Last Tuesday, January 14th, I had the delightful honour to co-host the premiere of Eno, the documentary by Gary Hustwit and Brendan Dawes.
On stage after the screening: Gary, Brendan and me – photo by Savva Terentyev
My task was to welcome people after picking their seats and introducing Gary to the stage to say hi. Later after the film has been shown, and that was the real fun, I lead a 30-minute Q&A with Gary and Brendan, chatting about the creation process, the idea and the technology of how this film was made.
I absolutely enjoyed this and next to co-hosting this, meeting with friends like Keir, Tobi or Brendan and Gary was a great start to the event year.
Same Q&A, but from further away. A nice shot by Keir Whitaker
Note: This article was originally posted on 18 January 2020, but I updated it several times and last on 18 December 2024 again.
I collected these links to write a blog post at some point, but did not get to the point writing it, yet. Now, to make use of my list already, before getting to the point finally writing a blog post about public speaking, I have sorted my notes and list them here in no specific order. And I am going to let you know as soon as the actual blog post is done. Plus I am, of course, adding new resources any time I find something new.
In this two-part post in German, Oliver Schöndorfer writes about his experience of finding a topic and proposing this to an event. He writes about the process of asking himself why he has not and if he wants to get on stage, his first steps when he decided he wants to get on stage and common pitfalls. Spiced with a lot of General help and useful tips. This way, please: Part 1 and Part 2.
It also is important to show the organiser that you did your homework and are prepared. Next to knowing the name of the person you are writing and at least having had a look at the event’s website this means to make up your mind what kind of event you want to speak at. Ethan Marcotte has written this blog post in which he lists his questions he asks any organiser when being contacted.
That's it for now, but I am pretty sure I gonna update it regularly. It would be wonderful, if you send me an email in case you have more links, books or anything that completes this list to learn about public speaking and presenting on stage.
When I got invited to the TYPO3 Conference 2024 to give a talk I thought “Why would my topic and what I have to say matter at a TYPO3 Conference?”. Well, I guess, my event is titled beyond tellerrand, so how could I say no, if someone running an event about topics not being my core topic? I mean, that is the idea of my event, right?
I look as if I would like to eat everybody in front of the stage – Photo by Markus Luigs
I have been asked if I’d like to stay in the hotel, but I said, that I live very close, so maybe I stay one day. When I told my wife, she instantly said, that I know how much I appreciate if speakers are there for the full event and actually also around the event to socialise with the other speakers, the team and attendees. Surely she was right, so I stayed in the hotel and that was a good decision, since I got to meet so many new and interesting people.
The closer the event came, the more I was looking forward to being on stage. The title or my talk was “Why Independent Community Events Matter” or “Why I do what I do and how I got do to it”. I spoke on day two after the lunch break on the main stage and really enjoyed speaking there. I have seen head nodding, people smiling and listening to me and Frank Schmidt, who was the MC for the whole event, not only did a great job during the three days, but also made me feel very welcome on stage.
When Daniel Fau asked me during the awards gala how I liked it and how my experience was, I stated that I was surprised how open and welcoming the TYPO3 community was and that they achieved to build a good community around the product TYPO3. I also had my organiser’s hat on and stated that everything was absolutely well organised during the event and especially at the awards gala on which, next to the talk during the main event, I was interviewed about the process of our job in the jury for the awards, which was great fun also as the moderators – Emily Whigham and Matt Beadle – did a fantastic job and made the whole 5-hour event feel snappy, fun and not boring at all.
Emily and Matt did a really lovely job during the 5 hour awards gala. Photo by Stefan Barac
As I said earlier, I had a fantastic time throughout the whole event and made many new connections. During the after show party after the awards gala, many people came to me and said they were happy to meet me, since a lot of employees of them would attend beyond tellerrand for many years and always came back inspired and happy – well, that makes me happy!
Thanks a lot to the organisers of the event: Luisa, Myrna, Daniel, Carsten and all the others involved. Well done.
I am invited to speak at the TYPO3 Conference this week and have also been part of the jury this year. Thanks for the kind invitation! I knew it is going to be tough as it is conference seasons right now and we ran SmashingConf New York and Antwerp, I ran beyond tellerrand Berlin and I have been part of a big organisers meeting in Vilnius.
Now it is two days until I speak at the TYPO3 Conference in Düsseldorf and all I have written down is the title of my talk. Well, yes, in my head I know what I gonna speak about, but I need to bring it into a certain structure. That means, if you expect an answer to your email this week: sorry – not happening. The next two days I am writing and then I am attending on Wednesday and Thursday.
What will I talk about, you ask? They said, they want to hear a bit about the story and background of why beyond tellerrand came alive and I said, it might be a bit exotic for the audience of a TYPO3 Conference, but well, I guess that is the idea of “beyond tellerrand”, right? I will also spice it up with a few bits about why I think that independent events, and there is not just mine, are important. For diversity, for an independent curation of talks (vs. sponsored or product talks) and for your net work and our community.
If you like, grab a ticket, drop in and spend a good time at the event together with me. Oh, and as it happens, I still have a couple of free passes. Simply email me to get one.
This is the last episode of by appearance at the devslove.it podcast. Alex, Dominik and I were speaking – in German – about education, why events matter for this and about the IndieWeb movement.
With this third of three episodes all three episodes are live and I want to thank Alex Bürner and Dominik Laube once more for the invitation and the lovely conversation.
Off to attend #feedesign in Vilnius which is not only a design festival, but also a meeting of 50+ event organisers to discuss, learn about and help each other with today’s pain points.
A short note as maybe someone does not know, like I did not know. Did you know that you can hold down a key on your keyboard in MacOS for special characters, like you can on iOS? I never tried this and certain characters can’t be typed.
For example: if I want to type the name or my friend Tantek Çelik, for the Ç I can press the keys option+shift+c (⇧+⌥+c) gives you the special Ç in his last name. If you try this with the ć and think that typing ´+c like you’d do for an é it, for some reason does not work (does anyone know why, actually?). I was wondering if there would be a way of typing this anyways instead of copying it from the glyphs panel.
That was the time when Tanja, my wife, stood in my back and said: _“Have you tried pressing and holding down the c-key?”_. And look! It does indeed work, like on iOS? This made me very happy, as I can now use it in any program. Every time I now press and hold a key to get its special characters, I have a smile in my face. Things I did not know … ;)
beyond tellerrand Berlin 2024 is over already again. I started this adventure in 2014 and much happened to the world since then. But the positive vibe at the event last week gave me a lot of hope.
Fact is that 2024 many things have been much, much harder for a lot of my event organising friends. Some had to cancel, some suffer from less attendees and most suffer from less sponsors. Companies and agencies focus on big events these days again or decide to set up and host their own events. Both often is harder and more expensive than supporting independent community events like beyond tellerrand.
Berlin 2024 turned out to be wonderful, though. The conversations I had with lovely attendees, the absolute stunning speakers who all gave their best and brought thought-provoking, inspiring, and motivating presentations and last but not least a team that excelled in being welcoming, helpful and friendly.
The wonderful two days flew by and while I thought I’d stop Berlin after this one for a while and would not run a Berlin edition in 2025 changed my mind. It changed my mind in a direction, where I now say “Now even more it is needed that I work hard on keeping this little island of friendliness and positivity”. And you, those who were there, made this with me. Your warm and wonderful feedback changed my mind and anyone to whom I mentioned that I might take a break in Berlin said “No, please not”.
But that needs your help. Spread the word about beyond tellerrand. Let other people know about it and tell them what it is and what it gave you while attending and when being back home.
I feel empty and exhausted, but my heart is full of lovely memories that will last. Thanks so much to anyone who was involved in creating a festival like this and made it what it was!
