Hosting my first tech event: Google I/O Extended
You would never know how good/bad you are something until you try it.
I had the opportunity to host the Google I/O Extended Uyo event and it was a super beautiful experience for me. In this article, I would take you through how the whole experience was for me. So grab your popcorn🍿.
When I got notified about being the host, I was super excited about it but trust me, nervousness accompanied the excitement probably because this was my first time physically hosting an event.
I love speaking; I think I am the life of the party when I want to but being in a room full of primarily nerds made me unsure of how I was meant to serve and engage them.
I was very particular about not doing it the usual way. I wanted something exceptional. I wanted to give people the opportunity to appraise the event because I believed so much in what the Google lead was doing in regards to pulling up a big event.
Publicity was out, and I got to know my co-host. Still super excited, I planned my outfit, my hair, my event structure and everything. Remember I said I wanted to do something exceptional, which didn’t exclude how I’d look. Thank God for friends who were able to help me come up with an outfit idea. Planning felt good, but the thought of executing was killing 😂
On the event day, I got to the venue and started freaking out a little bit when I saw a crowd. People around me would bet I wasn’t freaking out cause I didn’t look it 😂. I asked Google Lead, Nsikak Thompson 100 questions😂 and that was actually to help me muster the courage. I hope he forgives me(laughs)
It was time to start the show, and I just had to do something. No, I didn’t start out great cause, my voice cracked at one point in my talking and I kind of started with little energy and sweaty hands. The second time I went on stage to moderate didn’t meet the nervous me as I was so full of energy. Having done it the first time, it felt like “you didn’t die, Gloria, give them more of your energy” and “these are your fellow human fgs”. 😂 So from then on, I got energy which I could easily transfer to those in the audience.
What kept me focused was the fact that I had specific goals that I wanted to achieve, and I knew it’d be a success for me if I were able to achieve these
These were my goals:
a. Never let the audience feel tired
b. Engage my audience as regularly as possible
c. Help speakers feel very comfortable in their presentation
d. Encourage a Twitter trend of the event
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e. Have fun
An outlined list of activities made me feel confident about the whole process. Irrespective of whatever technical and non-technical issues came up during the event, I knew how to fix things because I had a great line of activities. About my line of activities, I had games, conversations, stories, and tactics to keep everyone engaged every now and then as well as fulfil my goals.
At the end of the day, I was able to achieve my goals and more. Take a look at what I achieved:
a. The audience was intact till the end of the event, which is very rare for an event that surpassed its limited time due to unforeseen technical issues
b. I carried my audience along and ensured they had a good laugh every now and then and never felt lost about the event. My best moment was a slide show of throwback pictures of a few tech leads in the community.
c. I helped my speakers know relevant information on time and introduced them in the most cheerful way possible, so they never felt out of place.
d. We had 600+ Twitter engagements within 5–6 hours of the event.
e.Energy is contagious, so I made sure I had fun so I could give back fun. I was able to sustain that fun till the end
f. I inspired more people than I thought I’d inspire 😁
I loved every part of this event because it made me relate to developers and the tech community. This is very important to me as I am on the developer advocacy journey. My highlights were seeing my audience happy and getting loads of feedback from different people, including those who inspire me.
I loved working with amazing speakers who were all easy to work with. In no specific order, Mercy Ikpe, Cynthia Peter, Edidiong Asikpo, Tobenna Ezike, Alfred Lazarus, Wisdom Ekpot, Femi Taiwo and Evan Holtrop.
My being a good host would not have been so achievable without an amazing team. I’m grateful to my co-host and the technical team who worked with me and made my job super easy. It was so pleasant working with the Google leads. They trusted me, which encouraged me to deliver nothing but the best
Hosting is super amazing. It’s more like connecting with people of a particular niche and even of diverse niches. It was partly easy for me as developer Relations is something I’ve cultured over time. I’m sincerely grateful for this opportunity and hope to connect with more developers, be of value to them and possibly see them smile from my interaction with them.
To more Speaking and hosting Opportunities 🥂
