My talk at Django Day Copenhagen 2024

This post is later than I wanted it to be (I got sick right at the end of my trip), but I'm glad I now have the chance to write it up while everything is still somewhat fresh in my mind.

So: I gave my first-ever conference talk. And I went to another country to do it! I had such a good time. If you're not interested in reading this post and just want to see the talk, you can check it out here. The talk is about my side project, Named After Women.

Django Denmark has been organising events since 2018. I must have seen this year's CFP on LinkedIn. I was especially encouraged by the statement that first-time speakers, regardless of their amount of Django experience, were explicitly welcome. I got brainstorming about what I could talk about, and ended up sending in my abstract a few hours before the deadline.

While I would unreservedly recommend speaking at this conference, I should mention that there was no speaker fee, which may make it inaccessible to some. For that reason, I want to be transparent about the fact that I was able to use work time/budget for the conference itself, travel & accommodation, as well as much of the proposal and preparation.

Ideally I would have got the train there; after all, it theoretically takes around seven hours with just one change, and it's supposed to be quite scenic. However, there's been engineering work on the Berlin <> Hamburg railway line for months, so it would have taken much longer. Plus, I'd be travelling on a German bank holiday, so I was even more anxious about DB delays than usual. I ended up flying with Norwegian, which took under an hour. This made me feel extra guilty vis-à-vis my carbon footprint... but I must admit, I was very satisfied with the airline!

A friend of mine goes to Copenhagen fairly often as her partner is Danish. She offered to lend me her top-up transport card for getting around the city, which was a relief as the ticketing system is allegedly a bit of a pain for tourists. I was shook that it took a mere ~15 minutes to get from the airport to the central station, and there were multiple options, e.g. regular train, metro. (Berlin Airport — which is a whole topic unto itself — could never.)

When I got to my hotel, it was nearly 8pm. In the complete absence of any shops or restaurants nearby, I found a vegan burger place on Wolt and ordered in. I checked the exchange rate afterwards; welcome to Copenhagen. I lay in bed that night thinking about how wild it was that I had only just got to this foreign city, yet tomorrow I would be getting up early, navigating buses to make my way to some venue, and... giving a talk to a bunch of strangers?

But the venue was great! It seemed to be a sort of cultural and community centre, located in Nørrebro, a district I found similar to certain parts of Kreuzberg and Neukölln in Berlin. I would guess there were 50-100 attendees (really bad at counting people, sorry). Good job I'd already connected with a couple of fellow speakers on LinkedIn, so I didn't have to feel too awkward when I arrived.

The organisers gave an intro and then the talks began. Overall, it was really cool to see people with varying professional backgrounds and levels of experience talking about technical topics related to Django, as well as giving valuable insights about their experiences, such as Raffaella Suardini's talk about her time in the Djangonaut Space programme, which set her up to become a Django source code contributor!

Lunchtime rolled around and I really appreciate that catering was not only fully vegan but actually filling: a delicious vegetable curry with rice, flatbread, and salad (and also some cake during the afternoon break). It was nice to sit at a table and chat with some new people, but I can't deny it was hard to completely relax because my talk was in the first post-lunch slot. I went to go set up about 15 minutes beforehand and panicked because my laptop wouldn't connect to the WiFi, then my adaptor wasn't cooperating. Luckily there was a spare one, and luckily someone let me connect to their mobile hotspot.

The talk started, and I was nervous, but I just pushed through. I only had slides, no notes, but I think I did a pretty good job of conveying everything I wanted to say. At some point — maybe two thirds in — I broke through a wall and suddenly felt less nervous. I'd got through most of it, I could see people in the audience smiling, and they were even laughing at my jokes. I reached the end and it was time for questions. I was bracing myself for a barrage of critique, but it was the total opposite.

I really didn't see my talk being so well-received. Not only were there questions that showed real interest in my project, but also some insights and suggestions that I hadn't considered before. During the breaks later on, people came up to me, telling me how much they liked my talk and my project, saying they'd had similar thoughts to me regarding street-naming, even offering to contribute? It was such a validating feeling I'd never had before in my career.

By the time the event finished, I was in sensory/social overload and desperately needed to spend some time on my own (as well as buy some things for breakfast). I wandered the quiet side streets of Nørrebro just as dusk was setting in and took myself out for pizza, which was just what the doctor ordered. I considered returning to the hotel, but I'd had such a nice time and met such lovely people, I couldn't do that in good conscience. So I walked back to the venue and then it was pub quiz time, which was a lot of fun. I'd made the right decision; it was good to invest that little bit of extra time to bond with fellow attendees, and to properly say goodbye and see you next year.

I left Copenhagen feeling ill, but very inspired. I can't wait to find some time to rebuild my project in the ways I want to, as well as create a vision for how I want to expand it. I think it made all the difference that there was such a supportive and welcoming vibe at the conference, too; perfect for stepping on stage for the first time.