Post Ignite Stuff

I’m not going to talk about the content of the ignite too much in this post as you will soon be able to watch the video on vimeo (I’ll link when available), mostly my feelings about it.

I was really very nervous getting on stage in front of 250 people; especially to talk about something that had affected me personally. Admitting that I had burnt-out a year ago, not knowing how they would react. Not knowing if my slide deck would be well received. I was scared.

This wasn’t helped with all the technical ‘issues’ I had with Libre Office with losing slides and failing to save.

I was very nervous when I set foot on stage. My mouth was dry and I couldn’t remember my talk… but noone was judging me.

I started to relax and then something surprising happened - I started to enjoy it. This I was not expecting.

I felt a connection with the audience. People understood where I was coming from…

When my final slide appeared on the screen, the applause was immense. I wasn’t expecting it and I was visibly shaking when I stepped off the stage.

Many people congratulated me and I felt a wash of relief flood over me.

I went downstairs and got a drink and was told that someone had suggested a breakout session on the subject of burnout and I knew I had to attend.

The response both in person and online has been almost totally positive. Only one person has written anything negative (and considering the rest of their post was very negative about everything at DevOpsDays I am ignoring it).

The majority opinion has been we need to deal with this as an industry and get it out in the open, which I totally agree with and I might have to make this my mission over the coming months…