Career Development Archives

Awarded: Forbes 30 under 30

September 25, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

A few days ago, I had the honor to receive the Forbes 30 under 30 award for the efforts of building presentation agency 356labs in the last 3 years. Everywhere, all around the web, I am sharing a very short yet important story of what happened just a few days before the ceremony and it’s this one.

While we were at the office, I got an e-mail from Iva Nachkova, my girlfriend who also joined the company from almost an year now, that was more or less a reshare of one of Seth Godin’s recent posts. The mail came with a simple question – profitable, difficult or important? The main idea of the post is that there are three type of companies nowadays. Ones that do it for the profit(Apple in the last few years). Ones that do it because it’s difficult(Tesla, Amazon). And ones that do what they do because their work is important.

So… profitable, difficult or important?

My answer: Important. 356labs and the team around me, we do what we do because we believe our work is important. That is what motivates us and that is what drives us forward.

Thanks again, Forbes and everyone who voted for us! We highly appreciate it.

Awarded: Microsoft PowerPoint MVP

March 5, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

So there it is. It happened. Again. I am back to the MVP Program as a PowerPoint MVP!

Some of you may know that back then when I was a SQL Server person, I got the SQL Server MVP award and held it for three consecutive years. Of course, it didn’t happen easy as my application was declined first but that just motivated me even more to push even harder and prove Microsoft that I deserved that recognition. I was 22 back then and probably was one of the youngest MVPs Microsoft has ever had…

Then 356labs happened and that… changed a lot of things. Most importantly – changed the fact that I was not contributing to the SQL Server world anymore and so I told Microsoft that they will have to drop me out of the program because I don’t deserve the MVP status anymore. Why? I was just not doing anything SQL. Simple as that.

However, since we launched 356labs, our presentation agency, I started doing a ton of PowerPoint work – wrote 300+ blog posts, organized and participated in tens if not even hundreds of events, pushed the product and built a community of people who understood that PowerPoint can actually be used to create presentations that win multimillion-dollar deals, and win huge investments. So I asked myself – why shouldn’t I try and get the PowerPoint MVP award?

I tried. I submitted my application almost 2 years after we started 356labs and pushed so hard all of the things above. The result? Got rejected. Why? They wanted to see that I will continue to do what I do because it’s just been an year or two now and that’s not enough.

Well, I agree. That’s really the case and honestly speaking, it makes sense. That’s why I continued to push and pushed even harder. I thought myself that I need to do so much so that I will put Microsoft in a position where they don’t have any other option but to give me the award(yeap, one of the MVP leads will tell you that these are the exact words I told him). When I submitted my application again I had more than 55 activities(as Microsoft calls them) and just one of them were the 300+ articles(to give you context of how much effort it takes).

On February 1, while waiting for the confirmation mail, I received a tweet from a friend who is a SQL Server MVP and the tweet was saying that I got the award… I still don’t know why they pushed this information through FB instead of email but let’s not get into this one. 😉

Lesson from the story: Never give up! I learned that looking at the people who inspired me and who achieved things I admired and hopefully this short article will once again remind you that this old advice “Never give up!” is here for a reason. It’s here because it’s true.

Thanks to everyone who made this award possible and especially to everyone in our team at 356labs. That was not going to be possible without your effort!

Speaking at ITCamp 2017, Romania

April 5, 2017 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

ITCamp is one of those events which every speaker wants to speak at. I was privileged to do so last year and shared why that is the case!

I am happy to announce that I am speaking at ITCamp again this year!

This time I am delivering a session that is called “The Secret of Engaging Presentations”. Watch the video above if you want to learn more about it because this session is a killer. And I mean it.

Are you coming to ITCamp 2017?

Let me know in the comments if so!

Speaking at Tarabica #IT Conference, Serbia

March 28, 2017 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

Tarabica IT Conference in Belgrade, Serbia. I remember you!

I am extremely happy to announce that I am back to the event and that I will be able to speak for the incredible Serbian community!

On 8th of April, I will deliver a session named “The Secret of Engaging Presentations” and to be honest, I can’t wait for the moment to come! I still remember how I was completely shocked to see that more than 800 people showed up for the event in 2015. Not to mention the incredible work that the team behind the conference did! It was a crazy experience and I feel privileged to be able to part of the event again!

Are you going to be there?

Let me know in the comments if so!

Update: The event went great and even though I spent only a few hours at the venue, I am so happy I got back and presented again. I had a very small audience this time – not more than 30 people, but boy were they absorbing (and taking some of our stickers afterwards). My presentation is below and to be honest, I would love to go back and deliver for this community. It’s just one of those places where you can feel that people want to learn…

The Secret to Engaging Presentations from Boris Hristov

Speaking at StartUP@Blagoevgrad 2017

March 2, 2017 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

I am happy to announce that I am speaking at this year’s edition of the

StartUP@Blagoevgrad Conference – Ideas Rearranged!

I will deliver two sessions during the weekend:

On Saturday, I will be talking about the mistakes I did when starting 356labs!
And on Sunday, I am delivering a 2-hour workshop on how to craft a truly engaging presentation!

Can’t wait to see those young, ambitions and extremely opened to learn young people at the American University in Blagoevgrad! I have already talked there twice and that is the reason why I am going back again!

Hope to see you there!

Update: The conference went great! There were some tech glitches at the start of my session, but we fixed them quite quickly(hopefully you will see how the audience reacted on the upcoming videos). And as for the workshop – more than 80 people showed up! Overall, a fantastic weekend full of great young people who always inspire me with their willingness to learn!

Videos coming soon…

Update: The videos are now here! First is my talk(fire!) on my mistakes while starting 356labs and then its a two-hour workshop I delivered on how to create engaging presentations.