After YouthCon Presentation (1) - Timeline and Reflections

I just finished my YouthCon presentation.

• Reference Link

Before diving into the details, here’s a quick TLDR:

1. Initially, I wanted to present for my career as a developer and introduce “an open source project I love!”
2. With the year-end and a busy project schedule, I felt stressed about preparing the presentation and was overwhelmed by the hands-on lab aspect.
3. I received heartfelt feedback from staff and mentors, and I burned with determination.
4. I believe I wrapped up the presentation successfully.

Timeline to the Presentation

Presentation Application

Honestly, I don’t exactly remember where I saw the call for presenters…
Suddenly, after seeing the recruitment post, I started thinking about my highlights as a developer this year.

I wasn’t particularly passionate about new technologies, side projects, or studying.
I felt it would be disappointing to end the year like that, so I decided to apply.

However, I lacked topics or impactful content to present.
During my pondering and frustration, I decided to present about an open source project I use happily.

Given the niche topic, I thought, “If I don’t make it, I’ll just apply again next year.”

And the result?

I was accepted(?). That’s how I started preparing for the presentation…

Presentation Preparation - 1st and 2nd Rehearsals

The preparation consisted of a 1st rehearsal, a 2nd rehearsal, and a final rehearsal.
Presentation methods included a “20-minute presentation” and a “50-minute hands-on lab.”

For the 1st rehearsal, I planned a 20-minute presentation as follows:

• Introduce an uncomfortable situation
• Introduce fzf
• Explain how I use fzf
• Conclusion

During the 1st rehearsal, Jason suggested it would be good to conduct a hands-on lab, and I agreed.
I also thought it would be better to demonstrate and allow practice rather than just explaining verbally.
(Without realizing how challenging it would be…)

There was a gap between the 1st and 2nd rehearsals (about 2 weeks).
I planned to start preparing the presentation once the PPT template was available.

At that time, a rapid deployment project came up at work.
Although I wasn’t the main developer, I had to spend significant time on hypothesis testing, experiments, and code review.

I thought, “I’ll focus and complete it when the template is out…”
The template was released 4 days before the rehearsal. ☠️

Additionally, due to personal schedule conflicts, I couldn’t prepare over the weekend,
and I postponed my previously scheduled 2nd rehearsal by a day.

I brought my unfinished slides and repository…
I kept giving excuses like, “This part isn’t finished yet,” “I’ll do it like this here…”

Thankfully, the staff providing feedback offered detailed and meticulous reviews despite my incomplete presentation.

After the 2nd rehearsal, a mentor was assigned to assist with the hands-on lab presentation.

Presentation Preparation - Final Rehearsal

The mentor was assigned on the evening of the 23rd, leaving only 3.5 days until the presentation on the 27th.

I had to produce the best output in the shortest time.
Additionally, I had:

• A year-end dinner on the 24th
• A dinner date with my girlfriend on the 25th

To cover this schedule, we agreed to do a quick rehearsal via Zoom at 9 PM on the 25th.
I incorporated feedback until 2 AM on the 23rd and 24th, and rehearsed again on the 25th.

From then on, rather than focusing on slide direction and content,
I received feedback mainly to ensure “the flow is natural” and “there’s no confusion for the audience.”

Consequently, I stayed up until about 3:30 on the 25th, haha…
On Friday, I used a half-day off to prepare the presentation and conducted the final rehearsal around 4 PM.

The final rehearsal focused on fine details,
such as the “right side of the terminal screen is too large in the presentation” and “necessity of a presentation script.”

Taking these elements into account and conducting a final run at around 10:30 PM before finishing the day.

I worked till about 2 AM finalizing sections that might be difficult to understand on the PPT for the best condition possible and went to sleep.

Presentation

I woke up around 8:30 AM. Lastly, I checked “awkward sections” and the “hands-on lab repository README” before a final solo rehearsal at home and set off.

As the presentation time (2:30 PM) approached, I became quite nervous.
Hearing about the quick setup after the previous presenter ended made the reality of presenting sink in.

During the presentation, my main focus was “minimizing visible mistakes.”
Reading from the slides, speaking wasn’t particularly difficult.

However, the hands-on practice was especially challenging since the open source provided a GUI environment in the terminal:

I edited files with vi to display results immediately in the terminal environment.

I considered using an IDE, but
as I had many local settings, frequent screen changes seemed likely, so I chose vi.

I might have made 2-3 noticeable code mistakes, but overall, I believe I concluded the presentation quite well.

Reflections

Feedback and Mentorship

I realized how much preparation is needed for presentations.
Especially, there are so many things one can’t notice without others reviewing.

For instance:

• Slides
• Visualizations
• Hands-on practice
• Presentation soft skills

There were numerous aspects to receive feedback on.
Others exchanged much feedback among themselves, but due to my schedule, I couldn’t partake as much, which was regrettable.

Frankly, I felt a bit embarrassed to show my presentation to others.
“It’s unfinished…”, “It’s lacking…”, “I might make mistakes…”

Especially, I felt guilty that perhaps I was wasting the mentor’s time by getting feedback when I wasn’t satisfied with my standards.

One memorable moment was
during the final rehearsal when, despite integrating previous feedback, my preparation was still incomplete, and I made mistakes.
I expressed a sentiment of wanting to pause and try again later.

However, the mentor paused the timer at every mistake, saying, “Take your time, let me know when you’re ready, and I’ll restart the timer.”

Through this, I obtained the final time for each lab session.
Based on this, I could adjust the timings again and refine the content more meaningfully.

Before the final rehearsal run at 10 PM, I still hadn’t implemented all the feedback from the previous rehearsal + was suffering from sleep deprivation with a throbbing headache, even considering whether to apologize and just rest for the night.

But feeling it would be unfair after the waiting, I proceeded.

Because of this process, I genuinely believe I successfully concluded my presentation.
No matter how unsatisfactory or lacking, always present to others and receive feedback.

Hands-on Lab

It was unexpectedly difficult for me.

• Initial intent to present: “Introduce fzf open source!”

Initially, my slides contained rather complex content, if not excessive.
Receiving feedback that “the content is too complex and unclear” led to a reduction in the complexity and quantity.

Reducing the content made the difficulty level very easy by my standards.
Worries began: “Isn’t this too simple?” “Why are they telling me to type this?” I feared they might wonder.

Secondly, I received feedback saying my actions were too fast.

As presenters, everything is new, so

from entering commands like clear, ls, vi, wq
to closing files, there should be verbal tags like “I will save the file now.”

Deliberately limiting the speed of commands and explaining the code while talking was a distinct challenge.

Soft Skills

• Presentation content
• Flow
• Slides

Composing these wasn’t too difficult. I felt consistent improvement through feedback.
However, one thing that didn’t seem to improve was…

It seems like you overuse the word 'Now'.
It feels like an unconscious habit.

I received feedback to write a script to remedy this, but it was noted as hard to fix in the short term.

Writing a script but worrying about overloading my brain from splitting attention between coding, narrating, referring to the script, and watching the audience was overwhelming for me.

I presented with the mindset of “I must consciously control it” mentally.
If I ever present again, I should consciously develop speaking skills.

Additionally, failing to add visual details was regrettable.
I wanted to include occasional memes or emojis in slides,
but lack of time and my inadequate aesthetic sense stopped me.

Before, I focused solely on content. Now, I aspire to pay attention to the presenter’s expressions and tone in future presentations, asking, “How would I phrase or present this?”

Conclusion

This sums up my presentation timeline and reflections.

Beyond that, I’m truly glad I participated in YouthCon.

It’s thanks to the mentor who offered more than 30 pieces of feedback over 4 days,
to the passionate attendees,
and to the staff providing setups and feedback to focus solely on the presentation.

Through these valuable connections and opportunities,
I felt the virtuous cycle reminiscent of my WheeTech experience.
For anyone who wants to present but lacks courage or opportunity, I sincerely recommend YouthCon.

The next post will cover how to prepare a good presentation based on the received feedback and reflections while preparing this one.

• Hands-on-lab Repository Link