I am sitting in my Uber heading to the San Jose airport at 5:30 am. The night before my presentation, I was practicing and trying to remember what I wanted to say. After the aircraft check-in, I was now sitting in the plane reading over my slide deck. Before I knew it, the plane took off and my eyes immediately shot into a deep sleep. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in LA; this is where the fun began.
Once I was outside of the terminal, I took another Uber to the ADP center in Pasadena and walked around in their excellent event space. The center had amazing lighting and it was the perfect venue space. Mind you, this event was run by a team of volunteers and they did a fantastic job. Before I got my badge to sign in, I finally met a person that I had mentored for over three years. It was so good to see him. I had watched him grow from a beginning UX designer to a full-time UXer that I am grateful to call my colleague. I was also able to meet another one of my students from Careerfoundry. I regularly meet a few people that reach out to me from Linkedin. Being here, with them, was such a fantastic experience based on their expressions of their stories and those of others. Sharing stories with colleagues is the ideal environment for each of us to start to learn how to speak and how to listen as well.
I have learned that my own experiences, during these presentations, can be broken down into the beginning, middle and end. I have come to understand that each segment has its own intrinsic value that contributes to the whole experience. So let’s take a look at what this looks like!
Before the Excitement
A few months before the conference, I was getting ready for my talk and asking myself how I might bring value to others. In our industry, we are always questioning what is best for our users, right? Yet, do we ever think, what is best for ourselves? Half of the time, we don’t even get there; it’s not a thought at all. This realization is what I wanted to bring to the conference; the question of how we can look at ourselves and deliver what we need to learn. I can guarantee you that no one knows ourselves as much as we do. Since the beginning of our time, we have goals and dreams, but at some point, we put them aside and think that we can not do them. What comes to mind is fear or we talk ourselves out of it. This is so easy to do. Why do we do that? Do you think you will fail? Maybe you will fail, but who cares?
Middle is the New Excitement
Failing is a natural way of how to grow into something. Failing is not only how we grow into something but also how we learn to do something new. Are we afraid to try something new? Some are, but in most cases, it is actually not that bad when you think about it.
I finished up the remainder of my talk and asked for a volunteer. Alex came onto the stage and I asked him this question, “Can you think of a time when you wanted to do something, but you talked yourself out of it?”
Alex replied, “I have so many.”
I responded, “You just need to pick only one, do you have one in mind?”
Alex said, “Yes”
I replied, “Great, would you mind sharing that experience with us?”
Alex responded, “Well, I always wanted to do a talk at a tech conference.”
I finished, “Well, Alex, you are already halfway there. You are talking into a microphone and standing on a stage. So now you can do it.”
You see, Alex was able to share his thoughts and since he was able to speak them out loud, he was able to make that first step. That first little step is pretty much all you need. It will do wonders.
Conference Heros
As the conferences went on, we had some fantastic speakers such as:
Lynn Boyden
Natalie Dunbar
Matina Moreira
Geremy Mumenthaler
Ian Go
From learning how cool it is to be a librarian to understanding what content creation is, we are learning about typography from the beginning of time and how data can drive our everyday decisions. We are also learning how a workshop will provide challenges from a problem and how to put solutions gained from the experience into practice.
No matter where you are in the world, one thing I have learned from the World IA in Los Angeles is that everyone was there for one reason and that is to help others to get to where they need to go. Not only did they reveal their stories of u-turns but a few also shared their life pauses with me where they came to a complete stop. The best part is to hear their stories. Their stories could inspire you in some way and you may learn something.
After
Once I had completed my talk, a few people came up and told me their story. They felt a bit better because they did their u-turns or put things on pause and had realized that the experience was equal to a reset. I kindly reminded them that it was their timeline; not that of anyone else. I know that excluding the timelines of others was hard for them to do, and do not think of other individuals and in what they have accomplished already. So, don’t worry about it so much, the best way is to take one step at a time. How fast you go is up to you.
