Things I Learned From My First Talk
I received an opportunity to give talks for a local tech meet-up in my hometown, it was my first time speaking in front a lot of people which is not just my friends. Since I somehow survived to tell the tale, I want to share something I learned in the process.
The Slides
The mandatory presentation slides, at first I’m making the slides using Google Slides then I found it took too many extra steps just to embed <code/>. Looking for alternative from experienced tech talks videos, I found slides.com which is free for public slides (fine for me because I’m planning to share it anyway) and able to embed <code/> easily.
The Horror of Display Output
This problem is real, I had it before when doing presentation in college. One of my friend told me to prepare backup cable incase shit goes south, I ignore the advice and I was like “nope it’s going to be fine” then I found out the venue doesn’t support HDMI, so my MacBook is literally useless.
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong — Murphy’s Law
Thankfully I’m saved because one of my friend brought VGA to Thunderbolt port converter.
The Pressure is Real
I had headache in the morning before the meet-up and I’m very nervous. I practiced the night before but no matter how much time you practice, you’ll probably think you could have done better later. I also learned some breathing technique to relax from the internet (referenced by friend).
The Unexpected Questions
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, someone is going to ask you a question which you are not sure yourself and need to Google it firsthand. But hey, the only choice is to admit you don’t know (yet) or made some stuff up. But then I choose the latter one because I’m too nervous. I apologize if you are one of the person I gave incorrect answer. 🙏
The Live Coding (?)
I planned to do live coding after presentation, but turn out holding microphone while typing in front of people with one hand and trying to explain what you’re doing is insanely hard lol, in the end I just showing my pre-made code and explaining what it do.
Always use two hands
The Feedback is Scary
Reading anonymous feedback submitted by audience after meet-up is as scary as when you receive your exam results. But as first time speaker, mistake is expected and any criticism is good for improvement later.
The Community Supports
If you notice, most of my points somehow include my friends. Because everything is possible thanks to others. I won’t be able to deliver my talks by myself. The venue, equipment, ration, souvenir, documentation, etc are sponsored by the community.
Kongkow IT Medan Meet-up #2: Frontend with Vue.js
Documentations: slide, photo, video, source code, feedback form
- Chat: t.me/kongkowITMedan
- Code: github.com/kongkowITMedan
- Blog: medium.com/kongkow-it-medan
