My first impromptu keynote at Google I/O ‘14
A mind blowing speechless experience.
So, where do I start? I got a chance to attend one of the largest Dev conferences in the world — Google I/O. I have been waiting for the past three years to get a ticket and my dream came true through one of my favorite organizations “WOMEN WHO CODE”!
I was a research assistant back at school and worked on this amazing project which involved building smartphone testbed. We decided to build on top of the Android platform and I must confess that without Reto Meier’s Android guides and posts, I would have been lost. It is a well known fact, there are so many ways to solve a problem. His guidelines, with attention to key points helped me not just solve the problem, but solve the problem in the right way.
Reto Meier surely was my digital mentor and I was completely stoked that one of my favorite Googler was going to be there for Speechless at I/O. I found the best spot(First row right in the middle). The room was packed. Almost 400~500 attendees. I was super excited for the *show* to begin!
Speechless creator Sammy Wegent came on stage to explain what the impromptu session was all about. A panel of geek-celebrity judges will be scoring the presenters on a F.U.T.I.L.E. system (Funny, Understandable, Transcendent, Informative, Legendary and Entertaining). The topics included Keynote, Acquisition, Postmortem, Product Launch, API Deep Dive, Case study etc., He then introduced Colt, Timothy, Reto, and Chet as presenters who were going to give unpredictable amazing presentations with a funny note , “or may get fired after this event” :-p
Sammy looked at me and asked “Would you like to participate?”. I assumed that I would be asking questions to the actual participants only to realize that I myself was ‘the participant’ from the audience. At that point, my heart skipped a beat and I was completely cold. Why? I suffer from stage freight and in my entire life, I have never given an impromptu talk on stage. However, my other fellow members of Women Who Code, and new friends from Google I/O encouraged me with texts and messages!
There were two other participants prior to me, Chet and Timothy who did a fantastic job with their respective “Postmortem and Product Launch”. I was next. Looking at the audience, made me think through a gazillion scenarios on how I can embarrass myself. The very first thought, that came to my mind, “Vinu! What have you agreed to! Are you crazy?” I can explain my nervousness better with…
Before diving into what happened on stage, I want to thank Johanna Wright(VP @Google) for her tips at Women Tech Makers dinner before the event. She talked about being brave and to put oneself in tougher situations which would give you the strength and confidence to keep going forward. She also suggested a power stand to make you feel better before talks and presentations. Funnily, all of this came to me back on stage. Still a bit nervous, I mustered all the courage I had and took the power stand on the stage facing the huge crowd. When Sammy asked, whether have I done lot of talks before? I replied, “Well, this is my first time!”
Feeling a little better, I started off with the keynote for Google Beer as the product. My first slide was the one you see above! ‘Aliens occupied the earth!’ Followed by more hilarious slides, I made things up as my thought interpreted the slides shown in front of me. After I was done, I felt a great relief and this tiny bit of happiness, “I did it and I didn’t faint!”.
My speech was not the best speech(you can hear the nervousness in my voice), but I am proud, that I took my first step to get there. I wasn’t waiting for this opportunity, I grabbed the one given to me. I know in my heart, someday I’ll be an amazing speaker I wanted to be.
Reto Meier was next and he was absolutely amazing. He nailed it and walked off dropping his mic on the stage! Last but not the least, Colt introduced robotic hamsters for API Deep Dive! Whoaaa.. That was just a mind blowing experience at first Google I/O one could ever dream!
I strongly believe “There is something to learn from everything”. My take aways from this amazing experience are
- Be bold. Neither hesitate nor wait to take your first step.
- A little encouragement and cheering could take a person long way.
Recently there has been an uproar with regards to gender bias in our industry. We have always heard bad stories, but I hope my story could be one of the good ones where I felt extremely welcome with the support from the developer community at Google I/O. I am feeling lucky!
- Small successes become the source of inspiration for your next big step.
I want to be a great speaker someday. I know now, this funny impromptu speech is my first small success that broke my safety shell inspiring me to do more.
- Best way to learn is to start doing it!
Experience is not gained through reading how to do something. You have to get out there and start doing it to gain that experience. Another great take away from all this was, there are only 2 outcomes in any of your efforts. You either WIN OR LEARN.
I consider it a great privilege to be able to speak on the same stage as Reto Meier , Chet Haase, Colt McAnlis & Timothy Jordan and would like to thank the amazing geek judges Hiroshi Lockheimer, Dave Burke, Matias Duarte, & David Singleton for their support. A special thanks to Sammy Wegent from Speechless and Google for the opportunity.
I would also like to once again thank “WOMEN WHO CODE” for all their support. I wanted to extend my thanks to all the other organizations and individuals for their contributions to bring more women in tech. Hats Off! for the efforts of Women Tech Makers and other Googlers to bring the scale up to 20% of women in Google I/O for 2014. I feel proud to be a woman in tech and to be in an era where I have the support to do what I do best!
