Shows
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 233 Allan Knabe, CEO and Co-Founder of apiable.ioWe’re continuing to kick off the new year with Allan Knabe, the CEO and Co-Founder of apiable.io, an API portal that’s helping to smooth out the creation process. Building an API is harder than it looks, but it doesn’t always have to be such a difficult task.
One of Apiable’s key priorities is seamless onboarding for developers, which sets them apart from other similar products. It’s the kind of thing that becomes important to you when you, like Allan and Richard, have encountered enough API portals that are simply repackaged swag documentation.
Allan refe...2025-01-1638 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 219 Pierre Burgy Co-Founder and CEO of StrapiToday, we're delighted to be talking to Pierre Burgy, the founder and CEO of Strapi, a headless CMS. We're getting into how they're trying to eliminate having your CMS be your biggest headache as a developer. Pierre has a fresh perspective on open source business models, and open source itself that we’re excited to get into in this episode!
It all came about when Pierre and his friends were building websites for themselves and clients, and dealing with the struggles of trying to efficiently build on websites from mobile devices. The APIs were slow, and overall it was a gr...2024-10-2941 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 216 Brian Douglas 2, Founder and CEO of Open SaucedIt's always a treat to have a returning guest on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, but especially so when that guest has done so much in the time since we last got to chat to them.
We're delighted to welcome back Brian Douglas - the Founder and CEO of Open Sauced, an open source intelligence platform that helps developers and maintainers unlock their open source potential with project insights. It's a service that Richard admits would have served him well at the times when he's had a few more open source projects on the go than he could handle!
A...2024-10-0837 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 213 Conor O Neill (repeat), Director of Product and Engineering at AxonistaBack in January, we had a familiar face on the Voxgig podcast!
We’re speaking to our host Richard’s former colleague, Conor O’Neill. Conor is the Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista, an interactive video CMS, where he’s helping them transform video from a fun accessory to a key feature of their customer’s platforms.
Now, as Conor explains, though video may be their bread and butter, what he actually spends most of his time focusing on, is everything around video, metadata being a prime example of what he’s interested in.
Conor weighs in with us on the re...2024-09-2631 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 209, Peter Bryant, Founder at RimuHostingIt's an exciting episode today, for everyone we’re sure, but particularly for Richard, as today’s guest is none other than Peter Bryant, the Founder of RimuHosting, and something of a personal hero of Richard’s.
Richard in fact, was a client of RimuHosting, and he still recalls that what first attracted him to the service was their friendly attitude to developers. Peter goes into RimuHosting’s origins and tells us all about his initial vision for the company and how they've managed to maintain that vision for all these years.
As a developer working for a startup in Washingt...2024-09-1829 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 207 Carter Rabasa (repeat), Head of Developer RelationsPlease enjoy this chat from last year with Carter Rabasa!
Carter Rabasa is Head of Developer Relations at Courier and joins Richard in this Fireside with Voxgig chat. This starts as a history of developer relations, but exposes a question, a gap; who were the devrel leaders in the API/cloud era? The activity of developer relations as it is recognised today could be argued to have begun from 2010 onwards and perhaps GitHub is the genesis of this stage.
They also clearly emphasise the need for empathy and how to harness that superpower communicating in both directions – to developers about a...2024-09-0640 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 204 Alvin Bryan returns, Developer Advocate at UnleashToday we welcome back Alvin Bryan to the Fireside with Voxgig podcast! Alvin Bryan joined us over a year and a half ago. Alvin is the Developer Advocate at Unleash, and he joins us for another chat about Developer relations, meetups and open source.
We sat down with Alvin to chat about the lack of DevRel tools for individuals, and what this gap means. Alvin's work at Unleash centres on feature flags, a useful tool for making the process of integrating new features as smooth as possible.
We dove into the crossover between DevRel and journalism, witn both Alvin and...2024-08-2737 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 200 Steven Coochin, Chief Innovation Officer at LilypadIt’s episode TWO HUNDRED! And what a two hundred episodes they’ve been, from public speaking, to Developer Advocacy, to our recent focus on the API space, it’s been an incredible journey, and we want to thank you our listeners above all, for sticking with us, and inspiring us to stay curious, and keep seeking out those in the DevRel world and beyond, so we can all learn from them together.
Today’s guest couldn’t be more appropriate, as we feel the wonderful Steven Coochin sums up so much of what we do here on the Fireside podcast, f...2024-08-1336 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 199 Tejas Kumar (repeat) Chief Developer AdvocateWe're nearly at our 200th episode! As that day approaches, we invite you to listen to this throwback from last year of Richard's discussion with Tejas Kumar. We'll be back next week with a brand new guest for you to enjoy and learn from!
Richard and Tejas cover fresh ground in today's episode.
Watch out for the discussion of DevRel vs DevSell. Tejas talks us through the difference. And he gives wonderful insights in to an often under valued need – how to pace yourself at conferences. To be able to do this is crucial for physical and mental health.
Reach ou...2024-08-0833 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 198 Louise Ogilvy (repeat) Specialist Recruiter for DevTools companiesContinuing our commitment to bring you voices rom across the DevRel ecosystem, we'd like to take a look back at Richard's talk with Louise Ogilvy, a recruitment specialist for all things developer related, from July of 2023. Louise defines roles clearly, helping companies and start-ups creating developer tooling to get from idea to market. She recruits for the entire product cycle: Product, build and go-to-market.
What has Louise noticed in the last few years in software development? Well, pressure on developers and awareness of developer burnout is one trend, including burnout of DevRel professionals. Dedicated VCs and investors for DevTools and...2024-08-0640 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 194 Caelen King (repeat), Market Entry & Scaling ConsultantWhen we relaunched the Fireside with Voxgig podcast over a year ago, Caelen King was one of our first guests and even then, it was obvious there were tech layoffs happening. But Caelen gives great advice to non-tech founders and leaders about hiring - no matter what the market dynamics may be.
So we're publishing this again for new listeners to the podcast. Richard and Caelen talk specifically about how non-technical founders can find developers, build their MVP and then scale that MVP. Caelen is an angel and startup adviser, and a founder. His previous startup, WhatClinc.com, was an...2024-07-2335 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 190 Chris Chinchilla (repeat), Technical CommunicatorThank you all so much for bearing with us while we finish recording a whole collection of new episodes. For now, please enjoy this repeat of Chris Ward's episode from last year.
Technical writing is an essential element of countless products and services. So why is appreciation of it on the decline? Our guest, Chris Ward (or Chris Chinchilla as you may know him), is a talented writer. Not just of technical content, but also of fiction and music! He’s here to kick our writing brains into gear with a simple piece of advice: just start. Richard agrees that he...2024-07-0946 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 189, Marino Wijay (repeat) Developer Advocate at SoloWe'll be back next week with brand new episodes, but for today, we hope you enjoy this episode from last year, where we spoke to Marino Wijay:
Here at the Voxgig podcast we’ve decided that we’re sick of talking about DevRel all the time. So we’ve decided to switch it up with something completely different for this episode - DevOps! Marino Wijay joins Richard to talk about operator relations, and his work for solo.io as a developer advocate. Solo helps companies unite their services into functional applications using Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. So what’s Marino’s role? To...2024-07-0435 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 188 Marc Laventure (repeat) CEO & Co founder of Scalar.comMarc Laventure is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scalar and, we're looking back on the time we chatted with Marc Laventure last year, about API documentation, startups and accessibility. He also happens to be the latest guest whose technical background originates in hardware before morphing into product development.
Scalar is a service that allows you to document, discover and test APIs, which once again begs the question - is Fireside really just a podcast, or is it a way for Richard to discover services that will make his life as a developer easier? We may never know the answer. But...2024-07-0235 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 185 Tushar Mathur Founder and CEO of tailcallToday we're talking about bridging the gap between back end development and front end experience. Our guest is Tushar Mathur, and he's the Founder and CEO of Tailcall, an open-source platform for building GraphQL APIs on existing endpoints.
As you might imagine, we take the opportunity to ask Tushar about the ever expanding API sprawl currently going on. He believes that we should perhaps abandon the holistic approach to the problem, for a solution more grounded in engineering.
We also dive into the challenges of scaling as a company, and how success can sometimes make demands if you're not sure...2024-06-2031 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 184 Jake Ward Co-Founder and CEO of Data ProtocolToday we’re speaking to Jake Ward, Co-Founder and CEO of Data Protocol. Data Protocol is a developer engagement and support platform that hosts and produces high quality video content to help companies effectively communicate to developers.
We all know that interactive and video content has the power to teach and engage people in a way that written documentation struggles with, and this reality is what has formed the basis for Jake and his team to go about making video content accessible for everyone. Beyond that, it reduces the need for individuals to go digging through Youtube videos from 2009 to fi...2024-06-1837 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 178 Sandy Dunlop (repeat), Mythology Expert & Brand Identity ConsultantDon’t you just love a familiar face? We certainly do here on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, as we’ve got another guest coming back for a catch-up interview! Sandy Dunlop is a mythology expert and brand identity consultant. He helps brands to define their identity with the help of ancient myths and legends.
In his last appearance on the podcast, he told us about the power of storytelling. This time, he brings us some fascinating insights on how ancient Irish communities mirror the modern advent of Developer Relations. It might seem like a jump, but this discussion is full...2024-05-2836 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 174, Veronica Breene, CEO and Founder of Vesta InsightsToday, we’re taking a step across the border between DevRel and AI, and seeing what the AI side of things has to offer. Our guest is Veronica Breene, CEO and Founder of Vesta Insights. Vesta is an AI startup looking to increase the availability of credit for all.
Veronica began working on the company under her phD in explainable AI, and when she was rapidly approached by a potential buyer, she realised that she might just have something special on her hands.
Both Vesta’s mission, and their methods are fascinating. According to Veronica, huge numbers of low-income people are...2024-05-1425 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 165 Salma Alam-Naylor (repeat), Web Developer & LivestreamerToday, we're throwing back to when Richard spoke with Salma Alam-Naylor about all things content!
Now had we invited Salma onto Fireside just so Richard could learn how to begin his Twitch streaming career? Potentially.
Salma is a live streamer, software engineer and developer educator. She streams on Twitch under the moniker “whitep4nth3r” -she dives into the backstory around the name in the episode (we think it’s great, for the record).
Salma gets into the weeds about live streaming, content creation and personality. Over the years, she has carefully built her viewership into a vibrant, supportive community that u...2024-04-0442 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 162 Taariq Lewis (repeat) Founder and CEO at Volume FinanceFor today's episode, we're looking back to September of last year, when Richard spoke to Taariq Lewis of Volume Finance. Let's refresh ourselves on the activity within the Blockchain landscape from a true industry insider.
Taariq gave Richard work when Richard needed it many years ago. They’ve each gone on and had several start ups and overcome lots of entrepreneurial hurdles since then, but that core decency informs not only this episode but Taariq and Richard’s philosophy about hiring and people. As Taariq put it about his previous and current ventures, “if we don’t make it, my team wil...2024-03-2642 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 160, Sebastian Witalec (repeat), Head of DevRel at WeaviateFor this this episode, we're revisiting our chat with Sebastian Witalec from Weaviate. Sebastian spoke to us last year about his work at the company and his role as head of DevRel.
Weaviate is rather popular in the AI space. It's an open source vector database that allows you to store data and vector embeddings from machine learning models. It's similar to putting information on an XY plane. Similar data points will have similar coordinates. This makes it easier to organise and use your data. We won't get too technical in this description, but safe to say Richard ensures that...2024-03-1942 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 146 Conor O Neill, Director of Product and Engineering at AxonistaWe’ve got a familiar face on the Voxgig podcast today, if not yet to you, then to us, as we’re speaking to our host Richard’s former colleague, Conor O’Neill. Conor is the Director of Product and Engineering at Axonista, an interactive video CMS, where he’s helping them transform video from a fun accessory to a key feature of their customer’s platforms.
Now, as Conor explains, though video may be their bread and butter, what he actually spends most of his time focusing on, is everything around video, metadata being a prime example of what he’s interes...2024-01-3131 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 144 Andrew Maclean, Developer Relations Manager at DevCycleFireside with Voxgig is back! A new year means new opportunities to speak with amazing people and share their insights with you, our audience. This episode’s guest is Andrew MacLean. Andrew is the developer relations manager at DevCycle, a feature flag management platform for developers. If you’ve never heard of feature flag management, that’s probably because it’s a relatively new space, despite feature flags having been around forever.
If you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of feature flags, one of their main benefits is allowing you to update your platform without having to deploy so...2024-01-2333 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 136 Patrick Akil, host of Beyond Coding and DevRel at XebiaTwo podcasters go head to head in this episode, as we invite Patrick Akil, host of Beyond Coding to speak with Richard about his personal journey and insights into the art of podcasting. Patrick works in the software development unit at Xebia, and he talks about how their value of knowledge sharing led to their desire to support a podcast. When he heard about it, Patrick jumped at the opportunity.
This episode will be invaluable to anyone thinking of starting that podcast they’ve been thinking about, whether they work within DevRel or not. Patrick runs us through some of hi...2023-11-2434 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 131 Wesley Faulkner, Podcast Co-host, Snr Community Manager AWSOn this episode of the podcast Richard speaks to Wesley Faulkner. You may have heard Wesley described as the philosopher of DevRel, and true to his moniker, he brings the deep questions with him to this chat. The nuts and bolts of tech is all very interesting, but equally important to the success of DevRel is the ability to step back and take in the big picture. Wesley has us covered in this department.
We get straight into one of the biggest issues DevRel has faced in 2023: layoffs. We’ve talked about it a lot this year, which isn’t surp...2023-11-0839 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 129 Daniel Bryant (Repeat)This time we dip back in to the recent archives and repeat the conversation with Daniel Bryant, who has got Richard into a lot more conferences than he cares to admit. Daniel is a self described technical storyteller and is a news manager at InfoQ. At the time of the interview last year, Daniel was head of DevRel at Ambassador Labs. Daniel was pretty much there from the start and has had the experience of building an integrated developer relations function inside a company that works really well with all the other functions within the company.
But we start the...2023-10-3142 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 128 Niall Cusack co-founder and CTO Outcaster.ioOn this episode of the podcast we’ve got Niall Cusack, Co-Founder and CTO of Outcaster, to chat with us about the problem of ‘posting-fatigue’; having to post essentially the same messaging to a slew of social channels, and individually tracking each of them to measure engagement. It’s a problem that plagues DevRel and tech companies, as well as just about any business that has a social media presence. So what can we do about it?
Well, this is where Outcaster comes in. It’s a platform that allows individuals and companies to create progressive web apps that will collate th...2023-10-2623 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 127 Debbie Forster CEO Tech Talent Charter (repeat)So many good reasons to dip in to the archive and bring this podcast episode with Debbie Forster back to the top of the list. One reason is to promote again the work of Tech Talent Charter.
In this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter. Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public...2023-10-2442 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 126 Sebastian Witalec, Head of DevRel at WeaviateOn this episode, we've got Sebastian Witalec from Weaviate to chat to us about his work at the company and his role as head of DevRel. Weaviate is rather popular in the AI space. It's an open source vector database that allows you to store data and vector embeddings from machine learning models. It's similar to putting information on an XY plane. Similar data points will have similar coordinates. This makes it easier to organise and use your data.
We won't get too technical in this description, but safe to say Richard ensures that all the nerdy questions are answered...2023-10-1942 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 124 Sandy Dunlop, Mythology Expert & Brand Identity ConsultantDon’t you just love a familiar face? We certainly do here on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, as we’ve got another guest coming back for a catch-up interview! Sandy Dunlop is a mythology expert and brand identity consultant. He helps brands to define their identity with the help of ancient myths and legends.
In his last appearance on the podcast, he told us about the power of storytelling. This time, he brings us some fascinating insights on how ancient Irish communities mirror the modern advent of Developer Relations. It might seem like a jump, but this discussion is full...2023-10-1236 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 121 Carter Rabasa, Head of Developer Relations at CourierCarter Rabasa is Head of Developer Relations at Courier and joins Richard in this Fireside with Voxgig chat. This starts as a history of developer relations, but exposes a question, a gap; who were the devrel leaders in the API/cloud era? The activity of developer relations as it is recognised today could be argued to have begun from 2010 onwards and perhaps GitHub is the genesis of this stage.
They also clearly emphasise the need for empathy and how to harness that superpower communicating in both directions – to developers about a product and from users back to product and technical te...2023-10-0340 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 120 Marino Wijay, Developer Advocate and OrganiserHere at the Voxgig podcast we’ve decided that we’re sick of talking about DevRel all the time. So we’ve decided to switch it up with something completely different for this episode - DevOps! Marino Wijay joins Richard to talk about operator relations, and his work for solo.io as a developer advocate. Solo helps companies unite their services into functional applications using Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. So what’s Marino’s role? To make sure developers only have one thing to worry about: developing! All the explaining and talking to people, well that’s his job - it’s why he’...2023-09-2835 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 117 Pavan Belagatti, Developer evangelist, tech writer and content creatorThere’s a large population of technical writers in devrel. And a big number of these technical writers don’t necessarily come from technical backgrounds. So how do they do it? In this episode, Richard has a fascinating discussion on this topic and more with developer evangelist, Pavan Belegatti. Pavan transitioned from a marketer to a highly skilled technical writer. He’s a self-taught developer and he gives us an insight into the marriage between writing and coding.
In developing, there’s often either a developing to writing pipeline (Richard’s path) or a writing to developing pipeline (Pavan’s), and as someo...2023-09-1426 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 116 Chris Chinchilla, Technical CommunicatorTechnical writing is an essential element of countless products and services. So why is appreciation of it on the decline? Our guest, Chris Ward (or Chris Chinchilla as you may know him), is a talented writer. Not just of technical content, but also of fiction and music! He’s here to kick our writing brains into gear with a simple piece of advice: just start. Richard agrees that he needs to hear this as much as our listeners and that it’s one of the biggest hurdles for people who want to write - sitting down and actually doing it.
A lo...2023-09-1246 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 115 Taariq Lewis Founder and CEO at Volume FinanceContent warning: laugh out loud moments and irreverent attitude to “boring” insurance companies.
In this episode Richard chats to a very positive blast from his past. Taariq Lewis gave Richard work when Richard needed it many years ago. They’ve each gone on and had several start ups and overcome lots of entrepreneurial hurdles since then, but that core decency informs not only this episode but Taariq and Richard’s philosophy about hiring and people. As Taariq put it about his previous and current ventures, “if we don’t make it, my team will make it.”.
And what about that team? What doe...2023-09-0742 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 104 Natalie Gray Head of Marketing and Partnerships at CoduranceRichard talks to Natalie Gray, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Codurance. Natalie is a former colleague and an expert community builder, previously with Voxgig and now with software consultancy Codurance.
In Codurance, Natalie and her colleagues are inherently linked to the Software Craftsmanship manifesto– a mindset to software engineering. Can your software scale with your business? Natalie explains that the Software Craftsmanship mission is to raise the bar in the software industry through professionalism and technical excellence. Ingrained in this mindset is the desire to always be and do better—to continuously push the limits in pursuit of excellence. The...2023-07-2037 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 103 Louise Ogilvy Specialist Recruiter for DevTools companiesContinuing our commitment to bring you voices rom across the DevRel ecosystem, this week Richard is joined by Louise Ogilvy, recruitment specialist for all things developer related. Louise defines roles clearly, helping companies and start-ups creating developer tooling to get from idea to market. She recruits for the entire product cycle: Product, build and go-to-market.
What has Louise noticed in the last few years in software development? Well, pressure on developers and awareness of developer burnout is one trend, including burnout of DevRel professionals. Dedicated VCs and investors for DevTools and start-ups building tooling for developers is another positive.
And...2023-07-1340 min
Fireside with Voxgig101 Oisin Lunny Professional speaker, MC, Radio Presenter & Journalist (Repeat)Recently, guests have mentioned the public speaking side of the DevRel role, especially as in person conferences are back! So we've dipped back in to our archive to bring you this VERY helpful episode from March 2019. Here, Richard speaks to Oisín Lunny, professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine.
In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early...2023-06-2933 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 98 Tejas Kumar Chief Developer AdvocateYou won't need coffee after this! Plug in to Richard & Tejas's chat and soak up the energy.
Richard and Tejas cover fresh ground in today's episode.
Watch out for the discussion of DevRel vs DevSell. Tejas talks us through the difference. And he gives wonderful insights in to an often under valued need – how to pace yourself at conferences. To be able to do this is crucial for physical and mental health.
Reach out to Tejas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejasq/
Also mentioned in this episode:
Vercel https://vercel.com/
Cloudflare https://www.cloudflare.com/
React https://react.de...2023-06-0833 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 97 Steve Coochin Senior Developer Advocate, LumigoRichard first encountered Steve DeveloperSteve Coochin when Voxgig experienced first hand Steve’s and Lumigo’s incredible developer relations and developer support. So did Richard get lucky or is this just how Steve rolls? Turns out – it’s just how Steve rolls. Getting an answer to a problem is central to Steve’s work ethic, and he’s pretty good at it.
And this dedication to solving problems has a benefit to his developer evangelism – when Steve absolutely understands the ins and outs of the tools and services, he can talk confidently about it and run workshops on it. Win-win.
Steve also has...2023-06-0136 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 91 Chris O'Neill Developer Relations at StytchRichard was delighted to talk to Chris O’Neill, the first Developer Advocate at Stytch for this week’s Fireside with Voxgig podcast. Why? Well, recently Richard and the team at Voxgig had the very great pleasure of using Stytch – and it worked a dream. So to be able to share a practical discussion about DevRel after experiencing the DevRel and the product first hand was rewarding. But apart from the product, this discussion gives a three step playbook on how to succeed as a developer advocate. … and the developers you’ll meet in Heaven!
Meanwhile back on earth, this is another...2023-04-2027 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 86 - Adam Christian, co-founder and CEO of Stateful, March 2023Readme Ops. I love it! And wanted to find out more. So Adam Christian, CEO of Stateful kindly joined me to explain the phrase they have coined.
Ah, documentation! Imagine a Readme where the samples you run actually work?
Runable commands should become runabale – out of the box with Runme. It’s not magic, it’s the passion of Adam Christian and his team at Stateful to address the epidemic of non-maintained documentations. Richard and Adam discuss the ideal customer and target market for this Readme Ops product. Open Source projects and larger enterprises are ideal, but really there is a need...2023-03-1643 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 83 Martin WoodwardFun Fact: Our guest this week is a once-developer who, believe it or not, registered Microsoft’s first Github account!
Martin Woodward has been helping first Microsoft and then Github build, sustain and support their respective open-source communities.
There are a lot of highlights in his long distinguished career as he is now the Vice President of Developer Relations, #DevRel has influenced him throughout his career.
With Martin as our guest and Richard Rodger as our host, the topics discussed are practical things such as what recording we use for preparing a content, and similar. We talk about the impact of...2023-02-2347 min
Fireside with VoxgigEpisode 82 Colm DoyleMotivation, Advocacy, and Leadership are the three themes for this week’s #DevRel podcast.
This time around in our #DevRel podcast series, Richard Rodger speaks to Colm Doyle. We bring up some big tech company names such as Microsoft, Apple, Open-air, Slack, and Facebook and zero in on what it takes to making #DevRel work. One of the most important things, in that regard, is leadership.
Colm is an experienced Developer Relations and Engineering Manager and is, currently, head of Developer Relations at Intercom.
As we jump to some API discussions, we get into the role of the leader when it...2023-02-1640 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 69 - Joe DrumgooleWelcome to the Voxgig Podcast. We talk to people in the developer community about developer relations, public speaking and community events. For more details, visit voxgig.com/podcast. All right, let's get started.
Today my guest is Joe Drumgoole. Joe is a senior dev rel person at MongoDB. I first came across Joe when I saw him pitch a startup at one of the very early Web Summit conferences and I thought to myself, I gotta get to know this guy. He was impressive then and he's pretty impressive now. We talk about the development of developer relations, how critical...2022-10-0734 min
Fireside with VoxgigFireside with Voxgig with Ovidiu MatanRichard chats with Ovidiu Matan a creator of technology events and conferences. Ovidiu sources speakers and content through his successful Today Software Magazine. Based in Romania, Ovidiu explained to Richard in February 2022 about the impacts of the pandemic on his business, the changes he was forced to make and which of these changes proved to be lasting pivots. about the changes he's made to his conference business and the successful move to online events, and indeed his new hybrid model. Ovidiu outlined his upcoming schedule of events, including IT Days in November this year in Romania.2022-06-0128 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 66 - Willie NicolWillie Nicol is a life coach with an unusual background – he was a police officer in the Scottish police force for thirty-one years. In a Fireside Chat with Richard that crackled with dynamism, he shared his no-nonsense approach to life coaching. As a member of the National Speakers Association, he helps people overcome public speaking nerves and turn fear into fun. He chats to Richard about turning public speaking fear into fun, and about how watching yourself on video gives you the edge when you're preparing your speeches. He also reveals his ambition to give a TED talk in th...2021-04-0125 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 64 - Christina AldanChristina Aldan is definitely a woman who follows her own path. She struggled with computers at college, but she's now a digital advertising consultant with Arana Software. And one of her first professional talks was a TEDx talk. In her dynamic, positive podcast chat with Richard, she talks about how she misses her speaker tribe. But she's keen to embrace the opportunities that virtual platforms give – like the chance to chat with your audience for an hour after a talk because no-one's shooing you out of the conference room.Want to get up close and personal with Ch...2020-10-0134 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 63 - Jock BusuttilJock Busuttil is a product manager who believes that if there was more common sense in the world, there would be no need for product managers! This blend of honesty and humour was a feature of his Fireside Chat with Richard. Jock gives an insight into the world of a product manager and shares how he turned his product management experience into a successful speaking career. He also tells Richard how he set up his home studio following the COVID lockdown, with a couple of lights, a camera – and an old television!To get a weekly dose of...2020-09-2430 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 58 - Stephan MurtaghStephan Murtagh is best known as the Exhibition Guy, the guy who shows exhibitors how to make trade exhibitions work for them. In a full-throttle Fireside Chat with Richard, he tells Richard that audiences are more interested in relevant content than in famous speakers. He also stressed the importance of following your leads – if you do, you’ll be in the top 20% of successful exhibitors.Follow The Exhibition Guy on LinkedIn:To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of great talks, conference news, book reviews and more, sign up to the Voxg...2020-07-0934 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 57 - Paul SavagePaul is Chief Operating Officer of Conjura, an innovative start-up that helps other companies harness the power of their data. He’s also a veteran of the speaking circuit and credits elocution lessons for his success as a speaker. In their friendly Fireside Chat, Paul looked to the future of the events industry. He and Richard explored the role virtual reality will play and the best ways to recreate the magic of real-world events in a virtual space.Check out Paul’s innovative start-up, Conjura.Many thanks to Simplecast, whose sponsorship helps us harness the powe...2020-07-0234 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 55 - Derbhile GrahamOn this week’s Fireside Chat, Richard chats to Derbhile Graham, author, public speaker and content creator for Voxgig. She’s also a celebrant and has the joy of officiating ceremonies for every stage of life. Derbhile shared her experiences as a member of the public speaking organisation Toastmasters and highly recommends it as a stepping stone for wannabe speakers. She also reveals the secret to public speaking success – being visually impaired. It’s a lot easier to handle nerves when you can’t see the audience looking at you.Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring our podcas...2020-05-2829 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 54 - Jono BaconJono Bacon is a heavy metal guitarist who once played in the place where Iron Maiden played their first gig. He’s also a public speaker, a consultant and the author of books about building communities. His mission is to help companies create successful communities. In this Fireside Chat with Richard, which crackled with dynamism and cool vibes, Jono talked about the value of building a brilliant community around yourself as a speaker – it’s not egotistical at all. He also outlined how to package your message in a way that audiences can understand.Find out more about...2020-05-2134 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 53 - Melanie ParishMelanie Parish is a Canadian coach, a public speaker and the author of The Experimental Leader. In her Fireside Chat with Richard, they had a highly stimulating discussion about how to be an innovative leader during a crisis, which she sees as the Olympics for leaders. She encourages leaders to break down the barriers to innovation in their companies, so they’ll thrive in the long term.Thanks so much to Simplecast for sponsoring this podcast – your help keeps the show on the road.To get a weekly dose of public speaking tips, information, videos of g...2020-05-1427 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 52 - Freddy FreundlichFreddy Freundlich is a colourful character. He trained as a nurse and was ordained as a rabbi, but he is first and foremost a salesman. He’s the author of two books, Born on the Right Side of the Tracks and The One-Call Close. And he’s a straight talker, as you’ll hear for yourself when you listen to his Fireside Chat with Richard.His advice to wannabe speakers and salespeople is simple. Great public speaking and sales are all about great conversation. Find one person in your audience and deliver your talk to them. That’s how yo...2020-03-1926 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 51 - Danielle KrageDanielle Krage is the power behind The Remote Speaker Coach, a company which nurtures new speaking talent. Her warmth and empathy shone through in her Fireside Chat with Richard, as she encouraged wannabe speakers to take the fear out of public speaking by breaking down their talks into bitesize parts. She’s also passionate about diversity and calls on conference organisers to make room for new and exciting voices in their conference lineups.You’ll find out more about Danielle on her Remote Speaker Coach website and on LinkedIn.Big thanks to Simplecast for their supp...2020-03-1232 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 49 - Roger EdwardsRoger Edwards is a high-impact public speaker on all things marketing. He’s also a blogger, a vlogger, a podcaster and a fitness instructor. He’s a man who’s full of energy, and he knows how to fill his audiences with energy too. During his Fireside Chat with Richard, Roger revealed his secret for grabbing and holding an audience’s attention – he gets them to shout, ‘The cat sat on the mat.’ In other words, keep it simple.Big thanks to the brilliant Simplecast, for helping us keep our podcast show on the road.To get a weekl...2020-02-0627 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 48 - Andrew DavisIn this Fireside with Voxgig podcast, Richard talks to Andrew Davis, owner of a fantastic bow-tie, who has gone from working with the Muppets to building and selling his own marketing agency fuelled by the power of speaking. Being a keynote speaker is now his main job, and in this podcast, he shares his secret weapon when selling products – giving speeches.You’ll find out more about Andrew Davis at AKA Drew Davis.We want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Simplecast, who have kindly come on board as our first-ever sponsor.2020-01-1633 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 47 - Sandy DunlopSandy Dunlop is a global branding expert who draws on the world of myth to tell compelling stories about the brands he represents. In an intellectually stimulating Fireside Chat with Richard, Sandy inspires listeners to trust in storytelling as a tool for getting your message across. He encourages aspiring speakers to distinguish between what he calls the ‘blue rhetoric’ of facts and the ‘red rhetoric’ of storytelling. Sandy’s ultimate message is that it is feelings that win audiences over, not facts.Take a look at Sandy Dunlop’s branding consultancy to find out more about his storytelling...2019-12-1931 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 46 Lesley TullyWe’re always interested here at Voxgig in how people get into public speaking in their careers. Lesley Tully started off studying Film. She tells us how this training gave her an understanding of visuals, which turned out to be a great asset in her subsequent career and in the role she is now in: an expert on Design Thinking.Orla and Lesley get into the subject of evangelizing for your own job; in other words, how to convince sometimes sceptical colleagues - who may be in the organization a lot longer than you - that your ro...2019-12-1226 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 45 Allan KellyAllan Kelly is a conference organiser, speaker, author and a coder who’s on a mission to help other coders get in touch with the world around them. His Fireside Chat with Richard had a wonderfully warming feel, just like his Agile on the Beach conference in Cornwall. He began by revealing that he actually apologised for giving a new talk at a conference, He believes strongly that repurposing conference talks helps you reach new audiences and reach existing audiences in new ways. He also revealed how he spread rumours of Russian cargo ships landing on a Cornwall beach to...2019-12-0544 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 44 - Onyi AnyadoOnyi Anyado is a global leadership speaker from Hackney in East London, and he’s on a mission to achieve distinction, for himself and for wannabe public speakers. He’s written two books and delivered a powerful TEDx Talk called From Detention to Distinction. His Fireside Chat with Richard crackled with dynamism and passion. He revealed that he feels divinely inspired to help people find their own distinctive voice as speakers. He talks about how he developed his own distinct message as a speaker. He also tells us why he stopped going to his barber, and how he turned that...2019-11-2124 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 43 - John CollinsJohn Collins is Director of Content with Intercom, the customer messaging platform. He’s a man who knows how to spread a message effectively, having worked as a tech journalist for more than 20 years. He’s now responsible for producing the award-winning content at Intercom, including the blog, the podcasts, the books and the social media communications.In our Fireside Chat, John talks about how Intercom has introduced a silent podcast disco to keep conferences fresh for audiences. He also shares a great analogy that Intercom came up with to help people learn to speak – that brilliant public...2019-11-1419 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 42 - Mairin MurrayShould innovators kick over the table or just rearrange the things on it? Does it even make sense to regard the question in black and white? TEDx speaker Máirín Murray joined Orla on this episode to share her passion for technical products that produce a positive social impact.Máirín is a tech innovator and ethics evangelist. Previously, she was Senior Digital Content Producer at the BBC. She is a co-founder of Tech for Good. This Ireland-based community of more than 1,750 people showcases projects and technologies that are solving everyday problems and having positive impa...2019-11-0734 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 41 - Alex StaniforthAlex is a record-breaking adventurer, keynote speaker, published author, brand ambassador and charity fundraiser from Cheshire, England. He is dedicated to inspiring others to achieve their own ‘Everest’ in life.Alex is not your typical Everest speaker. After single-handedly raising over £35,000 in corporate sponsorship whilst still at school, his first attempt to climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 2014 was abandoned following a tragic avalanche that took sixteen lives. Aged just 19, he returned to Everest a year later and survived an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, triggered by the Nepal earthquake, which trapped his team on the m...2019-10-3134 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 40 - Richard RodgerRichard is an international conference speaker, serial entrepreneur, published author and CEO of Voxgig. He also writes a weekly column, ‘Startup Diary’, for the Irish Independent newspaper. He tells Orla how he never envisaged himself as a public speaker in the earlier part of his career. He found, though, that he “always ended up on stage, one way or another”! As he found himself being asked more and more to give talks, he developed his love for “the story” - the narrative arc that captures and holds the audience’s attention, which he feels serves him well to this day.2019-10-2426 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 39 - April DunfordApril Dunford is a positioning consultant. In plain English, that means she tells companies where their brand belongs in the market and what customers they should target. Her knowledge comes from 25 years of experience running tech startups and working for global tech giants. She is the author of a brilliant book on positioning called Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Positioning So Your Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.In her podcast chat with Richard, April tells Richard how she uses cake to help people understand the power of positioning. She also reveals how taking on a...2019-10-1736 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 38 - Mick CollissMick tells Orla how he fell into public speaking as a career. He has made a virtue out of the underdog story; according to him, he has failed at everything he ever tried, and the keynote speech he now travels the world delivering is the culmination of that. Having finally achieved his dream of representing his country, he and his team came last in the World Sudoku Championships.But he has made quite a success of his failure: a documentary was made about his team’s trip to the World Sudoku Championships in India, he has written a...2019-10-0335 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 37 - Petra KindlerPetra Kindler is a spoken word artist, a comedian, a literary translator, playwright, and freelance creative director. She’s a German who has been living in Ireland for over thirty years and she specialises in pointing out the ridiculous in everyday life.Petra tells Orla how she went from being a high-level creative director at German advertising agencies to the pretty unique position of being a German-Irish comedian (among her many other activities). She also speaks about how she deals with the cliché of Germans being humourless! We get a glimpse into Petra’s family backgr...2019-09-2643 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 36 - Peter HopwoodWe usually feature top public speakers on Fireside with Voxgig, but in this episode, we decided to speak with a top public speaking coach. Peter Hopwood describes himself as a pitch and presentations coach, and he supports public speaking professionals at every stage in their speaking career.During our thought-provoking Fireside Chat, he revealed that speakers can always learn something new, no matter how experienced they are. It’s tempting for speakers who have some experience to believe that they have nothing left to learn, but Peter helps them break through to the next level.Pe...2019-09-1933 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 35 - Bonnie WilliamsOrla chats to Bonnie Williams, a dialogue and performance coach for actors, public speakers and other professionals. Bonnie describes herself as a “Amsterdam-based American European”. She’s also an actor and a TEDx speaker coach, and was featured in Marie Claire magazine.
Bonnie has worked for many years helping business people apply the skills of acting to the corporate world. She tells us how engaging with intercultural differences is so important for people doing business outside their own country. However, she shies away from using terms “training” and “coaching”. What she focuses on with clients, she reveals, is “connecting speak...2019-09-1224 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 34 - Russ MilesRuss Miles is a tech and microservices whizz who can define chaos engineering in ninety seconds. He is an international keynote speaker at tech conferences and he is CEO of ChaosIQ, which builds commercial and open source software for companies that are engaged in chaos engineering.
In a lively Fireside Chat with Richard, Russ revealed how he taps into the power of story to captivate his audience. He believes that we learn with our brains, and our brains love stories. When a speaker tells a story, your brain gives you the feeling that you are in that...2019-09-0532 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 33 - Deepa Mann-KlerDeepa Mann-Kler is an artist, entrepreneur and public speaker. She’s also the creator of the very cool Neon Dogs installation that has lit up the night sky in London, Amsterdam, Derry/Londonderry, and various other parts of the world.
In her Fireside Chat, Deepa shared a reassuring message with aspiring speakers. Don’t worry about making a fancy presentation. Just strip back to the real story you want to tell, and you will captivate your audience. Deepa herself learned the hard lesson that being authentic is the best way to go.
Deepa and Richard also...2019-08-2927 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 32 - Wojciech KolodziejczakIn this episode, host Orla Shanaghy talks to Wojciech Kolodziejczak. Wojciech specializes in cross-cultural communication, networking, and negotiation skills for British, Polish, and other international businesses. He also lectures on cross-cultural networking skills for the Federation of Small Businesses, London Metropolitan University and other organizations.
Wojciech opens up to Orla about the challenges of not only transplanting oneself to a different culture, but successfully doing business there. Communicating across cultural and language barriers is about so much more than simply saying the same words in a different language. Businesses are often surprised to find that they struggle with...2019-08-2229 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 31 - Lauren CurrieLauren Currie is an award-winning European designer who is a champion for diversity. She has received an OBE for her initiatives to achieve diversity through design. As a regular public speaker on the subject of design, she’s also passionate about bringing diversity to the speaker line-up at conferences.
In our podcast, she reveals how a bright red sofa has helped reduce the nerves of more than 500 wannabe speakers. It’s a simple concept – people who are nervous about public speaking can apply to sit on a red sofa during conferences. There’s no pressure on them to speak...2019-08-1524 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 30 - Martin BrooksMartin Brooks describes himself as an impacttologist, and he has spent decades studying the theory and implications of impact. He runs a training company that helps managers, media personalities and politicians discover the impact of great communication.
In a thought-provoking Fireside Chat, Martin and Richard explored whether great public speakers are born or made. Martin believes that your experiences of public speaking will shape how successful you are as a speaker. Martin and Richard also had great fun analyzing Mark Zuckerberg’s speaking style.
Martin was also full of insights about what to do when an...2019-08-0932 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 29 - Emily RossEmily Ross is an entrepreneur, public speaker, and founder of Inkvine Consulting, which helps tech and commercial companies to scale and grow. Emily has never been afraid to play with fire – she was a fire dancer and was regularly seen at event venues throughout Ireland, juggling balls of fire. As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an advisory board member for South by Southwest this year.
Emily is also co-founder of a non-profit called Sportstech Ireland, which brings real meaning into her life. In an uplifting Fireside Chat with Richard, she advises aspiring public speakers to sha...2019-07-2926 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 28 - Andrew VorsterIn this podcast, Richard enjoyed a highly stimulating, thought provoking and honest chat with Andrew Vorster. Andrew is a thought leader and innovation catalyst, and a full-time professional public speaker. Andrew grew up on a farm in South Africa and immersed in African storytelling traditions from an early age. As a young child, he was gifted with the honorary title of storyteller by his local Zulu community.
Andrew tells aspiring speakers to have fun and ditch the script. That’s what he did, when he was crippled with nerves at the thought of speaking to huge audiences. Hi...2019-07-1037 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 27 - Gina LondonGina London has made communication the cornerstone of her career. She spent 20 years as a top TV correspondent with CNN and regularly reported live from the White House. Now she runs The Language of Leadership, a company which trains Fortune 500 CEOs and other business leaders to become brilliant communicators.
Gina told Richard how she borrows from the world of magic to grab the attention of her audience. She thinks of her audience at every stage of her talk preparations and shows you how to factor them into your own preparations. Gina also revealed her magic formula for...2019-06-2532 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 26 - Anna JordanIn this episode, host Orla Shanaghy chats to Anna Jordan, founder of ModwordsFest, Ireland’s first open mic festival for spoken word artists. Anna is also a freelance festival programmer, playwright, creative writing facilitator and publican.
Anna tells Orla how growing up as a budding writer in a small city prompted her to set up her own creative writing groups and direct her own plays. She describes how, over the course of her career so far, she has become a public speaker almost by default. Orla also gets Anna to tell us about how she became an evangelist fo...2019-06-1236 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 25 - Andrew MacadamIn this episode, Richard speaks with Andrew Macadam. Andrew is currently the Managing Director for startups in Western Europe at Microsoft. He has also held a myriad of other roles, including being an Evangelist, which at Microsoft means you go out and get people excited about new technologies. Throughout Andrews diverse roles he has experienced a lot of public speaking. He discusses with Richard that terrible moment most public speakers encounter when their minds go completely blank and how strange it is to realize that the audience doesn’t notice because they interpret that pause as time to...2019-05-1525 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 24 - Neil O'BrienIn this episode Richard speaks with Neil O’Brien. Neil is the founder of the company Time to Fly and is currently one of Ireland’s most sought after professional conference speakers and life coaches. He focuses on the topics of mental fitness, mental health and wellbeing. He has many corporate clients and has coached elite and professional sports people in the past. Neil tells Richard about how golf actually led him to his public speaking career and that his first public speaking gig was actually at a wedding! He discusses how he loves to make a game...2019-05-0833 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 23 - Kwame NyanningIn this episode, Richard speaks with Kwame Nyanning. Kwame is the founder and CEO of Dangerous, a venture studio focused on developing financial products and services for millennials and generation Z. Kwame tells Richard about his interesting start in public speaking, which involved him on stage doing hip hop! They discuss how incredible it feels when you actually succeed at a talk—and how, unfortunately, you can always bomb, even when you are well established in your speaking career. Kwame also explains that it is a lot harder to give a talk to people you know. Expectations ar...2019-05-0135 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 22 - Mary CartyIn this episode, Richard speaks with Mary Carty, co-founder of the ground-breaking Outbox Incubator and a professional keynote speaker. You will hear how Mary’s mother sparked her public speaking career by encouraging her to speak in church every Sunday, and how this fostered her self-confidence. Mary gives interesting insights into how public speaking can come in handy when you are trying to present your vision to the people around you. She also shares the process that helps her improve her speeches: recording herself—even when it’s hard to hear. She also discusses Outbox Incubat...2019-04-1735 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 21 - Pat DwyerPat Dwyer is an award-winning improv comedian who is also a professional public speaker and facilitator. Earlier in his career, Pat moved to Chicago, where he worked and toured with the world-famous Second City Theater and iO Theater, among others. Now, in his speaking and facilitating roles, he works with organizations to show them how laughter and comedy can improve a company’s profit, culture and daily interactions. In this episode, Pat talks to Richard about how, in improv comedy, you have to accept that you will ‘bomb’ a little bit every single time! He describes his impulse...2019-04-1027 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 20 - Natalia WiechowskiNatalia Wiechowski is a certified digital marketing professional and a Forbes Coaches Council member. She also holds a PhD in philosophy and social science. At age 29, Natalia decided to drastically change her life and career by moving from her native Germany to Dubai and becoming a personal branding strategist. Natalia believes that personal branding can be the key to having a dream life and a career of purpose. In this episode, Natalia talks to Richard about how she found her quirky speaking style (by breaking the rules during her first speech, which was met with extremely positive...2019-04-0331 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 19 - Oisin LunnyOisín Lunny is a professional public speaker, master of ceremonies (MC), radio presenter and journalist. He has hosted and moderated events and given keynote presentations at over 200 conferences worldwide, including TEDx, MWC and SXSW. He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and is music editor for ‘The Phoenix’ magazine. In this episode, Oisín talks to Richard about how his early PR career led him to public speaking and his ‘aha moment’, when he realized that speaking with authenticity and passion can make even a seemingly insignificant speech great. He also explains why stepping outside your comfo...2019-03-2734 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 18 - Danielle BrownDanielle Brown MBE is a double Paralympic gold medallist and five-time World Champion in archery. She successfully transitioned from the United Kingdom disabled team onto the able-bodied team. Besides her sporting achievements, Danielle works to help others achieve their ambitions through her work as a professional public speaker, trainer and coach. She is writing a book titled Be Your Best Self. In this episode, Danielle talks to Richard about how to deal with your mind going completely blank in the middle of a talk. She draws a connection between the adrenaline you experience in elite sports and...2019-03-1334 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 17 - Furkan KarayelFurkan Karayel is a software engineer, founder and CEO of Diversein.com, a global diversity and inclusion platform, and a professional tech speaker. Among the many accolades Furkan has received are the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Role Model in Business’ award by the International Diversity Leadership Awards, and the ‘Trailblazer’ award by the Women in Tech Dublin Awards. In this episode, Furkan tells Richard how her interest in public speaking started as a child with her love of poetry in her home town in Turkey. Her first adult public speaking gig took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at Princess...2019-03-0633 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 16 - Kevlin HenneyKevlin Henney is a professional public speaker and the highly regarded author of 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know. He also runs his own software consultancy firm. In this episode, Kevlin tells Richard how he started his career as a software developer and quickly made the transition into public speaking. He explains the struggles he went through trying to figure out his unique speaking style, which he did without any guidance. He also stresses how important it is to learn from every talk you give. Kevlin describes the evolution of speaking to tech audiences, including how...2019-02-2730 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 15 - Jim "Flash" GordonJim Gordon–universally known as “Flash”– is the founder of Boxworks co-working space in Waterford, Ireland, where Voxgig has its headquarters. Flash is also proprietor of the award-winning Revolution, a gastro bar and events venue in downtown Waterford. In this episode, Flash tells Richard what it was like to fall into the business sector after many years as a hard-working chef. He describes the difficulties he encountered navigating murky business waters after the global financial crisis of 2008. Flash emphasizes the importance of being able to multi-task when you are running a business; this helps you to keep up with...2019-02-2037 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 14 - Florin CardasimFlorin Cardasim is a software architect, an Agile coach, a corporate trainer, and a community and corporate speaker. He is also founder of CodeCamp Romania, an initiative for young software developers in Romania and Moldova. In this episode, Florin and Richard discuss Florin’s trial-and-error style of speaking. Using this style taught him the importance of understanding the audience, and that it is important to speak regularly so that you do not end up back at square one: afraid of speaking. Florin discusses how small things—like the time of day at which you are speak...2019-02-1329 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 12 - Karina OchisKarina Ochis is a serial entrepreneur, an international professional speaker, and a life coach and trainer. On top of all this, Karina is author of the bestselling The Influence of Social Media on US Presidential Campaigns and co-author of Cracking the Code to Success. She has lived all over the world and currently resides in her home country of Romania. In this episode, Karina takes Richard through the different steps involved in personal branding. She explains why elite personal branding is extremely important in order for all of us to truly succeed. She describes what it was...2019-01-3034 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 11- Doug ThompsonDoug Thompson is a Texan who gets to travel all over the world with his job as Senior Technology Strategist with the Microsoft Education sales team. In other words, he gets to speak for work! In this episode, Doug tells Richard why he finds it important to know your own personality in order to become truly comfortable with speaking in public. He goes into why he uses improvization in his talks, and describes his coaching methods for his sales team—which, interestingly, include having each team member tell him a story. Doug also tells Richard abo...2019-01-2336 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 10 - Andreea WadeAndreea Wade is the founder and CEO of opening.io. She is an event organizer and public speaker—an unusual combination—with many different passions. She has started several different businesses in a variety of sectors. Andrea relates how she had a panic attack during her first public speaking experience. She tells us that she still experiences stage fright but it reminds her that she cares. She also discusses the variety of events she curates, and how being a public speaker and an event organizer can clash at times. She also gives advice on what conference speakers can...2019-01-1655 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 9 - Oscar SantolallaOscar Santolalla has been working in the tech sector for over 10 years. He is currently a sales engineer at Ubisecure. A Peruvian living in Helsinki, Finland, Oscar hosts his own public speaking podcast titled ‘Time to Shine’. He has also authored the book Create and Deliver a Killer Product Demo. In this episode, Oscar explains how Toastmasters changed his life by allowing him to practice his public speaking in English and to experiment with different topics to engaged audiences that gave honest feedback. He also discusses how his public speaking career was born when he beca...2019-01-0933 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 8 - Tanya ButenkoIn this episode, Richard speaks to Tanya Butenko, founder of NodeGirls, an organization for women and other gender minorities in the tech world. Tanya is a native Ukrainian who now lives in Australia. She delves into the story of one of her first presentations. The topic of that presentation was a personal one that made her extremely emotional. She discusses why this topic was a bad choice for her first experience, not least because she did not have the strength to control her emotions on stage. Tanya also describes what it was like to begin...2019-01-0239 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 4 - Pauline KwasniakFor the past several years, Pauline Kwasniak has been diligently working to establish herself in the events organization industry. She has recently started a tough, fascinating trip into the event organizers’ public speaking sphere. In this interview, Pauline tells Richard what lead her into event organizing and public speaking. She explains how living in a country that is not the country of her birth has affected her journey. Having an ‘accent’ isn’t as big a deal as people think, she says. The most important thing she’s learned is to slow down when delivering speeches. Pauline...2018-11-1439 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 3 - Simon GibsonEvery great speaker needs a great speech. In this episode, Richard speaks with Simon Gibson, high-profile speech writer and founder of World Speech Day. You will hear about how Simon transitioned from being a script writer to a speech writer, what exactly a speech writer does, the history of speaking, and how great speeches have the power to change the world. Simon also provides some insights into the US political family, the Kennedys. What makes them such amazing speakers? He also opens up about his immense fear of public speaking and gives us some back-story...2018-11-0741 minFireside with VoxgigEpisode 1 - Debbie ForsterIn this episode, Richard sits down with Debbie Forster, CEO of the Tech Talent Charter. Debbie is an American who has lived in England for over 30 years. Her fascinating career is full of twists and turns, from being a head teacher to her current high-profile role. She tells Richard about her eventful journey, and explains how all her experiences have influenced her public speaking and have helped her create her career. Debbie gives us her insights into why it’s important to always bring yourself into your performance, and how to deal with and learn from negative sp...2018-10-2444 min