Every month, there are two daredevils in Liki. The ones who dare to share their knowledge with the rest of the team. Micro frontends, machine learning, project preparations, Google Analytics, psychological aspects of user experience and much much more to hear about during Liki DevTalks.
But let’s get back to the beginning :)
→ What DevTalk is
I believe there is no need to explain what DevTalk is. But to do justice… It's a popular idea to organize events, webinars, podcasts where developers (but not only!) talk about technical stuff, explain new concepts, share something they find important and interesting.
“DevTalks develop knowledge about things that we don’t do on a daily basis. I can see what technologies and issues my colleagues deal with in different projects. It helps to look deeper into our work and thanks to that we can share knowledge or find missing solutions”.
- Marcin, Frontend Developer
→ Why is it a good idea
The main idea behind such meetings is to share knowledge. You can just join and listen about current trends in software development, design, testing, managing projects and so on. Very often, there is also some practical part included such as live coding so that you can see how something really works. That’s the benefit for all the participants.
However, there is also a great advantage for the person who gives the presentation. You know what they say - the best method of learning is teaching others. So true! Before the presentation you must do some research, you need to check and try something out to show it to others and share your opinion about it. Then explain it to the audience and answer their questions. Quite a challenge, right? But so satisfying! And of course you can learn how to speak in public or even overcome your fear of it as you give the presentation in a safe environment of your teammates.
“During preparing for the presentation we realize (not even once!) that we don’t know something as well as we thought. But we shouldn’t panic. Thanks to that we can make up for the shortcomings and become better programmers.”
- Marcin, Frontend Developer
“Live speaking gives me some space for leaving my comfort zone and dealing with a new challenge.”
- Kinga, Head of Design
→ Who speaks on DevTalks
The answer is short - literally everyone. Of course it’s usually easier for seniors with vast knowledge and expertise. Or for those who feel like a duck in water while presenting and speaking in public. However, it doesn’t mean that only confident seniors can do it. If you feel like doing some research and practicing your presentation skills, go ahead! We are more than happy to hear everyone’s voice :)
→ How to talk on DevTalk - tips & tricks
Is there any formula for success? I guess you know the answer. It’s a tricky thing to prepare an interesting and engaging presentation. Of course, the topic and the content is very important. But quite often that’s not enough. You know it, right? You’ve listened to a number of lectures, podcasts, webinars or meet-ups to know it. See what advice our speakers have:
- Be concrete, don’t drift away from your topic
- Be time conscious, don’t make it too long
- Practice your presentation beforehand, check how long it takes
- Use language that is understandable for your audience
"As experts we easily fall into the trap of using expressions that only we can understand. We often use shortcuts as some things are obvious to us and so the listeners can have difficulties in understanding."
- Kinga, Head of Design
- Use examples, share trivia and lay the grounds for their own digging into the subject
share the tricks and specifics with your audience, discuss the finer points connected with your topic during your presentations
share the knowledge you are good at
share nuances during your presentations
- Make sure the level of advancement of your speech is appropriate for your audience so that they don’t feel confused
- Take care of the visual aspect of the presentation
- Enjoy it!
→ What we talk about
Basically we talk about everything that we’re interested in. The choice depends on our team members and covers all areas we deal with, i.e. frontend, backend, design, project management, quality assurance, IoT, DevOps issues and all the other technical aspects of software development. But there is space for more! As we want to know each other and what we do on a daily basis, our speakers bring up business, sales, hr or marketing topics. This makes us realize that we all work for common success :)
“It’s good to choose the topic that will be interesting for a wider audience and connected with various areas. One of my topics was creating a Design System which is the basis for almost all people working on the particular project, from designers through developers to marketing specialists. I think that this way I managed to reach and grab the attention of more listeners.”
- Kinga, Head of Design
→ How it works in pandemic times
It’s not a surprise that last year pushed us towards remote work, but also remote integration events and DevTalks. We use Zoom to meet there, listen to the speakers and have some discussion afterwards which often changes into less factual small talk. We need that as a team and this is another good opportunity to meet, talk and have some laughs within a larger group. Pandemics has changed the organizational aspects of DevTalks, but the idea and engagement remain the same!
As the team we need such of stuff: the meeting and discussion of interesting points with interentsing people and sharing the knowledge with them.
Summary
I believe you are already convinced how great of an idea DevTalk is. But to sum it up...
"For me being a speaker was one of the most interesting experiences in my career. It gave me more insight into the way I organize and share my knowledge, how difficult and challenging that is."
- Marcin, Frontend Developer
As we want to share our knowledge with a wider audience, we’ve decided to record some of the presentations and share with you :)
Check out our Expert Zone podcasts!
