Sunday Summation 25: A Charity Ball, Climate Breakdown and York Code Dojo

Welcome back to another weekly roundup where I chat about my adventures and favourites from the week just gone.

The Lord Mayor’s Valentines Charity Ball

On Saturday evening Des and I dusted off our party clothes and headed over to The National Railway Museum for an evening of fun at the Lord Mayor’s Valentines Ball.

The event was all in aid of the York Lord Mayor’s and Sheriffs charities:

My Sight York  - supporting local visually impaired people to live independently

The Island - mentoring children and young people in York

York Music Hub - providing inclusive opportunities for children and young people to learn music

We had a fantastic evening and more importantly, I believe the event raised a significant sum for the charities!

Time is running out #SchoolStrike4Climate

Whilst I wasn’t able to join the protest myself, I did manage to catch a glimpse of the York march on my lunch break on Friday.

Thousands of schoolchildren and young people across the UK walked out of classes to join the climate strike due growing anger at the failure to tackle the crisis in any kind of meaningful way.

Climate breakdown is happening and we can no longer stand by and stick our collective heads in the sand - we need to take radical and immediate action if we want to preserve the planet for future generations.

Trying out some plastic free beauty from White Rabbit Skincare [Ad - Gifted]

It would be disingenuous to bang on about how we all need to take climate breakdown seriously without trying to do something about it myself. Over the past few months I’ve made a lot of changes, including dramatically cutting down the amount I drive, but one of the things I still really struggle with is packaging, especially when it comes to skincare/haircare. 

I actually came across White Rabbit Skincare whilst putting together a guide to UK plastic free/ low waste beauty brands for this blog.

I have extremely dry and acne-prone skin (despite almost reaching my thirties) which always makes me hesitant about compromising on quality when it comes to skincare. This has previously put me off (rightly or wrongly) from switching from trusty old favourites to plastic free products.

I’m going to be testing out a few bits from their range over the next month or so and am hoping that they tick all the boxes. I’ll let you know how I get on!

If you want to have a try for yourself, I have a discount code for 15% off.

Just enter “BETHAN15” at the checkout.

York Code Dojo

I’ve dabbled around the edges of learning to code for a long time now, however this year I’m determined to make more of an effort.

You can of course learn at home on your own using online learning tools such as Code Academy or Code School, but I personally have always found interactive classes with other people are much more suited to my own learning style.

Luckily there are a number of groups that exist across the UK which offer this type of environment!

On Wednesday I headed along to York Code Dojo which offers an informal environment for people to come together and teach/learn from each other.

During the session we worked in pairs on some sample interview style coding problems, which was a very interesting way of being introduced to fundamental subjects such as linked lists, recursion and binary trees.

P.S

I'm still looking for folks who would be willing to share their stories about resilience and overcoming challenge on @thebravelisten!

Interested or know someone who might be? DM me or email me - bethan@bethanvincent.com

Any help sharing this also v. appreciated!

— Bethan (@BethanVincent) February 16, 2019

Tips for First Time Conference Speakers

Last week I received the extremely exciting news that my talk submission had been accepted for The Lead Developer conference in London this June. I had submitted my application for a talk about hiring diverse teams on whim, not really expecting to be chosen as I knew the competition would be fierce.

I’m by no means an expert and would say I’m only really at the start of my “career” as a regular conference speaker. I’ve spoken at a handful of big events, including Dot York last October, and have also amassed a bit more experience talking at local meet-ups such as Front-End-York and Code Pen Hull.

In preparation for June, I started to look out on the big world wide web for conference speaking tips, but found a lot of the articles were targeted at established or high-profile speakers. I decided to put together my own set of tips for people who are in a similar position to me and perhaps thinking about speaking for the first time, or looking to progress from small events to larger platforms.

Pitch an original or compelling idea

If you’re making a submission to a very popular call for papers/speakers, the likelihood is that there will be people pitching very similar topics to yours in a general sense.

In order to catch the organiser’s attention you need to make sure that your talk proposal has a USP that sets you apart from the other submissions. This USP needs to be compelling and ideally original.

If you have a story, experience or point of view that is unique to you - make sure you highlight that clearly in your application. Think about what you can bring to the table that can not be replicated by someone else - that might be an unusual career history, experience in a particular company or vertical, or a story about how you have overcome an unusual challenge.

Begin by looking for shorter speaking slots

This is how I started with speaking at conferences and I think it’s a really good route into becoming a regular speaker. Whilst conference organisers want to bring new stories and faces to their events, they also need to know people can deliver a compelling and engaging talk, which is hard to judge if you don’t have a track record with public speaking.

Many conferences offer small slots to less experienced speakers for this reason. Firstly, it’s less daunting for people with less experience to go up and speak for 5 minutes as opposed to 30, secondly if the talk doesn't go as well, it’s not a huge chunk out of the delegates day.

I started off with a 5 minute slot at UpFront in Manchester way back in 2017 and have built things up from there. (On a side note, also look out for conferences which offer first time speaker programmes. This is how I got into UpFront).

Practice a lot, but not too much

My personal opinion is that you can tell when a talk is over-practiced - it takes on a slightly robotic feel and just doesn’t feel as authentic.

Whilst I’d never recommend just turning up and delivering something off the cuff (unless you know for a fact that works for you), there is a point where practicing will deliver diminishing returns.

I usually stop when I can remember the outline of my talk in the order I want to cover each point, even if the exact delivery differs on each run through.

Get feedback from multiple sources whilst writing your talk

It is (hopefully) very unlikely that you will have a homogenous audience on the day of your talk.

In reality, you will be speaking to a diverse range of people from a spectrum of backgrounds, each with a different set of experiences and opinions. A particular point or story that resonates with one person, may not resonate with another.

I would argue that your job as a speaker is to try and connect with as many people as possible through your narrative, however this can be hard to judge if you’re relying on your own judgement or the feedback of a few people. As they say, you do not equal your user (or audience).

To counterbalance this, try and get feedback on an initial outline of your talk from as many people as possible. Ask them what worked/or didn’t work for them and why - from this you will be able to gauge whether your talk has that wide-reaching impact.

It’s also useful to get feedback on the finished talk as your practicing, if only to understand if you’re talking to quickly or not enunciating properly.

I’m definitely not the canonical expert in public speaking, so I asked my community if they had any more tips to share with you:

Not conferences specifically but have done public speaking for large groups. I never scripted. I had bullet points and did prepare but delegates will forgive it being rough around the edges as long as you talk to them, look at them and engage. In my opinion of course. :-)

— Love Cheese (@Lovecheeseyork) February 9, 2019

Pauses are your best friend. Allows points to hit home. I never knew what to do with my hands so good advice is to keep elbows by your side, start gesticulating with one hand and the other naturally follows.

— Andy Bowman (@Bowman_A_B) February 9, 2019

“Be yourself, breath and smile - very simple but people often forget the basics when they are perhaps nervous or in panic mode 😄” - Sally Parker, MD Pick & Mix Marketing

I always find going through my presentation or what I want to say outloud before I write any slides, really helps me feel confident in what I’m saying.
I’m also a big fan of mostly winging it, then if it goes wrong or you forget something it’s less of an issue ☺️

— Rebecca Rafferty (@RebeccaRaff10) February 10, 2019

“In addition to the good advice so far, watch ex US President Bill Clinton’s speeches - in particular the way he scans every part of his audience, making sure of apparent eye contact with all, wherever they are seated. Note also his measured pace of delivery, avoidance of repetition and absolute absence of “err”, “erm”, and other filler words such as “like” and “basically”. Clean, crisp and to the point. Don’t be afraid of using short silences throughout your delivery. A short silence following an important point is an effective reinforcer of the point. Avoid subjecting the audience to what I term a continuous “ torrent of words”. Give them time to think about and absorb the crucial points in your delivery. If using PowerPoint or similar, avoid looking back and speaking to the projection screen. Keep eye contact with the audience and use your tablet/laptop screen in front of you to glance at the presentation for prompts etc. Avoid over-running, especially if yours is one of several successive presentations for the audience in that session. Finally, try to add some humour as appropriate - it always helps!” Bob White Managing Director at Blue Oak Consultancy

Be careful not to pack too much information into your presentation. You should be able to fit everything in and still have time to speak at a gentle pace, pausing and reflecting when needed. It's not a race to the end!

— Claire Davies (@greedywordsmith) February 9, 2019

Keep smiling when it goes wrong. The audience only notices when you look uncomfortable.

— Rachel Willmer (@rwillmer) February 8, 2019

“1, Plan your talk over weeks not days. Every time you get an idea write it down on a scrap of paper. Then after a few weeks arrange them into a structured talk - start, middle and end. 3, be a storyteller. Use advice from Hollywood script writer Michael Hauge 4, learn it without needing notes. Abraham Lincoln would read his aloud to make it stick. Do this over a few weeks. 5, if you feel nervous tell yourself it's ok. You only feel this way because you care. It's a healthy stress that helps. This is a stress challenge response not fight or flight. 6, Be enthusiastic and show lots of energy 7, get the audience involved. Ask them questions. 8, learn to be a feedback junkie. Learn to accept all feedback critical stuff is the best. 9. Do it often. The best speakers are those who practiced the most. “ Alex Burbidge, Founder of Pro Safety Management and Big Smiles

Make sure to take your time , and don’t try to fill in the pauses with unneeded words :)

— GirlsinScience (@ScienceGirlsin) February 8, 2019

“Great question. I’ve done a fair bit of speaking. Here’s what I do: 1. Get super clear from the event organiser why I’m the speaker invited, what they need this session to achieve for the audience. 2. Edit out everything I enjoy sharing that doesn’t suit this audience/event/occasion. 3. Eliminate anything I don’t know to be true or worthwhile. I’m asking people to trust me with their time and attention; trust may be lent but never, I think, taken for granted. 4. Bring warmth into the room. Invite listeners to think with me. Sometimes that’s as simple as listening well to who’s spoken before me, and make respectful links to what together we’ve all heard. 5. Keep to the time. Nothing strangles a memorable close than an anxious Master of Ceremonies who needs to wrestle the mic and make up for time lost. 6. Prepare for the tech setup the event organiser described ahead of time, but be ready for technology to fail or falter. Whatever the circumstances, “the show must go on”. 7. Afterwards, if you meet people who were in the audience, thank them for their time and attention. Ask them about their whole day. If they mention your contribution, ask them if they have any questions or fresh angles on your topic.“ Kate Hammer, Founder of Throughline

Not a first time conference speaker, but I would advise practicing your talk in front of friends and relatives to avoid stage fright

— Graeme Robinson (@grobiwebdesign) February 8, 2019

“I'd suggest the basics of making sure you wear something comfortable and appropriate for your audience. Especially comfy shoes. Practise standing still as this can add gravitas to your words. And be you! Don't try to be another speaker be you!!!” - Jules Wyman, Confidence Coach, Speaker & Author

Don’t put too much written content on a PowerPoint slide - people will read ahead and won’t focus their attention on you and what you’re saying.

— Megan Hallinan (@MeganRex) February 12, 2019

Understand the audience, what can you do to help them achieve their goals.

Have a q&a if you can.

— Peter Mawson (@HighFarndale) February 12, 2019

Two things I did for my first conference talk:
Practise until you find the content a bit boring
While talking, focus on looking at different parts of the audience, avoid looking just for the friendly faces

The latter makes everyone feel you’re speaking just to them

— Scott Walton (@scott_walton) February 12, 2019

The best public speakers are the ones that seem confident in what they're saying. It's not about knowing everyone will love your talk, it's about not worrying if they don't. https://t.co/yzr0gLe1Ri and https://t.co/hv3OOS2hco Are great for more tips too.

— Sam Beckham (@samdbeckham) February 11, 2019

Sunday Summation 24: Belgian Beer, Podcasting & Rush Hair York Event

Welcome to my weekly roundup of things I have been doing/loving.

Recording my second podcast episode

Over Christmas I came up with the idea of developing my own podcast, centred around the theme of resilience - essentially exploring how people cope under pressure. Since then I’ve managed to record my first episode, gather some initial user feedback and come up with a name - The Brave.

This week I attempted to record my first episode in an interview format (which will be the arrangement going forward I hope) with guest speaker Alex Burbidge. We had a great conversation about coping with stress at work and climbing the career ladder whilst also maintaining your sanity. It’s hopefully going to make for really interesting listening!

My release plan is to get a few more episodes under my belt, then go live in late February/early March. It’s been a real learning curve, as I haven’t touched any form audio editing software properly in years. Hopefully some lingering nuggets of information from my music Technology A-Level will resurface and come to my aid…

Being pampered at Rush Hair York [Ad - Gifted]

On Thursday I headed into the city centre for an evening of pampering at York’s Rush Hair and Beauty salon. After relaxing and chatting over a few bottles of prosecco, one of the lovely stylists managed to tame my locks into these gorgeous Dutch braids.

Apparently Dutch braids give a less pristine finish than French braids and are perfect if you don’t fancy a super polished look. It was really nice to try out a style which a. I do not have the manual dexterity to achieve myself, b. do not have the time or patience for on a normal morning.

Alongside experimenting with a new style, I also managed to catch up with some of my favourite local bloggers and take a good look round the sparkling clean and obviously well equipped salon.

Blogger family photo! L-R - Louise Rose, Life of Pippa, Amy - Living with me, Lucy - lu.reviews

Exploring Altrincham’s Belgian beer scene

I’ve been getting to know Manchester and its surroundings on a semi-regular basis for a couple of years now and have to say that Altrincham has become one of my foodie favourite places.

Alongside the thriving food/drink scene at Altrincham Market, the town also boasts three Belgian beer bars (four if you count a small shop you can also drink in). My favourite is the aptly named Belgian Bar which boasts an expansive bottle selection, alongside a few popular names on draught.

Whilst I admittedly haven’t eaten here in a few years (that meal was excellent), the food coming out the kitchen looked and smelled incredible. Alas, we were saving ourselves for one of the various food outlets in the market…

My 2018 in Review

And like that, it’s all over…

We’ve made it to December folks. Congratulations!

Time has absolutely whipped past over the last 12 months and I’m sat here now wondering where it all went and what did I do with it?

2018 has been interesting year. I’ve undergone a fair bit of upheaval in my personal life and also faced a few professional challenges. It’s been a learning experience though and I’ve certainly come out the other side equipped with an improved skillset and the knowledge that I can adapt to change in all areas of life!

My highlights from 2018:

Des and Winnie

A new roommate

In January we were joined by a very grumpy and demanding old lady called Winnie, who loves nothing more than curling up on the sofa. We are very alike actually…

At the Brew York Beer Festival

Bao Buns from Street Cleaver at Brew York

Lots of food…

As usual, most of my yearly highlights revolve around food and drink consumed in venues familiar and foreign. The beginning of the year was mostly spent sampling York’s thriving food scene, with repeat visits made to consume the excellent street food at Spark York and Brew York.

The really heavy stuff came in Paris though, where I gladly gained some serious weight in the name of sampling every bakery the 11th Arrondissement has to offer. This is not a joke, I had at least 2 pastries a day for two weeks and regret nothing.

The following month this excess was walked off in Slovenia and Venice, despite the fact we also indulged in hearty Alpine dishes and gorgeous Venetian street food.

Afternoon tea at Bettys in York

Steak in Paris

Beautiful dishes at Skosh, York

Cicchetti inn Venice

Summer in Paris

Sainte-Chapelle

As I mention above, in July I spent two full weeks in Paris due to Des’s work. Before you get too jealous, I will mention that we stayed in a 1 star hotel with no air-conditioning during the hottest summer on record. This certainly made things… memorable….

The view from Notre Dame, Paris

Alongside profusely sweating and eating croissants, I spent the first week of our trip working remotely at my usual day job. This actually worked really well, especially as Paris has so many pay by the hour co-working spaces. I quickly settled into a good rhythm of working at one venue in the morning, then stopping for lunch and walking to the next spot for the afternoon.

I spent my second week in the city of lights as a tourist, exploring all the sights one would expect! My real highlight of the trip involved taking the train out to Versailles, somewhere I have wanted to visit for years. I had a fantastic day walking around the chateau and then out past the main lakes, stopping occasionally under a tree to escape the heat for a while.

Outside the Louvre

Notre Dame views

Attending Turing Festival in Edinburgh

Having been to Turing Festival in 2017, I had high expectations for this two day tech conference in Edinburgh. The event comprises of 20 hours of content from over 40 expert speakers who cover topics focused on the areas of Product, Culture, Growth, Engineering, Marketing and Strategy. Basically all the ingredients you need to run a successful technology company!

To be honest, whilst there wasn’t a bad talk during the whole 2 days, I personally found the Growth and Culture tracks to be the most engaging and really rated the following sessions (you can subscribe on the Turing Festival website to see the full videos):

• Rebecca Moore (Director of Growth, Skyscanner) - Self-Disrupt for Growth

• Des Traynor (Chief Strategy Officer, Intercom) - What We’ve Learned From Scaling to 0-25k+ Paying Customers

• Kirsty Lynagh (Chief People Officer, Nucleus) - Architect and Anthropologist: the two roles needed in your team to win in the workplace in the future

• Rand Fishkin (founder, SparkToro/Moz) - Why Nine Out of Ten Marketing Launches Suck (and how to be the one that doesn't)

Watching Rand Fishkin (formerly Moz) speak at Turing Festival

Late-Summer trip to Slovenia and Venice

After returning from Paris in a state of sunburn and exhaustion, I managed to enjoy a few weeks at home before heading off on my next adventure with Des and a couple of friends.

Loaded with supplies and lots of hot-weather clothing, we embarked upon a triple-destination trip through Slovenia and Italy, ultimately ending in Venice.

It was an amazing 9 days, filled with swimming, mountaineering, lots of food and many historical sites!

You can read more about this trip in previous posts here: part 1 and part 2

A thundery view over the lagoon in Venice

In front of our eco-hut in Slovenia with a very sunburnt face

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Finding my Fitness Community

I have been going to the gym regularly for just over 6 years now, with most of that time spent doing solo workouts.

2018 was the year where I discovered training with other people and it has dramatically improved both my motivation and results. (I currently work out at Compello Fitness, a box gym based in York.)

For the past year I have been doing a weekly mix of HIIT style classes and semi-private personal training - 1 personal trainer per 4 people, which is a lot of fun!

Alongside meeting a bunch of awesome people and making new friends, I’ve also found that the variety of workouts has finally managed to pushed me off the fitness plateau I reached in 2017.

This year I’ve lost several % points off my body fat, taken off inches across my body and also increased my strength and cardiovascular endurance dramatically. Most importantly, I’ve learnt to ignore the scale (I weigh more than I have done in 7 years, a fact which no longer terrifies me!)

The gang at Compello Fitness (image courtesy of Compello Fitness)

Speaking at Dot York

After attending DotYork in 2017, it was an honour to be chosen to speak at it in 2018!

In case you aren’t from up North, Dot York is a digital conference based in, you guessed it, my fair city of York. The event is focused on bringing engaging ideas and content to a mostly tech/design/digital audience. The themes for 2018 were wide ranging and ambitious: Survival, Money, Freedom and Identity

My talk was scheduled for the Survival session and focused on my work in the ethical business space. I wanted to use my allotted time to explore the big question of how do we make decisions at work that have a positive impact?

Contained within this question there are a number of sub-questions that I also felt merited discussion:

• Who, or what, gets to decide what is good and bad in this context? (i.e. is this prescribed by top-down by an authority beyond individuals, who makes the rules?)

• Can we actually make a difference, is it worth even trying? (e.g. is it too late to save the planet and late-stage industrial societies from ecological, social or political collapse).

The whole day was an awesome experience and despite my (probably very obvious) nerves I felt I did a decent job of providing an engaging and thought provoking talk to the audience. You can be the judge of that yourself though, as videos will be online shortly.

On the stage at Dot York

Watching my sister on the big screen!

My incredibly talented sister, Catrin, is the lead singer in London based indie band Another Sky.

2018 has been a seriously good year - they have been played on Radio 1, appeared on Late Night With Jools Holland (jealous? Moi? YES! ha) and also played on the main stage at Citadel Festival in London.

Not wanting to give up the chance of guest-list tickets and a day out in one of my favourite cities, I decided to head down South and watch the band in action alongside a couple of other favourite artists of mine (Dermot Kennedy, Tame Impala and CHVRCHES to name a few).

There’s something pretty surreal about seeing your former nemesis and playmate 20ft high on a big screen in front of a massive crowd. She rocked it!

Watching Another Sky (my sister’s band) play at Citadel Festival 2018

Turning 28

I honestly feel like I have just been let loose on the world as a fully formed adult - school and sixth form is a recent memory in my mind, despite being over 10 years ago now.

I used to be scared of getting old and the responsibility that age brings, but with every year that has gone by since my early twenties I feel like life is getting better and freer. I am currently in the best shape I have ever been and feel genuinely satisfied with my lot in life (not that there isn’t room for ambition or growth!).

Bring on 2019.

Chapter 1: Unnamed

# Chapter 1

I wake up and everything smells like woodsmoke. My hair, the bedding, my fingertips. It's acridly sweet, as we're burning last year's pine at the moment. Soon we will be at the end of our dry stock and will be forced to use even smokier substitutes. We didn't prepare well enough for this winter, but all calculations suggest we will still survive by some margin, even if we stink of sap laden smoke for the rest of our days.

My body feels heavy and hard this morning. Last night's rain and wind kept me awake enough to ensure every limb is tired out from twisting and turning. Nonetheless the noises from outside firmly mark daybreak and the start of this day. I inch stiffly down the ladder from my bed, which is raised safely above the floor on a double mattress sized platform. Mat built this early on to keep us away from rats, bodies aloft in the rising warm air.

The noises are getting louder, muffled scraping and shuffling with the occasional squark. My fingers are slow to respond as a I pull on the mud encrusted boots by the door, perhaps indicating the first signs of arthritis. There's nothing to be done about this though, I push the thought out of my mind and focus on the task at hand.

Stiff again, the damn door pushes back against me. Warped through moisture and sticking tightly to its frame. Again, nothing to be done here and now, I resign myself to fighting against it until the spring. Perhaps the boys will be back to help out. Perhaps I won't even be here. It's hard to know anything for certain, especially as the news from the South rarely reaches our hidden valley at the moment.

A short sharp shove and the cool air floods in, wrapping itself around every corner of my body, jolting me fully into the waking world. I can hear the movements outside clearly now, it sounds like they are fighting, again. I walk out onto the wooden platform which juts abruptly over the water.

Home is behind me, an unusual structure that only just now finally looks part of my landscape, blended in by years of moss growth and hard weather. The lake stretches out to the front beyond. Our position here is a blessing, Mat used to remind me daily. Especially during the really bad years when trade had ceased and we were fully self reliant.

I try not to think about the past as the spectre of hunger creeps nauseatingly into my stomach, as it does most Winter mornings.

The chickens have reached a fever pitch by now. I'm slightly late, which has prompted a round of in-fighting and squabbling over the pecking order. I can already see Jeremy standing on the raised bar in the middle of the cage, keeping her mild and meek followers in their place as she strides above them, every so often dishing out a well placed jab. I admire and hate this particular animal in equal measure. Violence is the only thing that seems to keep her peace.

This is my sixteenth post in my attempt to write something on this blog everyday in October. Find my previous post from the 15th here.