Autor: George Avramescu

Reflections on the experience of being a speaker at the PMI Romania conference

Before conference

Take annual leave from work, then put aside 2 days to prepare presentation content, ½ day to prepare slides, 1 day to sync content, then adjust, then rehearse.

8h trip to destination: 2h to the airport, 2h wait, 3h flight, 1h to accommodation. Same on the way back, only in reverse. In the meantime, a few good days away from family, missing them, knowing they miss me.

No call home during the round trip. The focus needs to be here; it’s like a mission. That’s just me. In the evening, more tweaks, more rehearsal. It needs to be perfect. To make an impact. It needs to add value, to supply the needed learning moments. To be memorable. Otherwise all is in vain. This is what speaking means to me.

Morning now. I would have slept 4h tops. I can’t sleep much. Not nervousness, just endless thoughts popping into my head. ‘You need to say that’, I tell myself. ‘That’s better’. ‘Oh, what about that, and that, and that’. ‘Stick to the plan’, I say in the end.

During conference

Reaching the conference venue. Meeting the friends I made throughout the years, the warm public, the fellow speakers, all while taking getting in the mode and soaking the energy.

Then it’s time. 40 minutes, and then done. Was it impactful? Was it memorable? Did they learn what I would have hoped they will?

Later in the day, the feedback comes in. I am ecstatic. It was a success! Thanks to the organizers, and the public, and the fellow speakers. It was all worth it!

And this has all involved humans and their interaction while speaking about non-humans, about AI and how it can help us get faster and further.

While surrounded by the glamour of Palace of Parliament, the audience absorbed every word of every speaker with the belief that AI will transform their world, their workplaces and every single way of doing what they are doing today. ‘It’s not the strongest, nor the most intelligent that will survive, but the most adaptable to change’, Charles Darwin said a while back.

And change needs to be embraced in a healthy working environment. It’s a must in a toxic one. We need to help AI help us. And we will. I have no doubt. And we will. No doubt about that.

After conference

It was my 4th appearance in Bucharest, and I have always been impressed, but this time it will stay with me. The work that the volunteers have put in has paid off tenfold. Every single detail of the conference has added value: the presentations’ topics, the high calibre speakers, the Tree House project for children, the guests, the guided tours of the Palace, the interviews, the special care and touch given to every single detail and individual. Brilliant!

PMI Romania Chapter and its volunteers have raised the bar again. I wonder what will follow next year and how it can be topped. Nice homework to have.