, magical experience. The conference was well staffed and organized as well as centrally located. Even with Conference Sandwiches, the meal was included and had vegetarian options. I’m not a vegetarian myself, but I know how difficult it can be without them. It was also small enough that it was easy to mingle with speakers and staff so networking was pretty frictionless.

I found my talk which focused on Cloud Native API Development to be too technical for a majority of the audience. Most focused on the user experience of API Documentation, while my experience lent most to understanding how they worked and what was important to understand for handover and internal developer documentation. Still, as a developer and not a technical writer, I still found a lot of the content useful. Knowing what technical documentation is expecting helps with communication to other teams and informs the way APIs are designed. Also, they record all presentations and had them up in a timely manner, so others can hear you speak along with your slides. If you can submit to it, I highly suggest it!

AWS Summit Chicago

Serverless ETLs Three Ways

Date: May 26, 2019 Target Audience: AWS Developers View Slides on Slides.com

This was a one-day summit put on by AWS. Like any AWS Event, it was a long, wild experience. It was held at McCormick Place Convention Center, which is one of the easiest places to get to in Chicago. Unfortunately, while food was provided, it was not possible to handle the droves of attendees and it ran out almost immediately. There was also no easy fall-back plan for food as there’s no options adjacent to the Convention Center.

Outside of the expo floor, the breakout rooms were both clever and off-putting. They used the main keynote room, which was smart, and broke it up into six sections. Then those sections were given color coded headphones so six presenters could share the big stage at a time. It was clever, but it also made sure if you had issues with strange headsets or you weren’t early enough to get a set of headphones, you couldn’t watch the talk. And then, it made between breakout talks not feasible.

My talk was the second slot in the Dev Lounge right at the start of lunch, which is a small stage in the middle of the Expo Floor. I reached a wide audience speaking about different implementations of Serverless ETLs and while I believe they was interest, the format did not lend to a lot of feedback or conversation afterwards. Also, it was impossible to record with the background noise. Still, as a speaker, there’s fewer venues where you can get as much exposure. So it’s still worth the experience.

RevolutionConf

Traditionally Serverless

Date: June 7-8 Target Audience: Software Developers View Slides on Slides.com

This was a two-day multi-track conference at Virginia Beach and by far my favorite event this summer. As a participant and speaker, this conference really concentrated on the ability to engage others. It was easy to move in and out of sessions and breakouts. There was enough food for all of the attendees. Childcare was provided for a very reasonable fee. Speakers and staff were accessible over Slack and in person. Everyone was very open to conversation, either about their expertise or their observations of technology.

My talk was the last slot of the two days in a small breakout room, but I was still able to see and monitor all of the attendees for interest and engagement as I went over how to transition a traditional application skill set to a Serverless one. I was able to field questions and be heard clearly to the end of the room. Because of the environment of approachability, attendees who had established careers felt comfortable to discuss how to add it to their arsenal.

As it is an independent conference, it’s hard to say if it will return. However, conferences like this should absolutely be supported and if they wrote up their best practices for running such a conference, every other event should take note.

AWS Midwest Community Day

Gateways to Gateways: API Development on AWS

Date: June 20, 2019 Target Audience: AWS Users View Slides on Slideshare.net

This was a one-day multi-track conference in Chicago which acted as a Meetup of Meetups, collecting the various ten local AWS User Groups. This was a great way to meet local businesses and users to talk about real life use cases of AWS. Here I met a few people from other technical communities such as Write/Speak/Code.

My talk was the last of the day in one of the breakout rooms, situated in a large auditorium style classroom. The talks targeted an intermediate skill level, while my talk which focused on AWS Services in API Development was more of a general overview. If I were to do it again for this audience, I would have used more specific implementations, such as serverless GraphQL or Websockets.

For a conference, it was very well run. There was a lot of people there from the various user groups so there was a lot of people meeting people from their own groups. I was also unfortunately drained from the previous other events so it was difficult to reach out to people.

PearConf

Monitoring Serverless

Date: June 25, 2019 Target Audience: General Audience

This was a meetup, but I still included it for two reasons. First, it was literally within a week of AWS Midwest, so I wasn’t yet off the Spring Talk Circuit. Secondly, I really enjoyed it. The meetup was small, rounding out to about a dozen attendees and I anchored the three speakers. I spoke about Serverless Monitoring, but with it being a smaller crowd, only presented a first draft. Still I was able to have a lot of strong discussions about serverless architecture.

So that’s four (plus one) conferences of various sizes and content where I spoke about serverless. It was an intense ride, pushing me beyond the bound of my introvert limits at some points. Even if not at the same events, I would definitely do this kind of spree over again. I found I was usually the only one who looked like me on the speakers list. If there was another, there were no more than three. In the audience, there were way more than when I started in the industry. So hopefully seeing me in the lists will get more visibility and I’ll see that reflected in future audiences and colleagues. I also get to push serverless to crowds and get past most of the initial apprehension.

I still have two speaking slots left. If you’re in Chicago for ChiWITCon or New York for Serverless Conf and you aren’t done listening to me drone on about serverless, please drop by so I can go over it all over again!

I delivered talks about #Serverless Development at #apithedocs #awssummit #revconf & #awsmidwest! Before April of 2019, I had never spoken at a technical conference or meetup before. By the end of June, I would have spoken five times on various Serverless Subjects.

#aws #serverless #tech conferences #tech industry

Speaking at #awssummit Chicago in 90 minutes! Find me if you want to talk #serverless! Also I need Summit Friends 😂 (at McCormick Place West Expansion Area) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByF4bsfBHbm/?igshid=14xckznw821wt

#awssummit #serverless

carebearcore

nixcraft

Would you eat?

rufiozuko

I’m excited to announce to you guys about my autobiography coming out this year & pre-orders are now open!!! I can’t lie, I’m little scared… or at least feel vulnerable in this whole process, @notacult.media approached me about telling my story. It’s been over 30 years now, in Hollywood & I hope my trials & tribulations can help anyone out there navigate through this industry… and I’ll also get to celebrate some of the good things I’ve done. Scroll down to check the press release & link in bio to order…. “Pre-orders for Dante Basco’s debut title are now open. This book will release with two cover variations, the Lost Boys edition & the Fire Nation edition. First 500 copies will be signed & personalized.

From Rufio to Zuko is a memoir detailing the life and work of Dante Basco. Basco takes us behind the scenes of his earliest projects, sharing personal examinations of his life on the set of Hook, through his second rise as a cultural icon as Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Throughout his career as a ‘working class’ actor of Filipino heritage, Basco outlines how his family and culture play a crucial role in the foundation of his work and his focus for the future.

Pre-orders now open direct, Amazon, and others. Book releases November 4, 2019. Link in bio. Interested in an advance review copy? Email [email protected]” https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwm-iPolm15/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=k16k9dm0dem3

chibird

I make a lot of art about feeling better when we feel this, but I also want to acknowledge that it is totally normal and valid to feel this way. 🐶❤️️ I am truly blessed to have met so many kind and wonderful people over the weekend! Thanks to new and old friends alike for coming to my table and giving me so much positive energy! 🌸💖

Loading Penguin Hugs | Instagram | Patreon

New Laptop Stickers: #apithedocs , #cloudreach #balanceforbetter , #writethedocs Chicago Meetup (x2) Looks like the laptop's full! (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwCc2vzB1x6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hkq0fbe7sw09

#apithedocs #cloudreach #balanceforbetter #writethedocs #laptopstickers

I spoke at #apithedocs in Chicago about API Development in the cloud! #firsttalk #technicalspeaking (at American Writers Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwBEMclBxMe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15do8v5e5lprl

#apithedocs #firsttalk #technicalspeaking

nixcraft

Oh no Developers... (:

#yes and

Tracking Conferences with Kanban

I love conferences. I go into the office maybe six days in a month and even then never see my teammates. Most of my day is spent head down in code, on conference calls, or swimming in any of a half-dozen Slack networks. Conferences give me a rare opportunity to talk technology with like-minded and similarly skilled individuals without it being directly related to customer work.

Good or bad, I…

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#cfp #kanban #tech conferences