It’s 2020 and everyone is reflecting on last year and making goals for this year. I didn’t do a lot of things well in 2019; namely, blogging. Now any reason I give will be (or sound like) an excuse so I won’t bother. I hope to viz and blog more this year but I also want to do more travelling, spend more time with my loved ones, volunteer more and take time to care for my health so who knows what will happen – all I can say is I will try my very best!
Focusing on more positive moves now, one thing I think I did quite well with last year was public speaking. I gave two talks: first a Tiny Tableau Talk in June and then speaking at the London Tableau User Group Summer Sessions in August. I never wrote a blog on these talks so here goes!
Tiny Tableau Talks
Tiny Tableau Talks (TTT) is a wonderful event founded and organised by Emma Cosh, now with the help of Alina Cristea and Charlie Edmunds, where speakers give 5 minute talks on a data topic of their choice (predominantly but not strictly Tableau!). It’s a great opportunity for anyone looking to try out public speaking in a supportive environment and was the perfect choice for my first talk.
My topic of choice was documentation in Tableau. This talk was based largely off of my previous blog here. You can watch my killer (lol) performance on YouTube here.
I was all butterflies before and during this event! My main worry was fitting everything in under 5 minutes but not speaking too fast and losing the audience. Thankfully, I came in at almost exactly 5 minutes (phew!). Overall, the night went by in a flash and I think it was decent for my first public appearance. Thank you to Emma and the team for organising and advising me. I urge you to check out the other talks also! Thank you to ZAP for hosting us in your beautiful office!
London TUG Summer Sessions
London TUG offered a great opportunity for people from any background to speak at the user group for the summer sessions. Luckily, I got a spot amongst 8 other incredible pillars of the Tableau community. This time, the talks were 10 minutes long. Wanting to expand on my earlier TTT and practice my public speaking some more, I once again spoke about documentation with some extra content as this talk as twice the time limit.
You can watch me on YouTube here.
Also, you can find my full presentation here. Please download and open in PowerPoint for the best viewing experience.
Thank you to the London TUG team for organising this event and all the events you organise. It was a great experience and I learned a lot (including holding the mic closer!)
What I learned
- Just do it! Take the plunge and put yourself up for it. Even if you don’t have a topic in mind yet, sign yourself up and then decide on a topic. It’s a great learning experience!
- Rehearse loads! The more you know your content, the better you’ll present it.
- Hold the mic close to you. I didn’t do this and ended up being too quiet for those at the back to hear me *facepalm*
- Stay after the event to talk to attendees and other speakers. I wasn’t able to stay for long after the Tiny Tableau Talk and I really regret it!
More please!
I would like to give at least one talk this year and not on documentation this time 😀
I also recommend anyone reading who is on the fence to go for it! You got this!!
Feed Me Data 