Dealing with technical glitches

Rabea Gransberger: Once, I was at a conference and I was on the stage preparing to give a talk, but after the previous talk, some of the pins of the VGA adapter were not straight anymore. I couldn't fit them into my port and so there was a technician coming, and so on. It was probably only one minute before my talk that we actually got this fixed.

This incident didn't make me nervous: it actually made me more relaxed because I had something to focus on. I had to focus on the technical problem and not focus on being nervous about my talk and what to say. So, for me, it was a good experience because after that, I became much more relaxed before my talks.

Geertjan Wielenga: Have you ever had an experience at a conference that really did make you nervous?

Rabea Gransberger: The only experience I had where I was really anxious was at Devoxx Morocco.

I had a new laptop and I didn't know if my adapter would work because there were some scary...