Improving my Lightning Talk skills
At Procurios we are doing Lightning Talks. A Lightning Talk is a talk when someone talks about a certain subject for five minutes and then there's room for discussion about the subject (also five minutes). The subject can be anything, as long as it's work related. For example, it can be something you experimented with in code or your interpretation of a conference talk you saw.
First I was afraid
When I started working at Procurios I felt like a newbie, because every other developer had a lot more experience than me. Even though my colleagues encouraged me to do a Lightning Talk, I was afraid of talking to experienced people.
Just do it
After gaining some experience I was a lot more confident to do a talk about something, but I was still very nervous when I was talking. Standing in front of a large group is not my favorite hobby.
Continuous improvement
The past four months I did more Lightning Talks than the year before those four months. I still don't feel very comfortable when I'm talking, but I'm a lot less nervous. The hardest thing right now is to make sure everyone understands what I want to share. The story I want to tell is very clear in my head, but I need to convert my thoughts into words. This improves continuously after every Lightning Talk.