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tech

Being a speaker at the Effect Days

I was in Livorno last week for the second edition of the Effect Days. This time as a speaker. But it all started way before that. 1 year ago, 6 months before, and countless revisions coming up to my 10 minutes on stage.


Sandro Maglione

Sandro Maglione

Software

Effect Days 2025 has been a blast πŸš€

Second edition, this time with me as a speaker. Months of expectations and preparations leading up to last week.

Here is what happened behind the scenes πŸ‘€


Effect Days 2024

First edition, last year in Vienna. I had no doubts, and bought my ticket right away, no hesitation 🀝

It was also my first time attending a real conference (no meetups or similar, but a full 3 day thing)

That's when I discovered that conferences are made for meeting people.

Yes you get the talks, yes you get to learn a few things, but it's all offset by the new people you meet.

That's when I told the Effect team: next year I would like to come as a speaker πŸ‘€

Summer 2024

Preparations for a conference take a long time. The team reached out to me in September (6 months before the conference) πŸ’πŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ

September 2024, 6 months before the conference. It takes a long time to put all together (Shout-out to Mirela)
September 2024, 6 months before the conference. It takes a long time to put all together (Shout-out to Mirela)

Once again, I had no doubts. I jumped in straight away πŸš€

Preparing a talk takes (a long) time

My assigned talk time was 10 minutes. Not much you can articulate in 10 minutes.

But I didn't grasp that yet at the beginning. So I built a 90-slides deck as first draft 🫠

At least I had no trouble choosing the topic, more or less (Effect on the Frontend).

A quick (and rushed) trial run revealed how I needed to shorten the talk (and reduce the message).

Revisions, countless revisions

As I started removing slides, the topic also shifted.

I had to focus the topic to a single and powerful message (instead of all the frontend).

I reduced the talk to Frontend: When, How and Why. But that was still too many slides πŸ’πŸΌβ€β™‚οΈ

So I broke it down to make it even more impactful, showing how I use effect on the frontend.

Feedback and trial run

As part of being a speaker, I had to submit a final draft of the slides 1 month before the conference, and a video of a trial run 2 weeks before.

The feedback from the trial run changed again the structure and purpose of the talk 🀦

I removed more and more slides, and instead decided to switch between VSCode and slides, showing the code instead of slides-only.

The last few weeks I spent all for rehearsal, fixing my points and any possible unclear message 🀨

Conference day

My talk was scheduled right after lunch, which turned out to be good since I had more time to connect and test my setup before the talk.

I was confident of the talk leading up to it, after all those refining and rehearsal.

But, the few hours leading up to my time I experienced some tremors anyway (for no conscious reason). Excitement mixed with trepidation. I guess a talk to 200 people still takes its toll.

10 minutes is not that long

A few take away from my experience:

  • Make your content shorted than your time. I had content for 10 minutes, but as the end time starts approaching you feel the pressure. This forces you to cut content or rush it. Reduce.
  • I switched between code and slides. This didn't help in connecting and looking at the audience, since I was constantly checking the screen to see if it was displaying the correct content
  • The microphone was attached to a pedestal. This forced speakers to stay standing in one place, reducing the connection with the audience even further
  • I missed (forgot?) a couple of key moment/punch-lines I had prepared for the talk. It was okay without them anyway, but not as planned

Overall a awesome learning experience. I like being a speaker, you will see me again on stage (soon) πŸš€


I cannot recommend the Effect Days enough (and generally any small conference about a technology you enjoy) ✨

Back home, back to work now 🫑

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