Back in 2009 I held my first ever talk at a conference. My only motivation was to get in for free at the Smidig conference. I worked for a startup which meant little cash for conferences. Since then ove talked at numerous conferences and enjoyed every minute of it. The adrenaline rush of doing something that scares the shit out of you is just addictive.

This year I’ve held no talks. Why? I don’t feel like I’ve got more to say at the moment. Doing a talk about an a subject I don’t feel passionate about is not something I am able to do. I tried it once at the GoOpen conference back in 2009 and it was a terrible experience. The moment I stepped on stage I realized that I didn’t feel anything special about this subject. As I did my talk, in my head I heard nothing but “this is just not interesting, shut up and get off the stage”. I just felt fake, but that’s just me I guess.

You say it best…

This year I really don’t feel like I’ve got something I really care about that I want to talk about. To me it seems like an obvious thing to do to just shut up and let others do the talking. Doing twenty talks a year because you want to make a name for yourself seems like narcissism to me and not a good contribution to the community.

More people should hit that pause button. It’d make more conferences better and make way for new talent. To quote a really shitty song: “You say it best, when you say nothing at all”.