From Finding My Voice to Reaching 1,000+ People
How AWS New Voices Shaped My TechXConf 2026 Talk
Enterprise Architecture | AI, Cloud & DevOps | Speaker | Mentor | Tech Evangelist
Some presentations are about sharing what you know. Others teach you something about yourself.
Speaking at TechXConf 2026 was both. Presenting a technical topic to an audience of 1,000+ people was exciting, but what made the experience truly special was realizing how much my approach to preparation, storytelling, and delivery had evolved through the AWS New Voices program.
I joined the program with one simple goal: to become a better public speaker. I didn't expect that the lessons from those five weeks would have such a meaningful impact on how I approached a major technology conference.
Looking back, it didn't just help me prepare a talk. It changed how I think about my audience and the experience I want to create for them.
Taking the lessons to TechXConf 2026:
"Who Governs the AI Agent? A Practical Framework for Enterprise Risk Assessment."
The 40-minute session, scheduled from 10:40 AM to 11:20 AM IST, explored how enterprises can assess and govern AI agents as they gain access to data, tools, workflows, and business decisions.
I shared a practical, AI-powered, risk-tiered approach to assess agents, identify applicable controls, highlight gaps, and support deployment decisions.
There was plenty of technical depth to cover. The real challenge was making it meaningful and accessible within 40 minutes.
That's where the New Voices learnings came into play.
Five lessons I put into practice:
1. Understand the audience before building the slides
Instead of starting with architecture, I started with the audience.
What would they already know? What would they want to understand? What should they take away?
This helped me introduce the problem before diving into the technical solution.
2. Use a question to spark curiosity
A good opening gives people a reason to listen.
For my session, I chose a question as the title: Who Governs the AI Agent?
It introduced a challenge every enterprise adopting agentic AI needs to consider—and gave the audience a reason to stay curious about the answer.
3. Anchor the presentation around three takeaways
I distilled the session into three messages:
- AI agents introduce governance challenges that traditional assessment processes must address.
- Controls should be risk-based and aligned with an agent's actual capabilities.
- AI can make governance assessments more consistent, scalable, and efficient.
These became the anchors for the technical content, helping me avoid an exhaustive walkthrough and stay focused on what mattered.
4. Make the slides support the story
The S.T.A.G.E. framework from the program became a useful guide:
- S – Set it up
- T – Tell them the one thing
- A – Anchor them
- G – Give it space
- E – Ensure everything matches
Architecture diagrams can be complex, but more components and arrows don't necessarily mean better understanding.
I focused on introducing the problem, explaining the approach, and using the demonstration to show why it mattered - not simply showcasing everything I had built.
5. Be intentional about pacing and delivery
A 40-minute technical session goes by quickly.
The breathing exercises, voice practice, and presentation activities helped me become more conscious of pacing, pauses, and emphasis.
I learned to give important ideas room to land rather than rushing to fit everything in.
One thought stayed with me:
Don't try to tell the audience everything you know. Tell them what they need to remember.
The milestone moment:
Presenting at TechXConf 2026 to 1,000+ attendees was a memorable milestone in my public-speaking journey.
More than the presentation itself, I appreciated seeing the change in how I approached it. I was no longer just preparing slides and rehearsing content. I was thinking about the opening, the story, the takeaways, and how the audience would experience the session.
I was preparing an experience, not just a presentation.
That, for me, was the biggest impact of AWS New Voices.
A special thank you:
A heartfelt thank you to Meredith Grundei and Gary Grundei for creating such a wonderful learning experience.
Meredith, thank you for changing how I look at storytelling, audience engagement, presentation structure, and delivery.
Gary, thank you for creating an encouraging environment where we could experiment, learn, receive feedback, and grow.
Those five weeks were much more than a training program.
And, of course, the jazz hands deserve a special mention! A lovely reminder that public speaking can be fun, expressive, and human.
Final thoughts: Don't just deliver a presentation. Create an experience.
As architects and technology professionals, we spend our time designing systems, solving complex problems, and exploring emerging technologies. But communicating those ideas effectively is just as important.
We can build great architectures and innovative solutions, but unless we communicate why they matter, much of their value remains unrealized.
From learning exercises and lightning talks to delivering a 40-minute session before an audience of 1,000+, AWS New Voices helped me connect technology with storytelling.
My biggest takeaway?
Don't just prepare the content. Prepare the experience we want our audience to have.
Let's focus not only on what we want to say, but on what we want people to remember, understand, and take away.
Thank you, AWS New Voices, Meredith, and Gary.
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