That time when I spoke to a crowd and they gave me a Google Home Mini in return.
It was my first speaking engagement for the year 2018. I’ve received a few invitations prior but somehow declined or redirected them to a few peers who would be more qualified than me. But hey, I think I made the right choice with this one.
I’ve always been avoiding speaking in UST because I was former affiliated with the university, in a good way that is. I always tell them that I’m a familiar face and I think they deserve newer voices so I did always refer them to my friends in the GDG like Ralph Vincent Regalado and Toni-Jan Keith Monserrat. After two years since Ive been actively speaking, they invited me once again (thanks to John Regalado) and this time I finally said yes.
I decided to talk about HCI and share the Innovation Principles that I have learned from Prof Shen Zhao. The target audience were composed of former students I taught HCI in UST and some who were just about to learn about them.
I was thankful of the feedback they have given me. There’s been a lot of insights gained in twitter, well at least based on my personal feed that is.
And some of my friends just cant help and joke about it 😂
And I thank all my friends, followers and supporters who have helped me. It was truly an honorable experience to finally speak in the Med Auditorium. It was also a “meet-and-greet” as some of my former students have said. We managed to catch up and spend a few meals together.
So after my talk, it was the usual handing out of Certificate of Appreciation and a bag of goodies.
And see that guy holding the brown bag? It had a usual cubic white box in it. I assumed it was a mug. Well, when I opened it, I guess I was in for a surprise.
I even contacted the organizers if this was some sort of a mistake. And just as a I thought that I was surprising the audience with my “very interesting” talk, I was the one who ended up surprised. And so, allow me to give my fullest thanks to the UST Computer Science Society, and their respective project teams for the honor and token that you have given me.
I’m not looking forward for even more other speaking engagements this year since I have decided to keep them very limited and carefully-selected because I wanted to focus on my research and growth. But moments like these are just, if you put it in DOTA2 terms, electric.
