We Held an Internal LT Event!

Hello, I am Ryomm. I joined KINTO Technologies in October 2023. I am mainly in the iOS team developing an app called my route by KINTO.

We held an internal Lightning Talk (LT) event at our Muromachi Office in Tokyo. So today, I’m delighted to convey this experience to you through this report!

Event Background

At a one-on-one meeting with my boss, we talked about how we would like to hold casual Lightning Talks since we haven’t had the opportunity to speak in front of others recently. I learned that other offices are doing it under the name of information-sharing meetings.

So (On November 21), I posted on my Slack channel how I wanted to hold this event, and the conversation progressed without a hitch.

Post on times

(On November 27) A kick-off meeting was held by a group of volunteers.

On the Committee Channel

(On November 29) An announcement was made at a meeting attended by all employees, informing them that the venue will be the Muromachi Office.

Muromachi Office Channel

A cute flyer was made!

(On December 14) The timetable was announced.

A cute timetable was made!

(On December 21) The LT event was held!

At the venue

The Lightning Talk came together really fast, just a month after we first talked about wanting to do it!

Thanks to the active participation of the Tech Blog team and many others, I think it was a very enjoyable meeting. In addition, with the help of the Corporate IT Group, we successfully conducted a comprehensive Zoom live stream for the event! I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to get enough speakers, but we ended up with 12 willing participants in the end. (Some of them even came all the way from Nagoya!) At first, we started organizing it informally and just out of fun, so I believe the LT event was possible thanks to the collaboration of everyone involved.

Lightning Talks

The talks were casually organized in various ways since they were for internal use only, meaning not all contents can be shared publicly. Nevertheless, here’s a summary of a few.

Tag Based Release with GitHub Flow+Release Please

⛩ (Torii’s) Lightning Talk. His LT explained each of GitHub Flow (including comparison with Git Flow), Tag Based Release, and Release Please, and how integrating these would be useful to automatically generate CHANGELOG and simplify version control. I thought that I would like to try Release Please, because it addresses my concerns of not wanting to release certain features yet since development of another version is currently ongoing.

⛩’s LT

A Fan’s Way to Enjoy Formula 1 (F1), The Pinnacle of Motorsports

mt_takao’s Lightning Talk. It was a LT introducing the excitement of F1. This LT is unique to an automotive company! He emphasized that in the realm of F1, even a one-second gap is noteworthy, and the strategies to bridge the 1/1000th of a second difference are what adds intrigue to F1! The last part of his talk was an info sharing about the "2024 FIA F1 World Championship Series MSC CRUISES Japan Grand Prix Race" to be held at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture from April 5 (Fri.) to 7 (Sun.), 2024! Wow! It was an LT that definitely made me want to attend a race in person!

mt_takao’s LT

Toward the January Development Organization Headquarters Meeting

Aritome’s Lightning Talk. It was an LT about his career journey, the lessons he gained along the way, his thoughts on KINTO Technologies and the strategies for working energetically and with vitality. I am also looking forward to the first large-scale in-house event in January!

Why Don’t You Let People Know About KINTO Technologies?

HOKA’s Lightning Talk. She talked about her own experience as a public relations professional and her efforts to raise awareness at KINTO Technologies, as well as his involvement in organizational human resources and recruitment. Additionally, she asked for cooperation in promoting KINTO Technologies. The easiest way to do so is to reposting via X, so I did it right away. 😎✨

Hoka’s LT

Sketchy Investment​

Hasegawa’s Lightning Talk. Studying English is a super high return investment! It was a LT encouraging Hasegawa’s style of study and English learning! At the end, it was concluded with a request to consider introducing English learning assistance to the company, and the audience got excited. It also made me think I should study English too. It was a very energetic LT!

Hasegawa’s LT

Lowering the Bar for LT Speakers + Announcement of Agile Meeting

Kinchan’s Lightning Talk. He defined LT as a place to convey what you like or what you find great, and by conveying "your attributes × your likes and specialties," you can create a fun LT with originality! It was an inspiring talk that motivated participation in LTs! Perhaps because of this LT, about 70% of participants expressed interest in speaking at the next LT in the post-event survey. It was also the hottest LT that received the most votes in the "Best LT" poll.

Kinchan’s LT

The Impact of Tech Blog Posting on Your Career Three Years Later

Nakanishi’s Lightning Talk. He talked about how continuing to write on the Tech Blog can improve your skills and potentially lead to book publications. He brought his real publication - a book of 1087 pages! I was surprised that consistent contribution on the Tech Blog eventually lead to publishing such a substantial book.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/486354104X/

Let Bookings Do Troublesome Scheduling

A Lightning Talk by Gishin of technology and trust. This LT was about Microsoft Bookings, which makes it easy to create booking sites, Teams/Outlook integration, surveys, reminder emails, as well as scheduling! It was actually used in this year’s medical checkup, and there were some participants who responded like, "Ooh, you mean That one!" (It was before I joined the company so I have not personally seen it...) It was also interesting to hear that the service based on Exchange had caused instability and unexpected situations. I thought I should use it next time we organize a drinking party!

Already in use!

A LT that Makes You Want To Go See "Motorsports" in Five Minutes

Cinnamoroll’s Lightning Talk. He picked up seven recommended motorsports to watch in Japan, and encouraged us visit the circuits to see them in person! He emphasized that the sound of the engines, the realism and intensity, the actual course conditions, the exhibits at the venue, and the transportation by car are all unique to the circuits that should be experienced, at least once. And going to the circuits by car is definitely recommended. If you like cars, you should also subscribe to KINTO and use the easy application app! Mr. Cinnamoroll did not forget to advertise our service too. LOL.
He delivered his talk wearing the team uniform sponsored by KINTO, and it was a great LT that conveyed his passion!

Cinnamoroll’s LT

I Made Dumb Apps and Stuffed the Chimney♪

Hasty Ryomm Santa Claus’s Lightning Talk. My LT was about the Advent Calendar I posted for personal development. I shared my own experiences participating in the "Dumb App Hackathon" and "Dumb App Advent Calendar." After I gave this LT, some of you tried the Dumb App Advent Calendar and completed it in 3 days, which was great!

Ryomm’s LT

Someone wrote the Advent Calendar after listening to my LT
https://speakerdeck.com/ktcryomm/kusoapurizuo-tuteyan-tu-jie-meta

Corporate IT: A new journey!

Flo’s Lightning Talk. This LT was about her career, her work in the Corporate IT Group, and her future prospects! She was amazing because she said her job is to ensure that KINTO Technologies’ employees work happily. LOL

Conclusion

By limiting the event to in-house members, we were able to create an opportunity for casual public speaking, and I think it was an enjoyable event that also provided an opportunity for employees to interact with each other. It must have been a great success as a launch event for the Muromachi information sharing meeting!

Regarding my personal initiative, I noticed that KINTO Technologies was relatively quiet on Slack. So I also created a live channel to encourage more active text communication, both online and offline. At the same time, the event record was kept so that it could be reviewed later to observe the reactions to the LTs. Additionally, the excitement of the event was visualized to draw interest from non-participants for future events.

We gathered survey responses into spreadsheets using Slack Workflow, ensuring that participants could enjoy the event without needing to leave Slack as much as possible.

As a reflection point, I disabled the chat for the Zoom webinar used for streaming, but left the reactions enabled, so there was a certain number of people just watching. I would like to make use of it from next time.

As it was the holiday season this time, we prepared Christmas costumes and Chammery (a non-alcoholic sparkling wine). As a surprise discovery, we realized that planning food and drinks was easier to decide when matching them to the events being held! We have received requests from both participants and volunteers to hold a second LT event, so I would like to connect the next one in with some other event.

We had a year-end party after the LT event, and it was great to hear people from other offices say that they watched the stream. The presenters also said that they were happy to receive feedback, so I am glad we held the event! It would be great if we could continue to set up these kinds of casual presentations and hear stories from different people in the company.