Memoirs of Salim — Time will tell
On my experience speaking on Artificial Intelligence and Open-Source at the annual conference for all data practitioners in Africa (for the first time).
“Hello Future Salim. As I write this, it’s a serene evening on the beautiful Saturday of July 1st, 2023. The time is 6:05 PM. Buddy, you’ve just taken a bold step by submitting two sessions proposal to speak at the biggest tech event for persons in the data space in Africa via Sessionize, with the anticipation that in a few weeks, one session will be accepted. Although today might seem no different from the regular Saturday evening, it strikes me as one with a unique charm — no Premier League football, no NBA games; just the Austrian Grand Prix which I hardly care about in light of team Mercedes’ recent poor performances.
Here’s to embracing the start of Q3 with hope and optimism. The plan is to nail the session(s) and then craft a compelling medium article where you tell your story. Here’s to the future, my friend. I’ll catch up with you in a couple of weeks InshaAllah.”
That was me writing to me in July 2023. Best believe I wanted to start Q3 really well. And writing this on that Saturday evening seemed like a perfect first step in that regard. You see, I remember attending the last year’s edition of the conference and if you had told me at the point that less than nine months down the line, I would have opted to apply to speak at the next edition, I’d have argued like a Harvard-trained lawyer presenting a compelling case to the jury. I wouldn’t believe you and might have called you a mad (wo)man. Talk about singing lullabies to one’s daydreams.
“It went great. My code didn’t run but I was able to wing it.”
That was me speaking with my sister a few hours after the session. All I felt at the point was relief. I recanted my experience to her explaining that despite a minor glitch with my code, I was able to deliver a masterpiece. With a sigh of relief, I explained how after the session, so many people came up to me with follow-up questions. To keep a buck with you all, it felt incredible to know I was surrounded by individuals who wanted to know more about my topic and dive deeper into the subject.
“Oh, my days! That was such a great session. Talk about a lightening talk!”
That was me (almost) exactly a year ago. As a matter of fact, when I close my eyes, I can still see slides off Steven Kolawale’s session from last year’s edition of the conference. His talk, which revolved around the credence of research being the path to Machine Learning mastery, was eye-opening and dare I say great? You see, I strongly opine that Steven who is currently a PhD student at the Language Technologies Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University could have a great career as an on-stage performer. I hold this point of view because with his session, not only was I captivated throughout his presentation, hanging on his every word, but also because his confidence was palpable as he moved across the stage with assurance, making eye contact with the audience and occasionally breaking into a smile when explaining particularly intricate concepts. In all, it was a session worth remembering a year later. I bring this up over 365 sunsets after because that inspired my decision on that July evening.
“It is now. Everything you’ve done for the last couple of weeks comes down to this, Salim.”
That was me alone in the restroom a few minutes to the session. At the point, the nerves were making my heart race and I decided to visit the restroom, not for its usual purpose but for a more profound one. You see, the restroom, a seemingly mundane place, was about to become my sanctuary. I knew it was one of the few locations where I could escape the hustle and bustle from the actual conference, seeking solace in the sanctuary of the stall. With the door securely locked, I found myself in a world that was just mine and in that confined space, I could take a deep breath, close my eyes, and let the nervousness wash over me. I reminded myself of the preparation and hard work that had led me to this moment. I whispered affirmations to boost my confidence and composure. Legend has it that the rest is now history.
“It has been five days since I got the mail that one of my talks has been accepted. This means I would be giving a 45-minute workshop session on MindsDB at a showcase of all career professions within the data space in Africa. I submitted this talk under the “Open-Source Tools & Models” track, specifically for a workshop session and giving a talk on Open-Source in October? I would not miss that for the world.”
That was me talking to myself at 6:47pm on the 2nd of September, 2023. To be honest, what piqued my interest in particular as regards MindsDB came from an hackathon I had participated in two months. For some context, if you are familiar with me, you would know how much premium I place on my sleep more than anything. However, I was so interested in the Hackathon that I gave up sleep for two nights to work on two products — a churn prediction system and some system that helps with business optimization that’d later get me a shout out and follow on X from the guys at Docker and those at MindsDB.
Immediately after I got the mail that my proposal had been accepted, I was very happy because although I was not always sure I was qualified, I had always wanted to speak at a tech event as big as Datafest Africa. At the point, I reached out to MindsDB’s community manager, Chandre. I sent her a screenshot of the mail and asked if perhaps the MindsDB community had a useful resource to that effect. She was extremely forthcoming and helpful. After the initial euphoria had faded, reality then hit with the weight of responsibility and the challenges that lay ahead. I needed to know about the product so well that hundreds of persons would be willing to listen to me speak on it. In that regards, I opted to adopt the ‘little drops of water makes a mighty ocean’ ideology that’s almost never failed me. In preparing for the event, almost every day since mid-September, I had made it a point of duty to learn one or two things about MindsDB.
“I will be there for your session, Salim”
I know I heard this a lot from my friends and I am super grateful for that. I think was talk was special but to say having people I know personally pull up not specifically ’cause they care about MindsDB or what I was going on about but just as some of support made the experience a lot sweeter might be the understatement of the century. So, here’s to (in no particular order) Tobi, Ajibola, Samuel, Ayomide, Flora, Zaynab, Stephanie, Saheed, Zainab and Joshua. And of course, Kamal Adebayo who though couldn’t come has been supportive all through. And finally, huge thanks to family members for their support — yeah, saved the best for last.
In all, this experience leaves me with a “boy, would I love to have the session done again just to experience that all over!” feeling similar to what Drake meant when he said “some nights I wish I could go back in life. Not to change sh*t, just to feel a couple (of) things twice” on 6pm In New York and although I might not be an expert in affective psychology, I’d like to think that’s a great thing. Tonight (yes, I completed this the night of the event), I’d tango till daybreak for sure and maybe in a year’s time, I’d spend this night writing something even better or maybe not. Either way, time will tell.
With that patient and endearing love,
Salim.❤️
NB: For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to write a compelling story that speaks volumes on an experience that comes from several timelines such that it initially comes off as unrelated and disjointed as it builds parallel (cue: Writers of Game of Thrones with Daenerys in the first couple of seasons) but then, adds up to some sort of masterpiece at the end. Now, not only am I glad I finally got to do that, but even more importantly, I can’t think of a better jewel of an experience to have done this with.
Four Photos because they say a million words each:
