From mentee to speaker!

The step from thinking about submitting a session to writing a session abstract and clicking on the submit button might be big. Perhaps you are a first-time speaker and have no clue about how to best write a session abstract. If you manage to submit and get selected, then what? How to best prepare? What should you think about on the day of the event? How do you get ready to speak in front of a large audience?

At Nordic Summit we want everyone to feel comfortable and included. We want to provide a possibility to have an experienced speaker helping you as a first-time speaker along the way. Being more than one preparing for a session might be more fun too! That’s why we introduced the Mentoring Program for Speakers.

In this post you will meet with a Nordic Summit 2023 mentor and mentee, and you’ll get some glimpses from their work together.

Meet Mats Necker and José Dias Gaspar!

We asked José (Pepe) a few questions about our Mentoring Program. First about the process, how Pepe got into the program and then what he thinks about it so far. Let’s see what he says about it!

The rest of this post is from Pepe 🙂

The process

The process was quite simple! In my case, I applied for the mentorship program proposing already some topics. Once I got assigned Mats as mentor, we met virtually for having a brainstorming session together, focusing on the topics I liked the most and can be interesting for the audience as well.

After that, we got some very cool ideas! For the next weeks, we developed and improved them, until they were ready to be proposed as sessions. And voila, we managed to get one of them in!

From here on, we will start polishing the session and get everything ready for the Nordic Summit.

How good the mentor program is

We are still in the middle of the program, but since my session has already been accepted, we can already say it rocks!

Having the opportunity of being accompanied during the whole process makes you learn the best practices, approaches and tips from the very beginning. That’s where I think the real value is.

From the design of the idea, to the structure of the session, and even the support and advertisement I get having Mats as a co-speaker makes the experience being totally worth it.

First time speaking and how a mentor can help

As it is my first time speaking in front of such an audience, I have to say I’m quite nervous! On the other hand, that’s a great motivation to nail every detail involving the preparations. Having my mentor’s feedback, I can focus on how my speaking skills, knowing the rest will be in place.

Also, even though I trust myself and my skills, knowing that I have a supportive co-speaker by my side brings me a sense of security and confidence.

How was the experience

Overall, this experience has been incredible! The mentorship program has exceeded my expectations, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from someone as experienced and supportive as Mats. I can’t wait to showcase our session at the Nordic summit and share the knowledge and insights we’ve gained throughout this journey.

Meeting in person!

We happened to attend the same conference during this process, and that was Iberian Technology Summit in Portugal.

Looking forward to seeing Mats in Copenhagen at Nordic Summit to present our session Breaking down barriers: How to integrate Dynamics 365 with external systems!

Mats was speaking and I was attending his session! My team also won the Hackathon that Mats was part of organizing!

Thank you, Mats & Pepe!

Thank you, Mats and José, for being on the blog!

Best of luck with further preparations and finally the delivered session! Hopefully this post will inspire other event organizers to introduce a mentoring program and other experienced and first-time speakers to join our Mentoring Program in the future!

The Nordic Summit Team