This year, I was invited to speak at four international conferences and I had the opportunity to speak at three of them. And I must say it was an enriching and unforgettable experience for me. The positive response and feedback that I received after presenting at each of these conferences was overwhelming. I was happily surprised by the appreciation that was given by the attendees for the content and learnings that I shared in my talks. The conferences that I spoke at were:
Every day, at work from home or at offices, all of us do some amazing work. But we are so busy with our day to day work that we rarely think about sharing our knowledge and learnings on a broader platform where others could also benefit from our work. Presenting at technical conferences is a great opportunity to showcase our work and network with some great minds.
Before 2020, I had attended a few conferences but never spoken at any. I always found these conferences a great place to learn something new and connect with other professionals. About a year back when I was at one such conference, I thought of presenting in the future. I came back home and made a list of the upcoming conferences and their dates for the call for papers. Call for papers is a concept where the conference organizers announce that they are open to receive the research papers. The interested candidates then submit their papers and if selected they are invited to speak and present at the conferences.
I should also tell you that I was not selected for the first two times when I submitted my paper. It was only the third time when my paper was accepted and I was invited to speak at a conference which was scheduled to happen in Munich, Germany in April 2020. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that conference got canceled. I was later invited to speak at three other conferences: The Diana Initiative, SRE[in]con, & MITRE ATT&CK. I presented on three different topics at each of these conferences.
The process, starting from selecting a topic, writing the proposal paper, preparing the presentation, and finally speaking at the conference, is time-consuming but worth pursuing. Presenting at conferences is a great learning experience in many ways. For the first two conferences where I presented, I had collaborated with my colleague that made the experience more fun.
I would encourage all, who are reading this blog, to prepare and submit their proposals for when they see a call for paper next time. Even if you think that there are other experienced professionals in your industry who may know more about your topic than you do, still try submitting the proposal paper. I strongly believe that all of us have something to share that others will be interested in knowing and learning about.