Interview with Sam Miyamoto: Giving My First Talk

Author: Reshama Shaikh

We speak with Sam Miyamoto about her experience giving her first talk.

Tell us about yourself

Hi all! My name is Sam Miyamoto, and I’ve been a contributing member of the Data Umbrella community since 2023. I am based in the Los Angeles, California area. I was introduced to Data Umbrella by way of SPEC and Hackbright Academy.
Have you given a talk or tutorial before or participated in panel discussions?

“Intro to Git” was my first solo talk on a technical topic in a virtual format. However, I have a fairly broad definition of what a talk means. I’m thankful to every educator I’ve ever had in any setting who included student-given presentations in their lesson plans, from elementary school until now. Not to mention the friends and colleagues who encouraged shared curiosity. They are giants!
When was your first talk?

My first talk was with the Data Umbrella community. I reached out to Data Umbrella, as I often contribute to timestamps for their webinars. The talk was Intro to Git in December 2024.
What inspired you to do that presentation:

That’s a good question… it was a combination of a few factors. Speaking candidly, I wanted to present on Git from my beginner’s perspective because I wanted to learn and understand more by teaching.

Git is complex for me, and I was fortunate to have a clear starting point provided from work and volunteer experience from which to “branch” off and explore while communicating in team-based work in pursuit of a shared objective.
Do you have any suggestions for first-time speakers?

I would suggest / encourage that first-time speakers ask thoughtful and personal questions of themselves while thinking of a topic on which to present. Some examples can include: Why that topic? Why now? Or later? What about it resonates with you? How will you sustain the audience’s attention? What journey will you navigate the audience on?

Virtual event speaking can sometimes be a balancing act, and the Data Umbrella community walked me through those steps.

And if you couldn’t already tell… sometimes the rambles go on for a bit.

Also, virtual talks helped me with landing a job, as they demonstrate a variety of communication skills.
What has been your experience since you have presented? What are the benefits of public speaking?

Public speaking (especially one that is recorded for anybody to see on the web at any hour of the day) can be intimidating sometimes. Doing that presentation helped me practice some information synthesis, overcome some fear, and test / refine some technical communication skills in a live setting as well. Communication refinement is (hopefully) a never-ending cycle. Data Umbrella’s audience and community is respectful.
Anything else you would like to share?

Thank you and the Data Umbrella community for the time. Presenting was a special and challenging experience that I valued, and I look forward to tuning in to additional events.