Tonight I went to Geeky for the first time. It’s a series of lightning talks where each speakers talk about a topic for ten minutes.
Today’s event was held over at Forward Internet Group, who by the way have lovely offices and are hiring. There was drinks and pizza and I found the short format of the talks great both for speaking and listening to.
I did a sped up and comprised version of the talk I did in Dublin last week about numbers and context. The other six talks were all really varied from talking about craft and code to retro games and prosthetic limbs. And that I guess is the beauty of the short lightning talk format. Because they are so short you can pretty much talk about anything. There will most certainly be something in every talk that is of interest to most people, and even if this shouldn’t be the case, it’s only on for 10 minutes and then there’s a new one.
As a speaker it’s great practice to do a short and focused talk. There isn’t much time to talk about nothing and you have to get to your point quicker, if you have one. For someone who’s not done any or much talking the shorter format can also feel less scary and is a good one to practice at. But even if you’re not looking to speak I highly recommend going to Geeky or similar events. Hearing stories about other areas and other subjects is great for broadening our perspective. And inspiring. That spark of genius often come from the most unexpected places or situations when we’re not knee deep down in the problem we’re trying to solve.
Tomorrow – Day 298 | Different types of scary
Image source: Has nothing to do with geeky. From www.flickr.com/photos/ittybittiesforyou/3574743576
