A Speaker’s Perspective
Hey there, just a quick introduction. I am Jielynn Diroy and I am currently a software engineer in the Philippines. Outside the office, I am a volunteer that plays a role of Communications Manager in Google Developer Group Philippines.
Two years ago, my classmates and I joined a hackathon, and during the preparation provided by the host university, Firebase was introduced to me. What caught my curious self is that I was able to create a Chat Application in 15 minutes. Just 15 minutes!
Since then, I know, I’ll love Firebase. Ohhh my young self. Months after that, I started giving Firebase workshops myself, t’was, June 2016 at my alma mater, De La Salle University Dasmarinas.
Through the years, I tweaked it with the help of UI people (Ain’t a frontend person). You can try the app here: https://pre-event.firebaseapp.com/
I’ve create a memory game running and hosted by Firebase as well, play it through: https://minigame-try.firebaseapp.com/
Before the talk/workshop
Weeks before, I prepare the codes for the workshop and slides to use for the talk session. And that’s from doing everything all over again. From creating new slides, to creating the same application, but from scratch… again, to reading blogs, wikipedia, and statements about Firebase. I watch videos as well to refresh my mind up, because I only use this technology during these times. How ‘bout at work? Just once.
Hours before, I made this ritual to stop reading my slides 2 hours before my time slot. But prior to that, I read the slides repeatedly, hourly. I talk to myself even in public just to get things together.
Minutes before, I can hear my heart tremble… and a loud drum roll of heartbeats the moment the speaker before me says “thank you” to the audience. Days do come where I go out of the venue just to shout the nervousness out of my system (doesn’t work, but fun to do).
It’s time
And the time that I am not waiting for, at all, has come. I always start my talk with a “Hello” to calm myself down (still not helpful, not sure why I’m doing these things). A minute or two, all I hear is my heartbeat going louder and louder. One inhale, poof! There’s my voice again. After that, everything will go well… unless I remember that I am having a talk in front of people. That’s another problem. My voice trembles uncontrollably, and another inhale, still trembling. Another one, there you go. I got my voice back.
A co-volunteer once told me that when you can hear your voice already, you’ve calmed down and nervousness stops. Now, that is true as mentioned above.
Thank you
Finally, my own “Thank you” to the audience. Those moments are the best! I can hear the birds chirping again, heaven and earth being so lovely and claps being the music in my ears.
These claps always give me chills and contentment. A clap means I successfully shared the knowledge I know or they just really need to do so (oh well, I still win.)
Still not yet the end, sorry. Workshops here we go!
After the talks, we let the attendees experience the technologies themselves. Surprisingly, I get to have attendees willing to learn (yes, that surprises me every time still.)
During these workshops, I am trying my best to explain every files, methods and lines to the attendees as we all type the codes. Afterwards, I roam around and ask per row for questions or clarifications.
And for my keeping, before going out of the room, I always do a photo op, to see how much weight I’ve gained. Kidding aside, it’s heartwarming to see faces that I’ve taught and had fun (that’s what I know, hmm) during the session.
Almost there, don’t worry. Feedback time!
Uh-oh. Time to know if they really learned something. Being the assigned person in managing the feedback forms gave me access to check how I did right after the session.
Being at this point repeatedly, I learned that no one can please everyone. Comments of people do differ. Some are positive, few are negative. What’s funny is some are opposing to each other.
I remember reading a comment that says the pace is slow. Another feedback says that the pacing is fast. Now, what should I do? Yep, that happened in just one workshop (just recently.)
In my defense, I run through every method and line, twice, to let everyone understand Firebase, reason why the pacing is slow. For the pace being fast, that, I am not aware of, and that is noted dear.
I’ve had a feedback that says “the application was called chat application, but we didn’t use sockets.” He’s correct, we didn’t. I think he forgot that we were doing a Firebase session having it a backend-as-a-service(BaAs), it’s the one doing all those “socket-ing” things. (Would be emphasizing that next time.)
Every comment do flatter me, may it be positive or negative. Negative ones give me room to grow and to improve. Positive ones just give me this warm and happy feelings.
Just give me one more minute: post event realizations
Yey! Another event is done! Another nervous breakdown is worth it. Time to add it up to the counter!
Regardless of what I’ve went through, there is always a sense of fulfillment every event done. The reason why I do everything stated above again and again. It’s a really addictive feeling but in a positive way. It urges me to share what I know, be good at it and continue to help developers be better developers.