I confess, I am a bit jaded as a public speaker.
I’ve given the talk I’m presenting tomorrow, “Product Engineering,” at least four times. I’ve spoken at the conference series I’m presenting at tomorrow, QCon, as many times as well. I don’t know the exact numbers because I speak a lot. I speak so much I had to start the Appsterdam Speaker Bureau to handle all the overlapping invitations.
I’m nervous for tomorrow like it’s the first time.
The importance and complexity of Appsterdam makes every job I’ve had, every product I’ve built, every team I’ve led, seem like practice stones along the road of destiny. So it is with my speaking career and the symbolism of my returning to Silicon Valley after a grand adventure to tell my former compatriots what I’ve found and what I’ve founded.
This may be the most important speech of my life.
QCon is pulling out all the stops for me. We’ve got the main stage, the mariachi band, and the Mexican food booked. This is going to be a full-fledged Themenote, like the one I delivered to 360iDev, but bigger. Oh my great pantheon of invisible gods do we have something planned.
Those are the facts. How about some superlatives?
Let’s keep this in perspective. I’m not addressing the civil rights movement, and I’m not launching the iPhone, but in the very large category of informational technical keynotes? Yeah, definitely, it’s going to be the greatest of all time.
What’s after this, retirement? Maybe pyrotechnics?
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