{"id":2868,"date":"2015-03-03T23:34:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T22:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielebesana.com\/blog\/?p=2868"},"modified":"2015-03-04T15:32:01","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T14:32:01","slug":"presenting-at-the-digital-nomads-event-in-buenos-aires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danielebesana.com\/blog\/biz\/presenting-at-the-digital-nomads-event-in-buenos-aires","title":{"rendered":"Presenting at ‘Digital Nomads in Buenos Aires’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nomadas<\/p>\n

We all know that strange things happen while traveling, but I really didn’t expect\u00a0that during my month in Buenos Aires I would gave\u00a0a public speech in an event about digital nomadism.<\/p>\n

Digital nomad<\/em> is the cool name for people that have a location independent job that they can perform online. It’s a recent and growing trend as there are more and more remote jobs available.
\nIn my travels I met writers, translators, programmers, social media experts, bloggers, but also business owners doing their things online and hence allowed to use the title of\u00a0digital nomad<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I met Nicolas, the organizer of the first\u00a0N\u00f3madas Digitales en Buenos Aires<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0event, for a coffee and he\u00a0asked me if I wanted to share my story and give a speech.<\/p>\n

Before I could think, my ego already accepted with enthusiasm. Anyway\u00a0I thought was a nice challenge and a great opportunity to meet like minded people.<\/p>\n

Life starts outside of our comfort zone<\/em>, right?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prepping<\/h2>\n

My first public speaking experience, and best of all in Spanish –\u00a0Doh!<\/em> I knew I was up to something funny to say the least.<\/p>\n

I had two challenges ahead of me:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Presenting in a language I learn from the street<\/li>\n
  • Talking about myself in a way that can actually help others<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    For the former\u00a0I could only think about adding some humor in my speech and play around the fact that I speak Ita\u00f1ol<\/em>, as they call the mix of Italian and Spanish.\u00a0I learned Spanish talking with people – never had a class – and while I’m pretty confident with it, presenting in public is\u00a0quite another story.<\/p>\n

    For the latter, I decided to prepare a presentation titled\u00a0‘From Employee to Digital Nomad’\u00a0<\/em>sharing my story, highlighting some life-moments\u00a0everyone could relate to, avoiding\u00a0pictures of me on a\u00a0beach with the notebook, and stressing the fact that everyone, if really wants<\/strong>, can become a digital nomad. I included some of my learning, a warning\u00a0about the gurus<\/strong> and ended with a list of resources to get started.<\/p>\n

    The result was a\u00a0slide desk I was pretty nervous about. Would that resonate with the audience? I sent a draft to\u00a0Nicolas and his reply was very encouraging, that was such a relief!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Language\u00a0adjustments<\/h2>\n

    Keeping my\u00a0Argentinian audience in mind I had to pay attention to a few interesting linguistic tips.<\/p>\n

    For example I use to say that ‘I worked for an American company’ that in Europe automatically means ‘a company from US’, but Latin America is<\/strong> American continent and some people are sensible about how to\u00a0call Unites States. So I had to say ‘I worked for a US company’ instead.<\/p>\n

    Another thing is that Spanish here is referred as Castillano<\/em>\u00a0language specifying its regional roots from\u00a0Castilla region (as in Spain there are different languages) and again some people don’t like to hear that. In fact everyone here calls the language\u00a0Castillano<\/em>, and so I did during the speech.<\/p>\n

    I also had to adjust few words and the accent trying to pronounce all the ‘ll’ and ‘y’ such as\u00a0yo\u00a0<\/em>(I) as they do, something like ‘zh’. That generates a funny situation where ‘se cay\u00f3’\u00a0<\/em>(he\/she\u00a0fell down) and ‘se call\u00f3’<\/em> (he\/she shut up) have the exact same pronunciation, but luckily I didn’t have to use any of the two \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    I’m sure nobody at the event would have been\u00a0offended by those classic foreigner mistakes (if we can call them mistakes) but I thought was nice to make an effort and play accordingly. Surely I made enough mistakes I’m not aware of anyway!<\/p>\n

    Lastly, I dropped the word boludo\u00a0<\/em>in the first 30 seconds of the presentation. That’s\u00a0the<\/strong> most popular Argentinian slang word that means ‘stupid’ but is also used in a positive tone among friends. Everyone had a laugh at that and I broke the ice.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    At the Digital Nomad event<\/h2>\n

    I arrived at the location early with Nicolas to sort out the technicalities. People started waiting outside while we were busy checking the presentations inside the room.<\/p>\n

    Suddenly I noticed the sound that a crowd of people make\u00a0when chatting: it was getting\u00a0busy!<\/p>\n

    40 people<\/strong> were present at the event and I was first of two presenters. I turned my performer-mode ON (like when I was dancing\u00a0in the Salsa team) and I did my best…\u00a030 minutes after everyone was applauding – they liked it!<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Then the Q&A session\u00a0started and that\u00a0was the hardest part. First because it was getting tired and missing Spanish words, second because I actually had to understand the question and third because I had to come up with a relevant answer I obviously didn’t prepare in advance.<\/p>\n

    The questions were more about starting your own business and finding customers rather than the travel part of the digital nomad equation.<\/p>\n

    Here is the slide deck, I know that without me talking over doesn’t say much but I share it anyway and it can be reused with citation\u00a0if needed.<\/p>\n