🎤 First Speaking Experience in Amsterdam: A Milestone to Remember! 🌍
Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to speak at the DevOps Amsterdam Meetup! As my first speaking experience as a native in Amsterdam, it was truly a milestone moment for me. Sharing insights with such an engaged and vibrant tech community was both inspiring and energizing.
The event was presented by the DevOpsDays Team including Lian Li , hosted by TerraTeam and my fellow speaker was the co-founder himself Malcolm Matalka.
The audience’s curiosity and passion for learning reminded me why I love being part of the tech world. It was amazing to connect with professionals who share a collective drive to innovate, collaborate, and grow. I loved meeting some amazing people and inspiring professionals at the event.
I’m deeply grateful to the organizers and attendees for making it such a memorable experience. This is just the beginning—I’m excited to contribute more to the local tech scene and continue learning and growing alongside this fantastic community.
Here’s to more opportunities, new connections, and shared knowledge! 🚀
Speaking at #TribeQonf was definitely a highlight of my year so far! What an fantastic event put together by an amazing team led by @Mahesh Chikane, Ashutosh Garg and so many more!
I was excited to see the grand setup, the massive stage was a sight to behold and so was the packed room in front! The hallway was flowing with delegates, sponsor booths and so much chatter, with interesting conversations, networking and smiles in all corners!
So much has already been said by the delegated and esteemed speakers in their posts. This conference surpassed most events in the kind of energy, enthusiasm, connections and learning that was seen and experienced.
My session was all about “Building Harmony in Chaos” wherein we talked about Orchestrating Agile deliveries in a startup environment. It was a jam packed room and definitely a great experience to deliver a session at this scale. I am thankful to have received such great feedback and kind words from the attendees after the session. Here are a few glimpses of my talk:
This event was definitely a highlight of my year so far, and looking forward to many more in the coming months! Thanks for the partnership @The Test Tribe.
Women today have made significant progress in the technology sector by removing barriers and dispelling preconceptions. Nevertheless, despite advancements, women in technology continue to confront particular difficulties when it comes to speaking and presenting. This piece will examine these difficulties and provide guidance on how women in technology may receive more recognition by honing their presentation skills, gaining confidence, and finding mentoring.
Mentoring
A major issue is the dearth of mentoring for women in technology. Women are 24% less likely than males to have a sponsor, and they are also less likely to get guidance from top executives, according to data from LeanIn.org. When it comes to developing their public speaking and presenting abilities, women in technology may find this lack of mentoring to be particularly challenging.
It may be quite beneficial to have a mentor who can offer advice and criticism on presentational techniques. A mentor may offer guidance on how to develop, give suggestions on how to attract an audience, and offer calming techniques. A mentor can also aid in boosting confidence by providing assistance and inspiration.
Community
The value of community is one viewpoint to take into account. Women in technology may create encouraging networks that assist them as they develop their public speaking and presenting abilities.
Joining organizations like Women Who Code, Women in Tech, or Tech Ladies can open doors for networking with other women working in the field, sharing experiences, and exchanging knowledge.
Opportunity
Women m technology might have felt a dearth of opportunities and inclusion in conference lineups and speakers lists. As that improves and events become more and more aware of the need to be inclusive of voices of different genders, races and nationalities, more avenues are opening up to present yourself in the best way possible and bring your voice to the forefront!
Self Confidence
When it comes to speaking and presenting, lack of confidence may be a significant obstacle for women in technology. Women may experience feelings of exclusion or a lack of value for their opinions, which can cause self-doubt and a fear of speaking up. Gaining confidence is essential to getting beyond these obstacles.
Honing Your Skills
There are many ways to hone your speaking and presenting skills as a woman in tech. Here are a few tips useful for anyone looking at speaking or presenting at an event:
Preparation
Preparation is imperative increase confidence. Clarity on the subject matter and target audience may ease nervousness and boost self-assurance. Multiple rehearsals of the presentation might help you find areas that could use improvement and increase your confidence in how to deliver the material.
The viewpoint of the audience should also be taken into account. It’s possible that listeners for presentations by women in tech aren’t used to seeing women in technical jobs. This may result in unintentional biases that affect how the audience sees the presenter.
Practice
Speaking in low-pressure situations is one method to gain confidence. For instance, joining a local Toastmasters club may offer a secure setting to hone public speaking abilities and get feedback in an encouraging setting. Finding chances to speak in front of small groups, such as facilitating team meetings or giving a presentation at a meetup, may also assist with confidence and skill development.
Body Language
The significance of body language should also be taken into account when talking about speaking and presentation abilities for women in technology. The audience’s perception of the presenter and the message being conveyed can be greatly influenced by nonverbal clues. Women could use nonverbal cues like crossing their arms or avoiding eye contact that could be interpreted as meek or deferential, which might take away from their message.
Concentrate on using forceful and confident body language to get over these obstacles.
Stand tall, Make eye contact, and Make open motions.
Power postures, like the “Wonder Woman” with the feet shoulder-width apart and the hands on the hips, may also assist build confidence and exude authority.
Voice Modulation
The verbal delivery should also be considered. According to research, women’s voices are frequently assessed more severely than men’s, and they may face consequences if they speak up or use vocal fry. However, altering one’s voice patterns can be difficult, and women shouldn’t feel under pressure to adhere to societal expectations of speaking.
For instance, studies have shown that women frequently say things like “I think” or “maybe,” which might damage their credibility and authority.
To be heard loudly and confidently, practice projecting your voice.
Concentrate on utilizing your voice to exude excitement and love for their profession.
Speaking at a steady speed and utilizing different tones and inflections to emphasize points are some examples of how to do this.
Establish Credibility
When selecting a topic to speak, concentrate on establishing credibility via your competence and knowledge in that area.
Building trust and overcoming prejudices can be facilitated by meticulous planning and showing a solid mastery of the subject.
Women can also use their distinctive perspectives to contribute fresh viewpoints and methods.
Storytelling
Utilize narrative to enhance the impact of your presentations.
The use of stories may help make complex technical ideas more relevant, vivid, and emotionally engaging for the audience.
Conclusion
In conclusion, women in IT suffer particular difficulties when it comes to confidence, prejudice, and speaking and presenting skills. By concentrating on gaining confidence, utilizing distinctive perspectives, effectively using storytelling and body language, and finding allies and advocates, women can overcome these obstacles and succeed in public speaking. The industry can gain from the variety of viewpoints and knowledge that women in tech bring to the table by promoting and supporting them.
Finally, it’s critical to understand that speaking and presenting abilities are skills that may be improved in time with practice, support and mentorship. Early failures shouldn’t deter you! Concentrate on constant development and you will get there!
Good luck!
<Image Credits – Unsplash.com>
This is a guest post by Lena Heller – Reach her at lenaaaheller@gmail.com
I am super excited to announce that the DevOpsCon Singapore conference is finally here and I am elated to be a part of the Speaker lineup!
After cancellations and rescheduling in 2020 due to the pandemic, this grand event is finally happening now from 22 to 25 Nov 2021 in an online edition.
My talk that was slated to be part of the 2020 edition remains the same topic which I have worked to enhance this year. Here are a few details of the session –
Title – The What, When and How of Test Automation
Description
Agile means pace and agile means change. With frequent time-boxed releases and flexible requirements, test automation faces numerous challenges. Haven’t we all asked what to automate and how to go about the daily tasks with the automation cloud looming over our heads? Here, we’ll discuss answers to some of these questions and try to outline a number of approaches that agile teams can take in their selection of what to automate, how to go about their automation, whom to involve, and when to schedule these tasks so that the releases are debt-free and of the best quality.
What to automate: regression averse approach, selective approach, sanity automation, max automation approach
When to automate: sprint n-1 approach, continuous automation
How to automate – all-hands approach, shared automation expert, code-averse tool
Let us have a look at the integration of these possibilities, the possible combinations, and what may or may not work.
My session will be held live on Monday, November 22 2021 17:00 – 17:45 SGT
To check out my speaker and session details, click here
For the detailed program and agenda of the conference, see this page
To Register for the event and related details, click here
I had the amazing opportunity to speak at the amazing event that was the WomenTech Global Conference 2021 #WTGC2021. This was a huge event for women in tech, minorities and allies from all over the world
The best part of the event was the interactive platform featuring live ceremonies, keynotes, engaging panels, breakout rooms, country & chapter leader sessions, technical workshops, and networking with face-to-face sessions.
I presented a talk on 8th June, the second day of the conference which was themed as “Inspiration Day”
Realising the power of Tech Communities in professionals’ lives
Learning to participate, volunteer and contribute to Tech Communities
Learning how Tech Communities help Products take their brand forward
How can companies build such powerful user communities and leverage their power
I was glad my session had many listeners from all over the world who not only participated along with their comments in the chat, but also left some amazing feedback!
Me speaking at the WomenTech Global Conference – virtual event
Not only this, I was also chosen to moderate 2 very interesting Break-room discussions that were based on impromptu questions asked and voted by all participants. In these discussions, we were able to have informal open discussions, ask questions and share our personal experiences on the chosen topic.
I was able to participate in the week long event and hear many amazing speakers talk about a variety of topics relevant to the industry.
Through this event I was able to connect to many amazing people from all over the world and so many amazing women trying to make a positive impact in the world of tech! I hope to stay connected with this wonderful community for years to come.
A special thanks to Anna Radulovski who reached out to me on Linkedin and invited me to speak at this grand event. She conducted the event with so much passion and grace and kept the energy going throughout the week!
Proud to be a part of an amazing set of speakers!
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Here is the link to a recording of my talk- You will need to create an account to access
I am super excited to share that I have been invited to speak at the upcoming WomenTech Global Conference – The Largest Conference for Women in Tech!
Scheduled for June 7-11 2021, this virtual conference will bring women in tech, minorities and allies from all over the world together through an interactive platform platform featuring live ceremonies, keynotes, engaging panels, breakout rooms, country & chapter leader sessions, technical workshops, and networking with face-to-face sessions. Bringing together +100000 women in tech from 181 countries hosting 500+ speakers and mentors! https://www.womentech.net/women-tech-conference
My session will be on “The Power of Tech Communities”
Check out my speaker page and session details here :
In my talk, I will discuss how we can leverage the power of tech communities in our career and personal growth? And since nothing drives a brand forward more than its community! So, how can companies create and leverage such tech communities to their product’s advantage and to delight their users.
Conferences, events and meetups are all things I enjoy. I have been an organizer, speaker & presenter, host and volunteer at many events. When 2020 started, I had big hopes and plans of travelling to speak at multiple international events and also had a few local Bangalore events lined up. But the world had to face a pandemic and everything came to a screeching halt.
As many of you, I was disheartened too. But I still hoped for things to get better, thinking we might get to some of the events at least. Things are different now. We now know that this lifestyle is here to stay. We have been working, learning, recruiting, networking and meeting remotely and might have to continue to do so for a while.
But where does this put the life of a ‘speaker’ – someone who enjoys speaking, being invited to attend and talk at events?
Well, I would like to highlight how I have been pleasantly surprised by the state of our events and their emergence from all the cancellations, losses and hearbreaks!
In the past 6 months, I have spoken at more events I would have normally! I have had the chance to connect with multiple events in various ways and all of them have shown me the resilience of our community.
TestBash Home 2020
It started with TestBash Home. Since TestBash Detroit was cancelled where I was to speak in April this year, I was invited to speak at the Testbash Home. It was a unique and fun event handled superbly by the MoT team. I have written in detail about the event and my experience here – https://testwithnishi.com/2020/05/07/my-experience-speaking-at-testbash-home/
TribalQonf , STeP-In Summit, Test Leadership Congress 2020
I was invited by Mahesh Chikane to speak at the TribalQonf which was a great opportunity. I presented about Adopting a Risk Based Test Approach and my talk was appreciated for which I am always #grateful !
The Ministry of Testing (MoT) is definitely the biggest and the most supportive testing community. Having heard so much about their Testbash events conducted world-wide, speaking at one was a long time goal. And I was fortunate enough to be accepted to speak at Testbash Detroit this year. But as things progressed since the beginning of 2020, travels and conferences of any kind were far from possible in light of a the global pandemic of Covid-19. Alas! our dreams were shattered. And though, it was disheartening for sure, the awesome community jumped back from the jolt and got together to bring us all an awesome online event #Testbash Home 2020.
Speakers List – TestBash Home
Preparations began and I too got back to preparing my talk, which I had given up on after the cancellations! Took a couple of weekends sorting out the content and slides. Then we had a call to record the talks with the community members Heather and Diana were ever so supportive and so kind with their emails, scheduling and feedback! This was a wonderful idea to have the talks pre-recorded so that we are not hampered by any technical glitches on the event day, while we speakers get to focus on engaging with everyone and answering questions from the community.
As the day of the event approached, I prepared for my live interview. The event had more than 1000 registrations! Definitely making it the biggest audience I have ever presented to. Though the event began late night hours for my timezone, my talk was at a convenient morning hour. So that is when I joined in. Had a wonderful chat with Richard who was the Backstage boss and handling the entire livestream for the entire 24 hours! Checked on my audio & video etc and also had introductions with James who was the host for that part. And then we were live!
The duration of the talk went great. It was surreal listening to myself presenting, and looking at the live chat and questions coming from the participants throughout the talk. Once it ended, I was back live with my video. Me and James continued to discuss the most popular voted questions asked and I answered them the best to my knowledge. It was amazing to see such great comments and kind appreciation by the listeners in the chats once we were done. #Grateful
Once my talk was done, I could now continue to enjoy the rest of the live event! #Testbash Home was an absolute treat with a mix of great content, discussions, community participation, fun hosts and great conversations! It sure has set the bar really high for all online events in the future. I stayed throughout the next 5 parts of the event and only left late at night when it was absolutely impossible to keep my eyes open 😛
It sure felt like a day away from our regular stay-at-home lives, and felt like we had met up with so many people in the virtual world. Some key highlights of the day were-
Awesome talks by speakers
Black Box puzzles played live with volunteers
99 second talks with many enthusiastic participants, many of whom were presenting for the first time!
The breakout room was so much fun – where you could select your avatar, enter a virtual room and just chit chat (and play with Ralph the dogBoss 😛 )
The breaks in-between parts had the background noise of an actual conference hall with people chattering and plates clanking. It was so soothing to hear (given the times we are in!) A fantastic idea! 🙂
The hosts did an awesome job engaging everyone in informal chats, yoga, discussing shows we are watching, things we are cooking and what not. Considering that it was a 24 hour long event, it sure was a welcome change of pace every few hours.
The short intros of all the MoT community bosses was so much fun to watch and made it very relatable. Now we know the faces behind the names.
Overall, TestBash home was an awesome experience, and I was fortunate to get some great feedback for my first ever Testbash Talk! I also loved the sketch-note of my talk created by Louise Gibbs
Sketch note Created by Louise Gibbs
I look forward to taking it further and engaging with this community in a live Testbash event some day! 🙂
I am back from the trip to Canada which followed the big day that was #TQ2019. So, I finally have a chance to share my experiences. This event https://kwsqa.org/tq2019/schedule/ organised by KWSQA was special in a number of ways-
It was my first international conference talk 🙂
I was one of the few international speakers at the conference, and the one who traveled the farthest for it!
I was the only speaker presenting 2 talks!
The travel was big too – with tonnes of visa processing, a 24 hour long flight to Toronto and then a bus ride from Toronto to Cambridge (which I nearly missed 😛 owing to the infamous Toronto traffic! )
Day 1 of the event was workshops that were in progress when we reached and we got a chance to informally meet the organizers at the desk. That evening they had planned a Speaker dinner which was a great idea. I got to interact and meet with all the speakers, made some friends and so the next day seemed a little less daunting having so many known faces.
24 Sep was the big conference day. Staying at the same hotel gave me the advantage to get ready at my own pace and be on time for the breakfast. The event began with a brief intro and then split into tracks. The first talk I attended was ‘Lean Coffee Facilitators Training’ by Matt Heusser. My first time hearing him speak. His session was fun and engaging and practical. I did #sketchnotes for the talk and also participated in the activity which was fun!
After that was my own session in the next room, so I hurried to setup and get ready. The best part was that the organisers had planned a 15 minutes gap between each talk for QA/Networking which gave the speakers and the delegates some breathing room and time to get to other sessions.
I talked on ‘The What, When and How of Test Automation’ which was a 45 minutes session. The room was full and there were lots of good questions and participation from the audience. I did feel that I handled it well and the topic as well as the proposed ideas were well received! 🙂 Here are a few glimpses into my talk-
Though I was relieved having just delivered a good talk, I still had one more to go! After that was lunch hour. A few participants from my talk invited me to sit at their table and we had so many discussions about work, testing as well as my travel plans 😛
Then we got back to talks- I also attended a talk on ‘Barriers in Accessibility Testing’ by Albert Gareev which I also #sketchnoted
Post that I rushed to the lightning talks track as I had to prepare for my next talk that was a 15 minute session on ‘Gamify your Agile Workplace’. As I got there I heard Richard Strang talk about ‘Implementing an Agile QA Guild’ and his experiences that were so varied and interesting. Then I got up to speak and since I was talking about an innovation game called speed boat, I had to first draw a big speed boat on the flipchart (with my limited drawing skills:P ) with a room full of people staring! I guess I managed well as the room MC Tina Fletcher (also president of KWSQA) was impressed with my masterpiece 😛 hehe
The session went well – the best bit being our Keynote speaker Damian Synadinos attending as well volunteering for the little game we played. It was an honor and an unforgettable experience. I hope the audience took back something tangible to try out gamification in their agile teams.
With both the talks done, it was now time to relax and network. I stopped by the booths by Oracle and NPM, chatted with fellow speakers and delegates, the organizers and also got real time feedback from the attendees who chose to attend my sessions.
Post the little coffee break was the grand closing keynote by Damian and it really was an experience. He mentioned in his intro that he had some improv experience and he really uses it to the best in his speaking! The talk was funny, intriguing, had loads of content, memorable quotes as well as an activity in which I volunteered! And a big Plus — Damian mentioned me and my talk too! 🙂 🙂 All in all it was an epic performance and really inspiring as a speaker. Kudos to the effort that went behind putting this together.
The best parts were getting to know so many wonderful people like Josh, Bailey and Dani, and getting to meet @Matt Heuser who I have had the chance to work with online. A face-to-face interaction makes things seem so real and people so approachable. He is a gem of a person and so encouraging too. I also made a friend @Emna who came from Tunisia to speak at the event! We roamed the streets of Cambridge and rode buses together and by the end seemed like we have known each other for so long. I surely hope to see her again at a future conference.
The organizers at TQ2019 had really worked hard and their efforts worked out so well with such a grand event pulled off with great ease, smooth flow and right on schedule. They welcomed us with warmth and helped throughout the day. At the end of the day we all got some time to cool off with a Social event where we mingled and got a chance to express our gratitude and say good byes. I would like to personally thank Greame Harvey, Sabina, Rob, Josh Assad ,Jared and Tina Fletcher from the KWSQA committee who were all so helpful and kind.
I am thankful for getting this opportunity and look forward to staying connected with such awesome people. I am also thankful for my supporting hubby who tagged along so that we could make this into a trip – got a chance to explore Toronto, Montreal and Quebec city and of course the majestic Niagara Falls! 🙂
On top of that I get to present not one but 2 talks!! My topics are
“The What, When & How of Test Automation” 45 mins
In this I will talk about preparing robust automation strategies. Agile means pace and agile means change. With frequent time boxed releases and flexible requirements, test automation faces numerous challenges. Haven’t we all asked what to automate and how to go about the daily tasks with the automation cloud looming over our heads. Here we’ll discuss answers to some of these questions and try to outline a number of approaches that agile teams can take in their selection of what to automate, how to go about their automation and whom to involve, and when to schedule these tasks so that the releases are debt free and of best quality.
“Gamify your Agile workplace” 15 mins
In this I’ll present live some innovation games and have audience volunteers engage and play games based on known scenarios. Let’s Play and learn some useful Innovation Games that can help you gamify your agile team and workplace, making the team meetings shorter and communication more fun!
Both these topics are close to my heart and I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with a wider audience.
I am also excited to meet all the awesome speakers at the event , as well as get to know the fantastic team of organizers behind this event!
testwithnishi 