Learning Outcomes Of Magento Live EU 2019 Expedition

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Head-On Shopping by team CedCommerce was one of Magento Innovations’ winner this year and landed me with an opportunity to stage the innovation on the esteemed platform of Magento Live EU 2019.

The profound experience of sharing the project, ideas, inspirations behind the project and what the team endeavors to achieve from this new Shopping Feature, was one of a kind.

For this, I am grateful to Magento for letting us be a part of the grand event. And for a visit to the city that represents a seamless integration of history, art, and technology: Amsterdam.

Shikha Mishra, Magento’s Community Contributor

Shikha Mishra, Full Stack Developer with team CedCommerce as well as a Quality Maintainer Magento GitHub, received an acknowledgment as “Magento Contributor” for her outstanding benefaction with Magento2 Core, Adobe Stock Integration and PWA Studio. She was invited to the Contribution Day to showcase her achievements and was honored by the Magento Engineering Team as well.

It was a great moment of pride to see a member of the team CedCommerce achieve such glory. Furthermore, I hope to see her attain even greater heights in the future.

Notes from the Keynotes

Magento, just like every year, made sure to invite, the best of the best from the speakers’ community. There were two significant speeches that truly moved, every single member of the audience. Surely you guessed it right, Stephanie Dame and Joost Rigter. To hear them live was an extraordinary feeling in its own right. To feel their energy, understand their journey, to experience their session alone makes me appreciative of the Event.

Eyes are not Enough

Joost Rigter, the man who was a waiter in a restaurant with a dream to own his own hotel one day, lost his job after losing 50% of eyesight at the age of 26. He was diagnosed with a unique disease that gradually claimed his eyesight to the point of complete sightlessness. And as one would assume, his reaction was that of confusion and denial. His thoughts were as one expected, muddled with lack of understanding. He would ask himself, How can it be? How could he lose everything like this? He loved his job and wanted to progress in life but all of it kept slipping away with his rapidly slipping sight.

But unlike most people, who would lose their purpose in life when faced with such cataclysm, he overcame seven years of frustration and became more than a pair of eyes. With acceptance, he became Joost Rigter, the three-time founder, a connoisseur of change, and a man without sight but never without vision.

In the Keynote speech that marked the end of Magento Live EU 2019, Joost, spoke about his journey as a man who saw in the darkness. As is his MO, the audience was blindfolded for the hour of speech and made to visit themselves.

Who’s to decide the Normal?

His understanding of life is about how a person when pushed and thrown out of the solace of a “Normal” life, becomes, Vulnerable. When vulnerability strikes, the most obvious reaction of any man, initially, including Joost himself is to either feel angry or lost or even scared. Whereas, if the person accepts this “Change” in normalcy and agrees that whatever comes will be my new normal, he becomes stronger and then only comes out the true self of that person. He spoke about the way when you are your true self, you connect more with the world.

He confessed that acceptance after the years of frustration brought him relief. Relief of the knowledge, that whatever changed was not his fault, it wasn’t exactly the way he planned his life but neither was it essentially a bad thing.

Relief in knowing exactly what was wrong with his situation and how to make better of it.

He asked people to think along the lines of, “It’s Possible”, “we can do it”, “we will give the world a story of change”, “Change is fun” and focus on what they can manage to get out of this change.

His MO to let people sit in the dark holds a greater meaning and intention. He explained, how Darkness leaves an impact. It is in the dark when you see without sight, go inside yourself without judgment, and simply use other senses to see beyond the obvious.

“Eyes are not always good enough to make a decision in life. It starts with listening to people. Use other senses and try to see in other perspectives sometimes.”

-Joost Rigter

Magento made me a better Speaker

Initially, the responsibility of representing my team and all of our hard work for the world to see had me trapped on edge. And, with the help of Team Magento, especially Michelle Miller, I made it to the stage with confidence and was able to do justice to my team and our innovation.

The most important thing I concluded from the whole episode was, Rehearse, again and again, prepare in advance and follow the Plan reverently.

The Mock trials before the events solidify the confidence and wipe out any unnerving second thoughts.

The Timed practice and confidence in the project which I was expected to showcase, along with years of experience in engaging with people across the world, helped me a great ton as well.

Beyond anything, having a good actualization of self-esteem does wonder for your general take of life.

Nonetheless, for first-time speakers, here are a few tips that helped me a great deal:

Practice, repeatedly of course.
Schedule and plan everything well in advance.
Go through several mock tests and dress rehearsals.
Do thorough research, about the event, people, your audience, your fellow speakers, etc.
Realize that content matters.
Make the script yourself, always. Do not use a script written by someone else. Design a primary structure and then let an expert frame it better if the need arises. Do not agree to additions of jargon, terminologies, and phrases that you would never use off stage.
Do not change speech. Finish the final draft at least 15 days prior to the event and stick to it unless absolutely necessary.
Keep it natural. It is just communication, albeit one-sided.

A note of thanks

To all those people at the event who appreciated our efforts and praised our Project with such great enthusiasm, we are absolutely grateful.

It meant a lot to us when people told us that they loved our work, our energy and how impressed they were with the Shopping feature we brought on stage.