Category: Speaker

  • Tea, A Drink With Jam And Bread

    YES, I KNOW IT’S TUESDAY AND I SAID I’D POST ON WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY. DEAL. Cause you should always start a post in all caps, eh? Or start in aggressive American all caps and then switch to stereotypical Canadian politeness, eh? Ahem. We talked about how to figure out your topic, but sometimes you want…

  • But, Wait, Is Extemporaneously Even A Word?

    first of all, let me say, that i LOVE the word ‘extemporaneously’ and now i’m TOTALLY going to google it because it might not even be a real word and i’ve been using it literally for years cause that’s how i roll. “Carried out or performed with little or no preparation; impromptu: an extemporaneous piano…

  • How To Pass The Torch Without Dropping All The Balls

    Spoiler Alert: communication is key. I’m putting together an abstract with a couple of fellow #DevRel liaisons on how we managed to pass (and drop!) responsibility of an open source community. We’ll submit to a couple of upcoming conferences over the next year and see what happens. Cause you never know until you try. We’ll…

  • So Then What’s Next?

    Okay, so I’m back at work one hundred percent which means a couple of next steps are happening within the next six to twelve months. Career-wise. It’s time to apply to CFPs again. A few in particular are kickass / relevant / on my radar / wouldn’t it be super keen to do / omgomgomg.…

  • Making It Up As I Go Along

    P is super sick today, I’m working from downstairs AGAIN because connectivity is absolute ASS at our new house, and I’m officially off of sick leave / maternity ramp up. No big deal. Okay, but seriously, can we take a second to celebrate that? OMG I’M FINALLY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AT WORK AGAIN IT’S BEEN…

  • Maybe I’m Not Listening To My Introvert Self Enough

    I’m tired. Well and truly exhausted, actually. I got enough sleep last night. And managed to work a bit this morning, although nothing to brag about. And then I gave an Elevator Pitch workshop via Toastmasters Groningen and Connect International. That sounds WAY more impressive than it feels upon reflection. Have I mentioned how tired…

  • What We’ve Learned So Far

    As I’ve been rebuilding this site. In case you hadn’t noticed. I have. Cause of the hack. And this is what I’ve learned so far… Backups Aren’t Necessary UNTIL THEY ARE If I had been maintaining regular backups (which the hosting company is totally happy to do for just a few euros more per month),…

  • Ready to Talk?!? The Science of Presenting Your Research

    Five weeks ago I did a talk for a research group at the local hospital and had an absolute blast. I’m starting to think I might be good at this speaking thing. And this training thing. And other things.

  • What Scares You?

    Tonight at Toastmasters Groningen I talked about how a fear of heights led me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Twice. And one of the points of my kickass speech evaluator was that I needed to incorporate more facts. Which is true. I am *really* good at telling a story. At leveraging emotions. At entertaining. And…

  • Change is Terrifying. Do it Anyway.

    On Saturday, 05 March, I am one of the keynote speakers for Django Girls den Haag. Hi. My name is Rain Leander. Welcome to Django Girls den Haag. Today I’m going to talk about programming – what it is, why you should do it, what you can do with it. I’m going to tell you my…

  • Hello, My Name Is

    I am in the midst of a new position within Red Hat and part of the new responsibilities include applying to public speaking opportunities all over the world. And since you have to include a short biography with these applications, I decided it was time for a bit of an overhaul. For perspective, here is the old…

  • So I spoke at PyGrunn

    And I just now found the video which has been up since June 2 this year by looking for “K Rain Leander” results via images.google.com. If I search for the same phrase on google.com it doesn’t show on the first page, which is not ideal. I’m so bored with those previous sentences that I fell…