speak at a conference

I was recommended to take a look at Cameron Moll’s tips, so I did, and found them extremely practical.

http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2009/02/20_tips_better_conference_speaking/

This led on to reading some from Edward Tufte (he of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information fame)

http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2002/cmsc434-0101/MUIseum/applications/presentationtips.html

this is going to be a tough one to make “progress” on before the end of the month.

(Quotation marks because I suppose it depends on how you define “progress” — I won’t be submitting to any conferences, much less speaking at any, but I will be writing papers that I might conceivably someday submit. Under that definition, in fact, this goal’s a gimme — I will be writing papers this month no matter what.)

a couple of weeks ago I (and my team) ran an Agile/Scrum Coding Dojo as part of the Skillset sessions in the London Games Festival Fringe. A lot of fun was had by all and I felt that everyone contributed well.

Not sure that I can count this as “speak at a conference” yet, so I keep this Thing open.

Had a lot of fun speaking at a Podcasting conference. I got to share my experience and funny stories with those new to Podcasting. And any fears were quickly ended when the audience and myself connected. What fun!

Last weekend at RubyConf 2006, I was lucky enough to give a lightning talk in front of the entire conference… then that evening, some folks had arranged RejectConf, an opportunity for those people who got their talks rejected by the main conference to talk anyway.

It’s a hell of an experience talking about a topic in front of people who are gathered for exactly that topic. Intimidating to be sure, but exhilarating too.

at a conference on integration held by the Home Office in the UK. They were interested in learning about a program that we have here in Canada and I was chosen to be the speaker for that workshop.

A little scary but what an interesting experience!

I even managed to say something vaguely controversial once or twice. I believe I called Disney and the BBC “business bullies” at one, with a Disney person sitting next to me. Ooh, I’m so brave!

... but I still did it. And I was only told my timeslot was halved when I went to put up my slides up on the projector—thanks for the warning. No matter: I reworked my notes, glided through other stuff, cut out other crap (well, it was all crap, but) and still managed to tell a joke. That’s the way to engage your audience, make them laugh so they don’t listen to anything else!

(The joke was: Standards Rule!—get it?)

Positive reviews except for this one, and this is a direct quote from the evaluations: “Standards Working group session appeared very incoherent and garbled to me” ... maybe because I was cutoff? ... maybe because they weren’t listening? ... maybe because … nevermind.

Anyway, this goal is now done!

Last week was not my time. I could have achieved this goal but I passed up the chance. I wasn’t ready. It was a passed opportunity. I’m not disappointed at the lost chance, it wasn’t my time. Besides, the presenter for my team’s project was perfect: hilarious, energetic, massively intelligent, and it doesn’t hurt that he had so much style it made him ooze sexiness. :-)

So I really am a shy person but I’ve found that public speaking is GREAT for breaking through that fear. Now I actually enjoy it. In fact I’m speaking again in two days.