KubeCon 2017 - giving talks as a newbie

So one of the reasons I was attending KubeCon was that I was a speaker. I find it very telling of a community when they let someone share her experiences who at this point a year ago did not even know what Kubernetes was. Of course, Kubernetes is a new technology, and there were in fact very many people at KubeCon who did not know about Kubernetes a year ago.

I have given a few meetup presentations, and I'm no stranger to the stage, because of this music career thing I had going for a while. But talking in front of an audience would have been incredibly difficult if not for my awesome coworkers, who helped me shape and crystallize my talk.

Additionally, I was lucky in that I got to give a short demo at Eduardo Silva's fluentd salon, together with my coworker, Yeni, the day before my big talk on "how to be a beginner at Kubernetes".

Yeni was totally awseome. She live coded like a pro and didn't lose her cool even a little bit. People asked some challenging questions and she fielded them so well.

So the next day I gave my presentation and my coworkers and SIG-contributor-experience leads all showed up. Fellow Adie Tehut Getahun showed up as well, and asked literally the hardest question that came up in my talk (yay!). Someone should hire her; she is brilliant. Everyone made it easy to present. Another thing that was beautiful was that so many people were actively listening. I felt honored. The talk was part of the "Kubernetes 101" track, and even though the picture doesn't show it, there were about a hundred people in there.

I sent my mom the above picture of my talk. She's a retired Latin teacher. Her first comment was, "Look at all those men listening to what you have to say!" My mom is funny. I loved that she instantly realized the elephant in the room, and I also hope that in a few years' time, this picture will look different.

I really hope that my talk was helpful. It would make me so happy if people took even just one thing away that helped them out. Also, folks, the cool thing about blogs is you can comment. If you want to ask any questions, or share tools and experiences, or correct me on facts because I was Wrong On The Internet, this is a blog and I welcome comments!