The shy person's guide to tech conferences by Ed Rivas

Speaker 1: Okay, well, as Coach said, this is the Shy Person 's Guide to Tech Conference, and this talk is dedicated specifically to those without much conference going experience. Or if you're coming from another country, maybe English isn't your uh first language. Or if you're just starting your developer career, I hope this talk Is going to offer a few useful things that will encourage you to make the most out of the conference, DjangoCon specifically, and hopefully tech conferences in general. But before I start speaking about specifics, I want to share why I think this topic is important and particularly to me. So

Speaker 1: I'm a freelance web developer. I've been doing uh Django and contributing also to Messen and CMS, a Django based uh content management system for about five years now and I am what you'll call an introvert or a shy person. You'll find me usually uh taking the back seat in conversations any more than talking. And when I first heard that it was a Django Con around two years ago, I was very excited to be around people. who also love Django because um as a freelancer and I'm from El Salvador in Central America, I don't know much people who do Django, Python, or programming really, and I work by myself so being around people who are also excited uh by Django and Python was really excited to me.

Speaker 1: So I was I I came to Austin two years ago and I was very looking forward to the you know the technical details details and I wanted to see what the top notch developers had to say and the and listening to the Django Core uh team uh speak and just you know soak in all the tech that was happening at the conference. But I was surprised when what really stuck with me after that was uh the friends that I made and the relationships I built and just the cool people I met. And to me this uh raises one question. And that is tech conferences, what are they really about? I would say that conferences in general and even tech-focused ones

Speaker 1: are about people. In the end, what we want to do is be together with uh folks that share the same interests as we do. We gather here to share the same space. to share some time and just to hang out together. And I go even further and say that technology itself is about people. Any technology is only useful if it uh provides value to the per a pip a person's life. if it helps us solve a problem or if it improves um the the the our lives in some way. So technology only holds value as long as it serves human beings. Um so going back to that first conference, that first DjangoCon I attended, I was

Speaker 1: obsessed on you know checking out the guidebook app. and trying to figure out exactly which conference I was going to attend, which talks, and after this one I have to jump to the other room and be real quick. But I wanted to consider a situation So let's say you are in a hallway just before a talk starts and you're having a great conversation with a friend or somebody you just met. Um should you drop that conversation? Well my proposal here is that um you shouldn't. You you can skip some talks and It won't be a waste of time, it won't be a waste of your money. Now to be clear, I'm not advocating uh missing talks, you know. The organizers

Speaker 1: the organizers have made a great job. lining up a great set of speakers. I believe this is one of the years that has had the more proposals. So the talks that you're gonna see here are going to be the best of the best, right? So definitely make uh Your best effort to attend all the talks. But if you find that you are uh hanging out with somebody or having a great conversation or somewhere at a at a booth, feel free to skip that talk because remember you can always watch them uh later. The I think the most important thing is What makes the conference unique? You know, you can always watch, you can always read about the talks online later, but you cannot talk or hang out with someone as you would in person.

Speaker 1: We know, you know, video chat, Slack, email, it's not the same as being with somebody in a room, right? So try to remember that uniqueness principle and favor the experiences that cannot be replicated outside of the conference. over those that can be read or watched online. Right? But how do we apply then this principle? How do we uh really emphasize those things that are unique to a conference? Well, I would say talks are just the beginning. There's a secret uh conference schedule, and by that I mean uh don't obsess over the minute by minute Details of a conference. Uh you can embrace the unexpected and build your ideal schedule schedule and see let's see how we can do that. Uh the first thing is

Speaker 1: you don't have to go to a talk just because you should. Right? It feels sometimes like when you're because Django has two uh DjangoCon has two tracks. you always have to decide one talk over the other. So if you feel that you have to go to a com uh a talk because you know that's the topic, that's the hot topic and everybody is talking about that and I should go there Well, if it interests you and you feel you can get the most out of it, you should definitely go. But even if you have to go along to another talk or it's a uh what people usually call a soft uh skills talk Feel free to go if you feel it's going to uh improve or provide value to you. Remember we said that technology only serves us in the in the way that it solves uh problems.

Speaker 1: or improves our lives in some way. So feel free to go to talks also that you're not maybe too familiar with. Try to avoid those that just uh rehashed uh Topics that you're already very knowledgeable about and maybe start exploring new things and start going out of your comfort zone and learning something new. And the second one is that all conferences offer a ton of extracurricular activities and those are in and out of schedule. So make sure you check those out as well. I don't know if you are aware there's going to be a picnic tonight and we're all invited. So I hope you make the time to to be there after all the talks are done. and just hang out with people at the park.

Speaker 1: There's also volunteering opportunities. That's a great way to meet speakers and to also meet organizers You can help at the registration desk. You can help being the session chair or the session runner. And Kojo, I'm sure, it's going to share more of that later. Also most nights people will get together and either grab something to eat, uh play games, board games, or just hang out. So make sure you uh are aware of the Twitter, the hashtag, the Slack channels. And just try to go out with people and mingle and explore the city together. There's also sprints. Those are the last two days of the conference. I know not anyone not anybody can stay. But it's a great way of hacking and contributing to Django

Speaker 1: itself or related projects while being together instead of just um submitting issues through GitHub and email and all that. And finally, you can also, maybe after the this conference, you will be encouraged to participate in local meetups at your city, at your uh at where you live, and also related events like being if you're new to Django you can uh participate in a Django girls um workshop or if you're already more experienced maybe you can coach at one and you can also contribute that way So you might be saying, well that that's all well and good, but that sounds like the kind of things that extroverts

Speaker 1: do. Right? Like um you encouraged me to do things that I don't really feel uh comfortable with. And that's how I felt for the longest time myself. But what I want to talk now is that not everyone is a natural. You can build up your own uh conference persona and This is also very important to me and a lesson that I uh value a lot now is that most of what we know we've learned and that sounds very obvious, but it also applies uh to the social and the soft skills department, so to speak. None of us were born being an accomplished developer , but we built those skills by reading, practicing, and sometimes even failing, right?

Speaker 1: So we can do the same when it comes to non-tech skills. It's not about being somebody you're not. It's not about being, you know, trying to phone it in or be a a hypocrite. You can learn this skill just as you would any other. You know, you don't say Oh I'm not I I was not born knowing Python, so I guess I'm never gonna learn it. You say I don't know something, I'll investigate, I'll read, I'll have somebody teach me and I'll learn it. So you can get also um better at public speaking, at social skills, at many different things without um betraying who you are. Right? So in general try to follow the same steps you will uh when you are learning a new tech skill. So for example, one of the keys to learning is repetition.

Speaker 1: We only get good at things when we repeat them a lot. That's basically what experience is. So um if you're exposing yourself repeatedly to situations you're not familiar or comfortable with, um you will get better at them. So don't use I've never done that as an excuse to not do something. That's how we all start. That's we we don't do things but we start doing them and we progressively get better at them Then the second point is that failure is okay. Uh think of each mistake you make either you know in and uh in your tech skill set or your non-tech skills Think of each mistake as a step in a spirit experience ladder. There's no way to move forward if you're not making mistakes. So sometimes you'll venture into a conversation

Speaker 1: And it's going to be awkward, right? You're going to step in and uh awkward silence ensues. That's fine, right? Sometimes that conversation won't pay off, right? You thought, well, maybe I'm gonna hang out with this group of people, and it really wasn't that great. That's fine too. And sometimes you might even be embarrassed, right? and feel uh really uh out of place but that's all okay that's how that's how we all learn. And the third point is you should always ask and learn Think who do you follow in social media or the people that you look forward or upon on uh when it comes to uh developer skills? Now you can also, I bet you can also find people who can inspire you, who can you can learn from when in this

Speaker 1: non-tech department, so to speak. Right, there's a lot of resources online now, uh a bunch of people who are willing to mentor even in these aspects as well. So In general, you will uh feel equipped to navigate this conference and other social situations uh with this mindset that is this is something you can learn. This is something that you can eventually master if you're intentional about it and if you are um ready to put the the time and the work in it. So Okay, maybe you you're now feeling more equipped to go out and enjoy the conference in ways that maybe you didn't think about before, but I want to push you even further. Have you considered speaking at DjangoCon?

Speaker 1: Well, you might say, speaker me, yeah, you can be you can start your speaking career here. And it's I know it sounds intimidating, but I want to start by busting some myths related to uh speaking. So I'm gonna present four speaking myths and why I think they're false. The first one is, you know, all speakers are seasoned experts. So if you're going to take a stage, you better know what you're gonna talk about, and you better be like the leading person in that field Well, let me remind you that beginners can provide a perspective that experienced users cannot, and that is what it feels to be new at something. So why not give a talk on learning a new technology? Technology?

Speaker 1: What were your stumbling blocks? What were the things that you liked? What were the things that caught your attention? That's all the stuff that we that we forget as we get better with things. So you can provide that. Another option is maybe you're working in a field that's very new or that not many people know. So you should you can all also share that experience and say You know, I basically don't know what I'm doing, but here's what I've found. And maybe you can even find somebody else to share that or to build that thing they're doing with you. The second one is shy people, you know, never give talks. Like that's a thing for the extrovert. That's a thing for the people that just love the spotlight on them, right? I'll never grab a microphone by myself

Speaker 1: And again, as we learned before, you can learn to navigate this situation and public speaking is a skill that you can can build that you can master and that you can be intentional about. So again you can start learning, you can start practicing. Lightning talks are a great way to start. Because you only have five minutes to present a very defined, a very small scope uh topic. Then this the third one is only technical talks are worthwhile. You might be thinking, yeah, um I don't have like that much technical knowledge or I don't have the the enough knowledge to present a technical topic. But remember as we said before Well, first of all, that would mean this talk's pretty useless because it's not technical.

Speaker 1: Um But remember that we were saying that tech is only available to us. if it provides value and if it solves uh it solves a problem or improves our life in some way. So if you have a story of How tech in the most maybe unrelated way has improved your life or the life of a group you care about, your friends, your family, an organization you work with, I think that's something valuable that can be shared and that people will find useful Because remember, we are all people in the end. We're not just engineers or developers. We have many other interests, and you can always contribute to that by giving a talk, even in a non-non-technical topic. And the last one is uh nobody wants to um to hear my story or my experience, right?

Speaker 1: You might think, um You know, I don't have nothing I don't have anything special to share, but I would I would say that nobody wants to hear generic stuff or the same things that we've all heard. I think we can all offer a unique perspective you can offer a unique perspective on a lot of things remember you have a unique experience personality education cultural background friends and past events that make your life different from anyone else's, right? So you can share that and it's going to be your talk, it's going to be your thing Kind of like how this was my journey from seeing conferences in a very tech only way to making it, you know, one of the best things that happen every year to me. So now maybe you wanna you 're starting to feel interested in um being a speaker, but how do you even start?

Speaker 1: You might say, well, in the what to say department, um Similarly in how you shouldn't just give a talk or attend a talk because you should be there. You shouldn't give a talk because you should. Like you maybe you feel I know about this topic, so I guess since this is what I know, this is what I should share. But in reality, you should probably talk about something you're passionate about, something that you are uh you feel strongly about instead of just something that you know, something that you have in your knowledge domain Even if and even if you're not the most knowledgeable in a topic, I c I think you can always share about that. And the second thing is how you can say that? Well when it actually comes to putting the words in the in in paper, focus on providing your unique experiences again. Because if if you're just going to say something that we can find in any article online

Speaker 1: or it's very general advice, then it's not then there's no difference in you giving a talk over any other person. So try to imprint your talks with what makes you you, what makes you uh unique, your unique journey to through whatever topic you are uh sharing. So, we've covered a lot today, but I just want to review together what we just went through. So, going back to the beginning, I would say uh to make the most out of the conference. Focus on the unique experiences that you cannot get online. Try to embrace everything that makes a conference unique, everything that is unique about being together with people here that you cannot get via the internet later. Then uh take part of all the non-talk conference activities.

Speaker 1: As we said, you know, uh sprints, volunteering opportunities Just hanging out with people after the the the talks. Try to make an effort to participate in all that. And then thirdly, be intentional in building your uh your social skills This is something that you can learn, you can master, see it as another like learning a new programming language or learning pretty much anything, you can get better at it. And finally, try out your hand at public speaking. And again, I think lighting talks are going to be a great opportunity if you haven't considered a lighting talk. I encourage you to do so. Submit it your your idea and then just five minutes of the mic and share with everyone what you've been uh doing. So

Speaker 1: I think we're gonna skip this one and I just wanna say as my public commitment to everyone here if you see me around just say hello, you know, and we can talk about a bunch of stuff. I would love to talk about tech, what you like are we or what you don't like uh in Django. I like to talk about dogs. I have a dog and I would like to share my dog stories with you and your dog story with me. It's just fun sharing dog pictures and stories. We can talk about El Salvador, that's where I come from, and talk about where you come from, how 's life at home for you We can talk about video games, I like that too. Travel, we can talk about faith and spirituality or whatever makes you passionate. Whatever you're passionate about and anything you want.

Speaker 1: You see me around, feel free to say hello. I'll be more than happy to have a great conversation with you and make new friends. So That's all from me and thank you very much and I hope you have a great conference and all the pictures you saw were actual pictures from last year's conference. So thanks Yeah, so he was he he asked about if I heard about the Pac-Man method when talking in a group. And yeah, I read about that a few weeks ago by by Eric uh Holster and he says And I think this is a great advice. If you're talking in a circle, don't close the circle. Try to leave, you know, one or two people spaces open. So it cut from above it kinda looks like a Pac-Man, you know, because it's like a pie with a slice

Speaker 1: cut out So always when you're gathering in circles try to leave a space open because that invites people to come in and participate in the conversation. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Ed. Have a round of applause for Ed.