Struck by Lightning
I am not young enough to know everything.
One of the things that has been keeping me relatively sane over the past few months is the informal lightning talk sessions that we hold every couple of weeks in our department at work.
If you’re not familiar, lightning talks are very short presentations, usually lasting no longer than about five minutes. Sometimes they can be given in a format such as Pecha Kucha or Ignites, where a set number of slides advance automatically every few seconds.
The talks don’t necessarily have to be on a work-related topic; they’re a great opportunity to espouse on something about which you’re passionate or as a starting point to dive into a topic in which you’re interested in finding out more. They can be extended into longer talks for conferences, or become the basis for some blog posts.
Of course, they can also serve as an end in themselves. Standing up (albeit metaphorically for the moment) in front of a friendly and receptive audience to present a familiar topic is great experience for building confidence in public speaking.
I’ve given several talks remotely over the past few months. I’ll be transferring some of them here in order to maybe open things up to a wider audience.