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Codemotion & JOnTheBeach: Can Engineers Save The Planet Talk - Part 3
Delivering the talk 🚀
In our first post, we explained how the idea of creating "Can Engineers Save the Planet?" was born. Also, we detailed the process of designing and giving shape to the talk.
In a second post we explained what the experience of delivering the talk in Codemotion was like.
But that was only the beginning, "Can Engineers Save the Planet?" has a very strong message, so the talk was also delivered at another important IT Event, called JOTB (J On The Beach). In this post, I (Jesus) will explain my experience.
Before going into details, for me becoming a Speaker at JOTB was special. Not only because that event is located in Andalusia, but also because it was the first big IT Event I attended when I was young and it motivated me to speak in public about technical topics.
JOnTheBeach
Firstly let me introduce this event, it was a surprise to me to find out that it is not as famous as Codemotion. This big event started in 2016, initially focused on the Java ecosystem, but quickly it turned into a Data and Software Engineering event.
JOnTheBeach is a very funny event, I attended their first edition, and I remember the closing party with Doctor Explosion playing fast and loud. This event, even now that it has worldwide recognition, never loses its "punk" attitude. And it tries to make everybody part of the event.
In this edition, it had over 1000 attendees and more than 50 speakers, including people like Heidi Howard or Nadieh Bremer.
In past editions, people like Trisha Gee, Martin Thompson, Vlad Mihalcea, and Joe Armstrong were also speakers.
And this year, for the 2023 edition, I had the chance to be there! Also running the first talk in the History of JOTB about Process Mining!
The D Day
One day after giving the talk with Nico at Codemotion, I went to Malaga to repeat the talk, but this time alone and in English.
I was a little worried, the event scheduled my talk at the same time as a talk performed by Colin Breck from Tesla, so I thought it was fine, nobody would come to see my talk. I thought it could be good since fewer people there meant less nervousness to me. But it wasn't true.
After answering some questions in a regional TV show about IT Trends and Technology it was my turn.
Even though my talk started with a delay of minutes, I was impressed with the audience. My room was full of people, there were people seated on the floor, and people were "attending" from the hall since there was no more space inside. Maybe for that reason, my feelings evolved just opposite to those I had at Codemotion.
At Codemotion, I started nervous, but at the time the talk was going on, I felt more and more comfortable. At JOTB, I started calmed down, but once I started to see people getting in the room, and more people... and more and more people, I started to feel nervous, like saying to myself: "Oh Jesus, what are you doing? You're not ready for this!"
After the talk, so many people approached me, with curiosity about Process Mining and Celonis. At JOTB, I even had more time to attend other talks and also spent a lot of time networking since the people were so interested in knowing a little more.
The talk had a score of 7/10 which is not too bad :)
And it was mentioned in the media as one of the most exciting talks of the event.
Do you want to check it out on your own? The talk was also recorded, this time in English
Perks for Speakers!
Sadly, I was not able to take part in all the activities the JOTB crew prepared for the speakers. I was impressed by how much they cared about the speakers. Now I know why there are speakers that come back (like Heidi Howard). It is not just for the "Speaker's Dinner".
The activities include:
Speaker's Dinner
Tour through "El Caminito del Rey"
And, of course, the closing Party.
Something I liked was, that JOTB aims for the speakers to be mingled with the attendees, so you'll not be able to find "speaker rooms" or similar. Everybody is at the same level and that's great to meet your favorite engineers, or to increase your networking.
Of course, I'd like to repeat next year.
What's next?
You may think that there is not much more to share. We already shared how "Can Engineers Save the Planet?" was born, how it was to deliver the talk at Codemotion and, as part of this post, how was the experience of delivering the talk at JOTB?
This journey brought a lot of emotions to me (and to Nico as well) and I think that it would be useful to share that emotional part of the journey. In our next post we will share the content talk "Can Engineers Save the Planet?", but not only as a recorded talk for those two events, also as an written entry to close this journey on a high note.
See you in the next (and final) post!
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