Be honest: how many times have you needed to have a conversation with someone, but have avoided it because you know it will be awful. Or what about those times when a conversation takes a sharp left turn and suddenly everyone's shouting at each other, or maybe someone's stormed out and now nothing is going to get decided. There are skills you can learn to have better conversations, whether they're at work, with family or friends, or even complete strangers.

So-called soft skills aren't necessarily strong suits for a lot of technical people, myself included. I was lucky to attend a training session on this topic, and it was one of the most valuable courses I've ever attended. I hope to bring as much of that information to conference attendees as possible, so we can all have better, more productive conversations.