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This morning I gave my first fully remote talk. Learnt a lot from that experience, let& #39;s dive into details in a thread 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⬇️" title="Downwards arrow" aria-label="Emoji: Downwards arrow">
But first, I want to thank @AndroidMakersFR for the opportunity and the hard workhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💪" title="Flexed biceps" aria-label="Emoji: Flexed biceps">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙏" title="Folded hands" aria-label="Emoji: Folded hands">. They did a lot of things right that other conferences should copy!
But first, I want to thank @AndroidMakersFR for the opportunity and the hard work
690 attendees & 70 speakers, not bad for a conference that switched to remote a month before.
#AndroidMakersFR #AndroidMakers
#AndroidMakersFR #AndroidMakers
They thought about the end to end experience and used distinct tools for each part. They selected the right tool for the job instead of one platform to do it all.
Remote means it& #39;s easy to share links and have people click on themhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤯" title="Exploding head" aria-label="Emoji: Exploding head">
Remote means it& #39;s easy to share links and have people click on them
Before the conference, they set up a public Slack (453 joined), welcoming attendees to an #intros channel where everyone was invited to introduced themselves
https://twitter.com/AndroidMakersFR/status/1252269329275650048
They">https://twitter.com/AndroidMa... also created a dedicated channel after every talk for people to continue the conversation.
https://twitter.com/AndroidMakersFR/status/1252269329275650048
They">https://twitter.com/AndroidMa... also created a dedicated channel after every talk for people to continue the conversation.
They used the @virtualconHQ platform for talks. The UX was sometimes confusing and I had a few loading issues, but overall there& #39;s some solid ideas in there.
I liked the ability to check everything works beforehand, start my cam and wait for count down.
The integrated chat in a side panel is definitely a must have. Much better then Slack because it& #39;s right there and all attendees can post immediately. Live feedback helps a ton!
The integrated chat in a side panel is definitely a must have. Much better then Slack because it& #39;s right there and all attendees can post immediately. Live feedback helps a ton!
Before the talk, I was able to start a mock talk on a demo instance. Important to see what& #39;s going to happen and prep for it.
Before, during and after the talk I was paired with an admin from @AndroidMakersFR (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🙏" title="Folded hands" aria-label="Emoji: Folded hands"> @loutry), she helped a lot and it& #39;s reassuring when things break
Before, during and after the talk I was paired with an admin from @AndroidMakersFR (
I controlled the slides and sent the video stream from my main computer, and then I had a laptop on the side where I could see the attendees chat, talk to the admin, and see what attendees saw (including before it started). Very useful to detect issues.
Unfortunately, the talk platform didn& #39;t support sending both webcam stream & screen sharing at the same time (yet?). I think it& #39;s important to see both slides & speaker at the same time, so I started looking into solutions to compose video streams with livestream tools
On my end, I wanted to use Keynote and see the presenter side of things (current + next slide, timer, presenter notes)
On their end, I wanted to show the current slide full screen and my webcam picture in picture in a corner.
On their end, I wanted to show the current slide full screen and my webcam picture in picture in a corner.
I used @OBSProject to compose the streams, and then a plugin that creates a virtual webcam from that output: https://github.com/johnboiles/obs-mac-virtualcam">https://github.com/johnboile...
It might be a little too bleeding edge (plugin required building OBS master from sources). It worked for 30min then I got encoding issues, attendees saw green screen, etc. Weirdly, even classic screen sharing broke, and webcam only had issues as well. Finished with audio only.
While it worked, it was great though!
@AndroidMakersFR used @Slidoapp for live polls, which engaged the audience well. When running a poll, I would show the live results composited in the screen, which motivated folks to participate more.
@AndroidMakersFR used @Slidoapp for live polls, which engaged the audience well. When running a poll, I would show the live results composited in the screen, which motivated folks to participate more.
Half way through the talk, I tried something I learnt from @jack: a short meditation break. The audience played along.
However, instead of 3 minutes I set up the timer to 3 hours...https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⏳" title="Hourglass with flowing sand" aria-label="Emoji: Hourglass with flowing sand">Eyes closed, good thing I counted my breaths, took me an extra minute to realize what was up https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat">
However, instead of 3 minutes I set up the timer to 3 hours...
All in all, this was a good learning experience, and I enjoyed it. It showed me that a remote talk can be much more than a boring webinar.
We may have been far apart, but I& #39;ve never felt closer to the audiencehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😘" title="Face throwing a kiss" aria-label="Emoji: Face throwing a kiss">
We may have been far apart, but I& #39;ve never felt closer to the audience
Here& #39;s the talk title btw: "Pull requests https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👨💻" title="Man technologist" aria-label="Emoji: Man technologist">, yoga https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧘♂️" title="Man in lotus position" aria-label="Emoji: Man in lotus position"> & avocado toasts https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🥑" title="Avocado" aria-label="Emoji: Avocado">: 7 ans d’engineering à Square https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✨" title="Sparkles" aria-label="Emoji: Sparkles">"
Thanks to everyone who joined and supported me throughout my struggles!
And thanks again to @AndroidMakersFR for putting so much thought into this!
Thanks to everyone who joined and supported me throughout my struggles!
And thanks again to @AndroidMakersFR for putting so much thought into this!