This is my story of how I became a speaker and my internal struggle between online and onsite speaking. Part 2 of 3

Online Ksope'21 was my first public speaking experience.

A person prepares for such an event for an incredible amount of time. And I think every presenter has to go through that at first. Spend too many hours on a topic, repeat it too often, get fed up with it at some point.

And now my most interesting observation about speeches: no matter how often you present online and how good you are at it, when you go out in front of a live audience, only then your legs give out, you start to sweat excessively, talk too fast and, simply put, stress yourself out.

I prepared for Kscope for a huge amount of time. But I was getting ready to speak online!

It turns out that it can be very difficult when you do it with 3 monitors for the first time, using professional audio and video equipment, having a prompter to help and every possible technology that has developed a lot during Covid when it comes to online communication.

My working station during online Kscope'21

In autumn 2021, I went with the same topic to the conference onsite - HrOUG'21 (conference in Croatia) and in my opinion it was my worst speech for two reasons:

First of all, it was really my first live performance, in front of a live audience, not avatars in voice chat.

Secondly, I failed to believe that once I said the subject, how difficult could it be to say it a second time?

And the whole difficulty of the onsite presentation resulted in poorly prepared slides (black background instead of white), a projector not of the highest quality, working with a microphone, the sight of dozens of pairs of eyes staring at you and the previously mentioned factors: stress, sweat, speaking faster and faster.

Me just before my first public speaking - I can see the stress ...

Conclusion: online I couldn't make up my mind and talk in one hour, onsite I finished after 37 minutes, mentally exhausted and humiliated...

But I needed it! This experience taught me what a long road ahead of me to be a good speaker, but it also opened my eyes to what to pay attention to and what I need to improve.

Another curiosity, I came back with this topic for one more conference - APEX World'22 and then my speech was at least satisfactory. I felt then that this topic was finally prepared and told as it should be. The speech lasted as long as it should, I felt confident in this topic, I tried not to rush and above all, what is the most difficult - not to stress.

Me with the same topic half a year later, completely different feeling

All the experience described above taught me one thing: how to prepare better and better for live speeches, and how irrelevant they are for online speeches.

And now my observations on the conference online - Kscope'21 and onsite - Kscope'23:

In retrospect, a person who wants to develop their brand, be recognizable, have real speeches behind them, wants to experience the atmosphere of the conference with all their being - they should not participate in an online conference! During the online edition, I didn't even feel a substitute for what awaited me at Kscope'23.

However, if you are already selected to be an announcer at an international conference such as Ksope, do it, stress yourself and take advantage of the benefits that the limiters have prepared for you.

Me - happy at Kscope'23

End of part 2, in the next one I will describe in more detail my observations after Kscope'23. Stay tuned!