Not a tech post, but as this is the only place I blog, y'all will have to deal with this type of post until I get my own blog up and running. Here's to hoping y'all don't mind :)

Act 1: The Setup

We had an idea-pitching competition in our Uni, and about 20 teams participated. The top 7 were selected for the final round, and yay we were one of them.

In the finals, we had to present our idea in front of three judges through one of the most torturous software of this age, Microsoft Teams :p

Act 2: The goof-up

As you can recognize from the title, we bombed the presentation really hard.

Four of us ran into one disaster after another, non-stop.
The audio won't work, terrible lag, people speaking the wrong part, and whatnot.

By now you can guess that we didn't win _(--)/

Act 3: The Conclusion

To be honest, it was a humbling experience to go through. Being in tech usually detaches you from the reality of how fickle it is.

I mean in 2020 when companies are starting to build mind-blowing stuff in VR & AR, start-ups are working towards full-blow metaverse, here we're having audio issues due to our stupid internet.

But I value this experience, speaking in public scares me.
Right before my turn, my pulse starts to race.

This experience allowed me to tackle this low-key fear head-on and I've decided to keep on doing the same by seeking out as many opportunities as I can to speak/present in public.

Act 4: The Ask

While I'll probably stay away from idea-pitching competitions for a byte,
I'm looking forward to speaking at tech conferences, even if it's a small 5-10 minutes talk.

In case you're somebody who hosts a tech-conference or knows somebody who hosts a tech-conference, please let me know if you've scope to squeeze in one short talk.

If you've made it this far, thanks a lot for reading.
You can reach out to me on Twitter - @manangouhari