How AWS voices program changed presentation skills

I feel that knowledge sharing is a part of my job as a platform engineer. When i visit a public event ( like Re:Invent), or help create new features on the platform, this needs to be communicated within my organization and or communities i am part of. To do this i write internal confluence pages, public blogs and i step on internal stages within PostNL and sometimes on public stages like meetups, community day.

When i became an AWS Community builder i applied for the AWS Voices program and i am happy that i did. To be honest, I find giving a presentation quite nerve-wracking, but as I mentioned, I feel it is my duty to do so.

I had a few irons in the fire in the form of calls for presentations. I applied for the AWS Community Day Netherlands, AWS Summit Netherlands, and AWS Re:Invent. The result was that i was selected to give a presentation for the AWS Community Day Netherlands. Since i was in cohort 3, i only attended one session of the training, before i needed to go on stage. But it had an immediate impact on how i structured my presentation. I change the structure of the presentation, i did not begin with introducing my self!

I am writing this blog at the end of the cohort, and with the things i learned during the 4 sessions i attended, i would have changed a lot more. Not only on the structure, but also on the content of the slides, how i would prepare just before getting on stage, the amount of topics i would talk about and the call for action. I will never become a natural speaker, but the training showed me with examples where i could improve on.

During the training you are also 'forced' to give multiple short talks in small breakout rooms, giving the participants the option to give feedback which was valuable to me, real feedback you can work with. I was talking quit fast and i was using filler words, so the advise to slow down and take pauses, which feels unnatural to me really helped.

I am happy that i attended the Voices program and i would encourage people to join!

With this new knowledge i want to continue to challenge myself to get on stage, with the confidence that the audience gets better content. Also that its not a problem that i do not have provide all the details during the talk. Its enough to interest them and point them to a blog when they want detailed information. One of the tips was that you want to leave the audience to come back for more. Thats what the training did for me, i want to come back for more, to improve my own skills, get more experience, but also to help others improve. So, when in the future i will be allowed to talk at an event, i get better sleep in advance because i can have trust in the process.