“Interview with Hubert Lenoir”. In this interview, Hubert Lenoir, developer at SensioLabs talks about his presentation at the SymfonyLive Paris 2020: “Cache pays!”. You did not have the opportunity to attend his presentation? Hubert explained us why he decided to talk about this subject, and also how exciting it was to speak at this conference.
Jules Daunay: Hello Hubert, we just heard you talking on the SymfonyLive Paris stage, how was your talk?
Hubert Lenoir: Hello Jules, everything went very well! I was a little worried at first. I had already presented a talk at the SymfonyLive Lille 2019 in front of a smaller and more familiar audience, but I was my first time presenting on such a big stage. Finally, except for some minor unexpected events on stage, when my notes and my timer were cut off, I had a tremendous experience. Because I had prepared my presentation myself and I spoke on a subject I was comfortable with.
JD: Well, can you tell us how you came up with this subject?
HL: The choice of this subject came to me out of frustration and great constraints, when I had to look for a solution on my own on a project. After this solution has proved to be fully operational, I was very excited, and I wanted to tell everyone around me about this success. I wished that they could use it for their own needs, and why not help them find new ways to improve their own development projects.
JD: Did your presentation at the SymfonyLive Lille 2019 deal with the same subject?
HL: No, my presentation was on the same client but not on the same subject. I had decided to talk about “Organizing and optimizing a complete CI” with many constraints such as saving time. We had found a system that worked very well, so I thought that could have some interest for other people who were in the same situation as us and provide them with simple solutions.
JD: Can you tell us a few words about your talk “Cache pays!” at SymfonyLive Paris?
HL: I would say that the cache pays like never before! When you have high expectations and constraints on a project with a lot of users, your application should run quickly, without loading delays. That’s why it’s crucial to work on the cache, because the cache is the best way to efficiently improve performance.
There are many types of caches, such as application cache or Symfony cache: a whole bunch of caches. I have showed a summary of what can be done quickly: What’s the point? At what time? What are the advantages and disadvantages? My talk went quite fast, and I have to say that 40 minutes is a very short time to talk about caches.
JD: Are you ready to talk about another topic at a Symfony conference or somewhere else?
HL: Why not, on another subject. It’s rewarding to find a topic that will be of interest to the community, to reach a broad audience. I was a little worried about that before the SymfonyLive. In the end, there are always people who already knew your topic, some others who will learn a few things, and even some who will discover it completely. What’s great is that the community is kind. If I might make a mistake during my presentation, the audience reacts and gives me suggestions, like using another caching system. It’s very helpful to decrease the speaker’s apprehension and gives you the opportunity to learn new things.
JD: Any advice for someone who would like to speak at SymfonyLive?
HL: First and foremost, feel free to send your proposal if you have an idea! Secondly, train yourself before your talk. At SensioLabs we have the chance to benefit from what we call “training lunches”. These are brilliant short trainings by and for the SensioLabs team on technical or non-technical subjects. The whole team comes together at lunchtime to listen to one of us introducing a tool, an idea, etc. I was able to introduce my SymfonyLive Paris 2020 topic in a training lunch. It helped me to refine my ideas and test them in front of an audience.
It was really very helpful to me to prepare for SymfonyLive. So, don’t be afraid to talk about your ideas, to ask for other developers’ opinions, to take all the opportunities you can get to practice public speaking and why not, join SensioLabs 😉!