How I´ve prepared for SQL Bits 2023 — Data Platform Conference
I´ve never thought that this will happen someday…
I still remember myself, as very shy, struggling to talk to a small group of people, and knowing I´m going to talk at one of the biggest Data Platform conference in the world: SQLBits.
SQLBits 2022
It all began in March 2022 when I got as a spectator at this conference, and it really felt that I was completely out of my box 📦
- A lot of speakers talked about things I never heard about.
- Awesome network environment.
- Positive energy.
I loved that energy, and at that time I could never imagine that I was going to present a session myself next year.
I didn´t know at that time but my presence at this event renewed some old energy inside of me ⚡
Months passed and I started to write here about Data content, where I started to enjoy sharing knowledge with others, it feels great! I´ve also started to do some small remote sessions speaking about various Data subjects 🗣
And at the end of the year, I heard again about SQLBits, Session submissions are opening for 2023😱
Against all my fears, I submit 2 sessions, but I never thought that any of them would be selected… I mean, it´s one of the biggest Data Platform Conference in the world, right? Who am I… 🙄
1 of the 2 sessions was accepted! Oh jeez…time to prepare me.
Preparation
If I have a goal, I need to trace a strategy to accomplish it, and doing this presentation is one of my professional goals for 2023 🎯
I started by building my PowerPoint presentation and writing some guidelines, but I felt that it needed lots of improvement yet.
I wrote down some things I needed to do to make this session better.
- Read a book to improve my presentation.
- Pick events where I could present my session to train and receive feedback to improve.
- Practice, practice, and practice.
📚Read a book to improve my presentation
I´ve already read books about communication like “How to win friends and influence people”, but this time I wanted to know if I could improve my presentation and I found the book: “Talk like TED”
This book gave me a lot of tips on what are some of the key points to make any presentation better and more engaging.
It talks about different important aspects along with real use cases from TEDx.
Worth to read if you are making the same path.
🗣 Pick events where I could present my session to train and receive feedback to improve
This was probably the most important to do, train your session multiple times in front of different audiences, receive feedback, and use it to improve your presentation.
It´s like if you put your presentation in a blender and all it came off was the juice.
Even if you are afraid, do it, I was afraid, afraid of being judged, we humans, it´s normal, but it´s going to be good in the end since you can improve and get better with it.
Feedback is key!
Practice, practice, and practice
This is the part where I became a robot 🤖
I´m all about “Being consistent”, and the only way for me to feel comfortable sharing my presentation was by training repeatedly.
I scheduled almost every day of the week a Teams meeting just for myself for me to join, record and present my session, after that, I would go hear the record and write what I felt could be better, so I could improve for the next practice.
I´m a week away from my session at SQLBits and all I can feel is excitement.
I hope every hour of effort pays off.
This is me, a guy that had struggled to communicate with people, presenting at of the biggest Data Platform conference in the world 😨
