Interview with Aino Vonge Corry an speaker introducer at GOTO Chicago 2014

Hi, it’s Mike with UGtastic. I’m here at GOTO Conf 2014. I ‘m standing here with Rhino Corey, founder of MetaDeveloper, and she is here doing introductions for the speakers for several of the presentations. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. So, your relationship with GOTO Conf, how did you end up coming here and doing these introductions and the opening warm-up for these speakers? Well, there was a long way leading to that. So, it all started in Denmark, in the Middle East Kingdom of Northern Europe, where there was a company called Triforce who wanted to go to a lot of conferences in the US to see a lot of the great speakers, but they couldn’t afford it. So, what they decided to do instead was to create their own conference. So, it started there in Denmark in 1996, and in 1998, it had grown to become a bit larger, and at that time, I just started my PhD in computer science, and I was working with programming languages and design patterns and correspondence between those two, and they invited me as a PhD student in their PhD track to talk about what I was going to do, what I was planning to do. So , you came in as a presenter? Yes, that was the way I started. I was, yeah, in a special track for PhD students. So, not on the tracks where we have Martin Fowler and Jess Humboldt, but… Real stuff. No , not like that. I was not a professional speaker at that time, so I presumably wasn’t a very good speaker at that time. Anyway, so I finished my PhD, and I started doing teaching at University and also in industry at Triforce, and then they offered me a job after my PhD. So, I started working for them in 2001, and one of my first tasks was to do a tutorial about software architecture for the conference, and also to help out inviting some of the speakers. So, over the years, I’ve been working on and off with Triforce and University, but all the time I’ve been helping out with the conference in Denmark, inviting speakers, and now I’ve become the PC chair for many of the conferences that we do, because now it’s not only in Denmark, it’s in here in Chicago. I’m also involved in a JAO conference in Australia, QCon London. So, you’re all over. Go to Berlin, Amsterdam. Yes. Yeah, that’s a lot of flying. It’s a lot of flying, yes. But it’s very interesting to be part of the program committee, because you get the chance to spend some time and look at what are the trends, and see a lot of talks, and who are the good speakers, who could talk about this, talk about that. So, preferably, of course, we want speakers who’ve done something special, so that their name is well- known, or they’re the brand, at least, is well-known, but also that they’re really, really good speakers, entertaining, and can make people listen to what they’re saying. And actually, also, on the third part, we’d like them to be great people to be around, because we like our conferences to be a cozy area. Social. Yeah, social, where the participants and the speakers can communicate with each other. That’s also why we do not have a speaker room. We do not want to hide them away from the participants. Yeah, so the idea is that everybody is out and mingling and meeting. Yeah, exactly. But to do the presentations, you said you started off as a PhD. Did you say you were a student when you first came? Yeah. So, when you were a PhD student doing a presentation, now you’re doing warm-ups and introducing, which, as you described, you want people that are friendly. Well, you kind of want somebody that’s going to be a little bit funny to do warm-ups. How did you go from being this uncomfortable person, maybe a little bit, doing their first talk, to now … Loving to be on stage. Yeah. Loving to be on stage and having a little bit of a performance. Yeah. I don’t know, it came little after little. I remember the first really big presentation I gave was at the Uppsala conference in ‘98. It was one of the papers I had accepted, and I was so nervous, and I rehearsed it so many times. But now, it’s more natural to me. I know basically what I want to say, and then when I get on stage, I sometimes say something completely different. But I just enjoy being there. So I don’t know, it’s practice. Were you always somebody that liked being on stage? Did you do any drama or anything when you were in school? No. No? Just once you got bit by the bug? Yes. It was… I’ve always been a shy child, never wanted to have any attention when I was a child, and now I love it. And, you know, actually it’s interesting. I talked with some people who, when they go on the stage, they’re very gregarious and open, kind of like a Bob Martin, Uncle Bob. And then when they’re offstage, they’re a little bit more reserved, and soft-spoken, or maybe not necessarily Bob Martin. But so the point is, is that when you get on a stage, they’re able to put on a persona, and then when they come back, they’re able to be themselves again. Is that something you do, or do you feel a lot more like your personality on stage is the same as offstage, or is it melded? I definitely think that there’s a change. That’s also why sometimes I don’t really know what I’m going to say when I’m on stage, because I sort of change into somebody who wants to be there and have attention and when I come down from the stage again, I’m just myself. Yeah, does it feel like kind of exhilarating, or a little bit like, “Oh, that was depleting”? No, I’m high about an hour after I’ve been on stage, and then I deflate. And then it’s, “Oh, that was tiring.” Yes, right. I think I use a lot of energy on it. Okay, and so the presentations here at GOTO Conf, who were you introducing? So in the morning introductions, I just share with Dave Thomas. I introduce half of them, and he introduces the other half of them, and now I’m track hosting also for some of the sessions. Like this afternoon, I’m track hosting for, for instance, Greg Young. Yesterday, I was track hosting for Michael Nygaard, Randy Shoup, and Jess Humble, so… What is track hosting? Oh, that means that you are hosting a track in the room, so all the speakers that are coming there are sort of your responsibility. You need to make sure that they’re there, and you need to introduce them so they know when to start talking, and you need to help them stop talking when they should stop talking, and you get their slides for the website. So it’s a little bit of an MC , kind of. It is. So, MC, I know. Yes. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, actually, you know what? I do want to ask one more thing. Okay. Is there, for somebody who’s looking at presenting, and maybe coming to their first big conference… Yes. …because you’ve experienced going from coming into a big conference, is there any particular advice or any thoughts you might think of that they might not be prepared for or maybe are overly prepared for? Anything that… You know, when you… Do you mean when you are accepted to go, or…? Yeah, like when you’re going to go to a talk at a big conference that’s, you know, 100… well over 100 people, or a multi-day track, and it’s going to be a bigger conference, you know, there’s… What are maybe… I’ll split that into two questions. What are some things that they should be prepared for, and what, if anything, is that they might be thinking that they’re used to at a smaller venue that they… Okay. …that won’t translate well into a larger venue? Okay, exactly. It’s a hard question. Yeah, but I could say that one thing is that sometimes you get shocked by the number of people, and you get nervous, and the thing that really works for me… Mm-hmm. …is to rehearse at least the first three sentences, so that I know them by heart, really by heart, just rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, so that even if I get very nervous when I get on stage, I sort of… I’ve got it down to an automation, and once you’ve started talking, normally you forget how many people that are there . Yeah, so that first moment… Yeah, that first moment is very important. Of course you should rehearse your whole presentation, but that first moment is really important, that you really say it out loud many times, and also if people are asking you a question from the audience… Mm-hmm. …you have to remember to repeat the question, of course, so that everybody knows that you’ve understood the question correctly, and everybody has heard the question. Right. So that would be one of the things. Okay. And then don’t listen to all the bad criticism you get. Yeah, try to turn it off a little bit. Yeah. Okay, well, not for real. Thank you very much. That was practice on the first time. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. You’re welcome. User groups with lots to say, interviews and more, no way, sharing great ideas in the tech community. Fascinating conversations, a plethora of information, find out for yourself today at ucdastic.com.