Hi, If you’re interested in knowing something about me, you can start reading from the next line, if not, just jump to the first point.

I’m Kajal, working as an Engineer in Fractal analytics, based out of Bengaluru. I’ve graduated in 2017 and working with Python since three years. After finishing my summer internship in 2015 at a startup, my mentor encouraged me to attend conferences, meetups etc. to meet people working in same domain and also, present my work. This worked like a charm for me. I believe wherever I’m today or will be, as a matter of fact, my engagement with the Python community has contributed immensely.

Initially, I started going to PyDelhi , which generally happened biweekly, I’d attend all the talks religiously and talk to the speakers post session in case I’ve a query or even if I’m interested in what they’re doing. I thought that you need to be proficient in public speaking as well as an awesome “coder” to speak at a conference. After finishing my summer internship, my mentor pushed me to present my work on Recommender Systems at PyData Delhi, which is an exclusive meetup for Data Science & Machine Learning. I presented my work, shivering with a crackling voice like a baby and felt pathetic that I can’t speak about my three month hard work confidently. I answered most of the questions in Q&A session and felt pretty confident. There were questions raised that I couldn’t answer, I noted the questions corresponding to the email ids of the people who asked them and later responded via Email. It felt A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

After that, I decided to speak at small events/meetups to reducemy stage fright and rather than avoiding presentations I started taking more interest in explaining concepts with the funkiest slides possible, even at work.

Here are few of my learning after speaking at my first International Conference i.e. PyCon Thailand.

1. You don’t need to be an EXPERT to speak.

The one thing I REALLY like about PyCon is that — it is for EVERYONE! Your talk will be categorised in one of the mentioned categories : ‘beginner’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘advanced’ level. I recommend you prepare your slides and content according to the level, so that you as well as the audience benefits from it.

2. Improve your Public Speaking skills.

Some people have overcome the stage fright since school days or a few just don’t have it whereas I’m neither of those people. I have stage fright and the only way I feel it gets better is by practising. Practice public speaking as much as you can. Go to meetups and speak in front of people. Take initiatives at your workplace and never let go a chance where you can present.

Just make sure, you don’t end up like this at the conference.

3. Prepare your subject matter well in advance.

This was a mistake I did while speaking. I couldn’t prepare because of busy schedule at office, so I was busy organising my slides and content up to the last minute to avoid any chaos. You should prepare in advance so that you do not miss out attending other interesting sessions and interacting with people. I was sulking in Speaker’s room until my talk was announced. So, avoid that.

4. Initiate conversations.

At PyCon Thailand, the keynote speaker was Wes Mckinney. I was so scared to talk to him throughout the conference, I mean I wanted to talk but I had nothing to talk about. At the social event, I just started conversation by saying an awkward hello and well, he responded and we talked about Python, Apache Arrow project and much more. So, initiate conversation with the people you’re interested to talk, no matter how awkward or scared you feel. It will help you immensely in having a nice time at the conference.

5. Keep your demos offline!

Although conference organizers make sure up to their best level to keep the Wi-Fi connectivity regular but it just happens that with over hundreds of people using it, things might go wrong. So, always record your demo/results as a video or gif to avoid last minute internet fuckups.

6. Visit all the booths.

If you’re looking for a change (or even if you ain’t), I’d advise you to visit each company’s booth, talk to the people there and if possible, take their email id and drop your CV after the conference. I have heard quite a few stories about people getting hired during conferences itself. And indeed, you have more chances of getting hired or get internships when you’re a speaker. In the process you’ll get to know which company is doing what and how their hiring works for future references!

7. ALWAYS give feedback.

I feel a sense of responsibility of giving feedback to the organizers, whenever I speak, no matter if this is an international conference or a small meetup. I believe this is a very small contribution from my side to the community for keep it going and improving others’ experience in future as well.

I’ll tell you a small incident regarding this. Being a vegetarian it was difficult for me to eat anything at PyCon Thailand because on Day 1, most of the cuisines were non veg. The person who was overseeing the food section in the Conference spoke reasonably good English so I gave her my feedback on the food. She was generous enough to include more vegetarian dishes on the next day of the conference, which was a boon for me and other vegetarians as well. I thanked her and it made her happy as well that I could enjoy my food being at a foreign place. Just wanted to convey the message, “Feedback helps!”

At the end, I just want to thank the organizing team of PyCon Thailand for giving me a chance to speak. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Everyone was so nice and friendly, I can’t wait to go back there for next year.

Here is the link to my slides at PyCon Thailand, in case you’re interested.

Slides link : http://bit.do/epfA8

If you want to have a quick chat with me for hiring, you can DM me on Twitter @Agirlhasnofame