Barcampbrigton5 changed my life!

I attended my first BarCamp conference at TheSkiff communal workspace in Brighton last weekend. I was lucky getting a last minute Geek-girl ticket. To be honest, the structure of the event did make me anxious at first. The event was described as an unconference where there are no pre-determined streams or tracks for people to follow, and every attendee is expected to give a thirty-minute talk. Wow! When I heard I should be doing a talk I thought this would be beneficial to me but could not help thinking about my past failures in public speaking.

Having got my ticket I started worrying about how I was going to get over my insecurities and deliver my talk. However, this time was different; I did not feel too scared and I knew deep down that everything was going to be just fine. I was more positive this time due to the support I’d had from groups such as the BrightonFarm and theSkiff. Many thanks guys!

I would also like to mention someone else some of you may know: Aleks Krotoski who is an academic and journalist. I found out about her via Twitter, read a blog by her and watched her talk from Wonderlab 2010, on YouTube. This talk was amazing, I watched her express herself so freely and passionately that I felt inspired to be less inhibited in front of an audience.

My talk was called Accountancy for Freelancers where I tried to engage people with my passion for accountancy by using gesture and expression and body language more freely. I was doing the talk and thinking I am doing fine, it’s all good, keep your cool and continue with the talk. People engaged with my talk by asking questions and engaging me in discussion of various areas of accountancy. This is where I realised that my knowledge could do some good in the community and there should be more “accountancy for freelancers” talks in Brighton. This is the plan!

BarCamp Brighton 5 didn’t only help increase my confidence in public speaking but also allowed me to meet lots of interesting people from all over. I learned a lot. I went to talks on WordPress, copy writing, and groups within society and microprinters and I watched an In-House Family Fortunes game that was really fun. BarCamp Brighton 5 changed my life by making me realise how such community support can help us be happier as well as more productive.