I spoke at PyCascades today giving a talk I gave at DjangoCon US 2024 in Durham last September. The title of the talk was Error Culture and I got some really good feedback from several people in attendance about it. During the talk I saw a lot of head nods, and even got a few laughs (which feels very good as a speaker!)
The one thing that was 'missing' from this talk was the 'nerves'. Before I gave the talk at DjangoCon US I was pretty nervous, but this time I was really calm and I'm not sure why ... or if I was glad that I wasn't nervous.
Maybe I wasn't nervous because I had given the talk before ... or maybe it was because of the amount of time I had practiced. Or maybe it was something else. I'm just not sure.
I'm also not sure if I prefer the lack of nerves before a talk or not. There is something about being nervous before getting on stage that makes you feel a bit more alive, so I did miss the nerves. But that being said, I was happy that I wasn't nervous all day. My talk was at 5pm so if I had been nervous I would have had that feeling ALL DAY!
All that being said, I'm really happy to have been able to give the talk at PyCascades this year. It's been a great conference so far, and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.