The Need to Disconnect
I was deep in a code review, my fingers flying across the keyboard, and I realized I hadn't spoken an actual word to another human in hours. As a 'recovering introvert,' this is my natural comfort zone; I’ve spent decades being more comfortable in front of a terminal than a crowd.
But the digital burnout this time felt different. It wasn't just fatigue; it was a craving for something with higher bandwidth. It was the pull of the one 'analog' thrill that's defined my career: the unique, terrifying rush of being the 'geek that can speak,' and of connecting with a live audience of fellow technologists.
We Digizens spend our lives optimizing digital pipelines. We build systems that communicate at the speed of light, yet we often neglect the original, analog, high-latency, high-impact communication protocol: one human talking to other humans, in the same room. The terminal is clean. It's predictable. If-then-else. A crowd is... messy. It's a chaotic, asynchronous system with unpredictable inputs. And that's exactly what makes it such a compelling craft to master.
Public speaking isn't a 'soft skill.' It's an analog skill. It’s a craft, like woodworking or welding. It has tools, processes, and principles. And just like any good technologist, I've found the only way to get good at it is to deconstruct it, apply a process, and start building.
With the Central PA Open Source Conference (CPOSC) 2026 date officially announced, my own 'build process' is spinning up. It's time to start prepping the slides. Seeing the great work from 2025 and 2024 is a reminder of the high bar our community sets.
So, let's decompile this craft.
The Deep Dive: A Process for Speaking
For a "Process Guru" like me, the only way to tackle something as intimidating as a live audience is to turn it into a system. You don't just "go speak." You design, build, test, and deploy a talk.
The First Principles: The 'API' of Your Talk
Before you write a single line of code (or a single slide), you have to understand the architecture.
The Goal is Transfer, Not Performance: Your fundamental goal is to successfully transfer one, valuable idea from your brain into the brains of your audience. You are the high-latency, analog transport layer. The "performance"—the jokes, the slick slides—is just the error-correction and compression protocol. If the idea doesn't transfer, the protocol failed.
Define Your Core 'Why': Why are you on stage? What is the one thing you want the audience to do or think differently? This "why" is your root directory. Every other folder (topic) and file (slide) must exist within it. If you can't state your entire talk's purpose in one sentence, you haven't defined your core API contract. My prep for CPOSC 2026 starts here.
The Narrative Arc is the Original User Journey: Every good talk follows a 'User Story.'
The Setup (The Problem): "As a developer, I was frustrated with..." This is where you establish a shared context with the audience.
The Confrontation (The Build): "So, we tried... and it failed. Then we tried... and this happened." This is the meat of your technical journey.
The Resolution (The Lesson): "Here is the solution/lesson we learned. Here is the GitHub repo. Here is how you can avoid our pain." You must land the plane. A talk that just wanders off is like an app that throws an unhandled exception and crashes.
The Audience is a System: They are not a passive database. They are an active, distributed system you must interact with. Their attention is your most valuable resource, more precious than CPU or memory. You need to send 'ping' requests (a rhetorical question, a joke, a show of hands) to check the connection status and get a response.
The Starter Kit (MVG - Minimum Viable Gear)
As technologists, we love our tools. But for this hobby, the barrier to entry is almost zero. You don't need a $3,000 laptop. You just need a process.
Here is my "Minimum Viable Gear" for building a talk:
Tool 1: The "Single Idea" Index Card. My favorite analog tool. Buy a pack of 3x5 index cards from The Paper Store in Camp Hill or any office supply store. Your entire talk must be compressible into one declarative sentence that fits on one side of this card. (e.g., "Adopting APIOps reduces our deployment failures by 90% by treating our API as the central product.") This is your 'Primary Key.' If a slide doesn't support this one idea, it's a 'foreign key' violation and must be dropped.
Tool 2: A Solid Outline (Your
README.md). I'm a process person, so I live in markdown files and mind-mapping tools (like the open-source XMind). This is your interface definition. It defines the structure, the entry points, the data flow, and the expected outputs. I spend 70% of my prep time here, in the outline, before I even think about opening PowerPoint.Tool 3: The "Ugly First Draft" Deck. Use Google Slides, PowerPoint, or
REVEAL.md(for the true geeks). The goal is not to make it pretty. The goal is to get your logic down. Use the "Speaker Notes" section religiously. This is your source code. The slide is just the UI. A slide with 50 words is a "code smell." It means you haven't refactored your thought. The slide should be a simple, visual assertion; your voice provides the proof.Tool 4: A Voice Recorder (Your Unit Test). This is the one you'll hate, which means it's the most important. Use the 'Voice Memos' app on your phone. Record yourself practicing. You will be horrified. This is normal. You're just debugging. You'll catch all your verbal lint: "um," "ah," "so," "like." You'll hear the "runtime errors" where your logic fails. Listen, refactor your notes (your code), and re-run the test.
Tool 5: A Presentation Clicker. This is the one piece of hardware I insist on. It untethers you from the keyboard. It's your 'production deploy' key. It lets you connect with the human system in front of you instead of being chained to the digital one beside you.
The First "Hello World" Project
Your first project is not a 45-minute keynote at a major conference. Your 'Hello World' is the 5-Minute Lightning Talk.
It's the "Blink" sketch on an Arduino. It's simple, it's contained, and it proves all the components (idea, slides, timing, nerves) work together.
Here's the template:
Slide 1: Title & Who You Are. (15 seconds)
Slide 2: The Problem. "I had this awful, repetitive task at work..." (1 minute)
Slide 3: The 'Aha!' / The Fix. "So I wrote this Python script / We adopted this new tool..." (2 minutes)
Slide 4: The Result. "It saved us 10 hours a week..." (1 minute)
Slide 5: The Takeaway & Thank You. "You can do this too. Here's the GitHub link." (45 seconds)
The goal is to get from start to end without a panic() or a segmentation fault. You'll test your idea, your slides, your timing, and most importantly, your nerves, in a low-stakes environment.
The Local Angle: Your 'Staging Environments'
So, where do you deploy this "Hello World" project? Central PA is full of "staging environments" where you can test your code.
Local User Groups: This is your #1 spot. Central PA is rich with tech meetups. Offering to do a 5-10 minute lightning talk is a low-risk, high-reward way to start. They are the friendliest 'compilers' you will ever find.
Internal Demos: Your own company. The 'Sprint Review' or a 'Lunch and Learn.' These are your 'staging servers.' You're among colleagues who (hopefully) want you to succeed. It's the perfect place to get your first 'UAT' feedback before pushing to the public.
Open Mics (For the Brave): If you want to really stress-test your storytelling, try a non-tech open mic night. It's like testing your app on a totally foreign architecture. If your story lands there, it'll kill at a tech conference.
The Big Stage (CPOSC): And of course, there's the 'production environment' itself: The Central PA Open Source Conference. The Call for Papers (CFP) is already open. Getting a talk accepted there is the goal. It's the best, most supportive tech audience in our region, and it's where I'm pointing my own efforts for 2026.
Finding Your Guild
Coding can be a solo activity, but building a career—and a hobby—is not. Public speaking is a performance art, and performance arts thrive on feedback. You can't just practice in a vacuum. You need a guild.
This is where many technologists (especially introverts) fail. We "build" the talk, but we never "test" it with real users.
Toastmasters International: This is the 'coding bootcamp' for public speaking. It's a global organization, but it operates at a hyperlocal level. There are chapters all over Central PA: Toastmasters of Carlisle, Harrisburg Toastmasters, West Shore Toastmasters... the list goes on. You can find a local club on their website.
The Tech Analogy: Think of Toastmasters as your CI/CD pipeline for speaking. You 'commit' a short speech, you 'build' it based on a set of requirements (the 'Pathway' project), and you 'deploy' it to the club. Immediately, you get 'test results'—peer feedback that is constructive, specific, and designed to help you refactor for the next iteration. It's Agile development for your voice.
Meetup.com: Beyond the tech-specific groups, look for storytelling or general 'Public Speaking' meetups in the Harrisburg/Lancaster/York area. These are often less formal, more like a 'hackathon' for practicing a new idea or skill.
The Digizenburg Guild (Let's Start It): I'm serious about this. Are you a Digizen who already speaks? Or one who wants to start? Email me, or find me on the Tech Lancaster Slack. Let's start a SIG (Special Interest Group). We can practice our lightning talks, review each other's slide decks, and share CFP opportunities. Let's build our own guild, right here.
The Local Feed
While we're working on our analog skills, the digital world in Central PA doesn't stop. Here's what's buzzing on the local feed:
The Data Center Surge: A significant push for new data centers is happening across PA, with new legislative initiatives introduced in September and October to support the industry's growth. This could mean big things for local infrastructure and tech jobs.
Shift in PA Tech Leadership: In a major change for the state, Pennsylvania’s top technology leaders, including the CIO, CISO, and CTO, have all stepped down. This signals a massive transition for the Commonwealth's IT strategy and operations.
Harrisburg's New Tech for Crime: The Burg News reports that Harrisburg Police are hopeful that new technology will help them solve and deter crime, bringing more data-driven approaches to city safety.
The Work in Progress
My last lightning talk still ran two minutes over, and I caught three 'ums' on the recording. But it's getting better. It's a good reminder that any complex skill takes practice.
Now, back to the slide deck.
Digizenburg Dispatch Community Spaces
Hey Digizens, your insights are what fuel our community! Let's keep the conversation flowing beyond these pages, on the platforms that work best for you. We'd love for you to join us in social media groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit – choose the space where you already connect or feel most comfortable. Share your thoughts, ask questions, spark discussions, and connect with fellow Digizens who are just as passionate about navigating and shaping our digital future. Your contributions enrich our collective understanding, so jump in and let your voice be heard on the platform of your choice!
Facebook - Digizenburg Dispatch Facebook Page
LinkedIn - Digizenburg Dispatch LinkedIn Page
Reddit - Central PA
Our exclusive Google Calendar is the ultimate roadmap for all the can’t-miss events in Central PA! Tailored specifically for the technology and digital professionals among our subscribers, this curated calendar is your gateway to staying connected, informed, and inspired. From dynamic tech meetups and industry conferences to cutting-edge webinars and innovation workshops, our calendar ensures you never miss out on opportunities to network, learn, and grow. Join the Dispatch community and unlock your all-access pass to the digital pulse of Central PA.