Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • Speakers: Rehearsals Help

    Today was a rehearsal day. Actually the last 2-3 days of work have been split between rehearsing talks that I’m giving at SQL in the City this week, and handling the other daily work I need to do. With an extra load of family chores this week, I’ve had some long days.

    I have quite a load this Friday as I have 4 talks to give.

    • One I’ve given 10 or 15 times, and I just need to review.
    • One I gave earlier this year, but it’s been rewritten with about half new content.
    • One is brand new, never delivered
    • One is a joint presentation, of which I have few parts, but I do need to be ready for those parts.

    When I work on presentations, I go through the deck, build demos, practice things, maybe go back and forth a few times as I find the flow between the items is not smooth. By the time I’m ready for a full hour practice, I’ve usually been through all demos and the slides a dozen or so times.

    The Whole Enchilada

    However going through everything in one shot is important. Your timing matters, and your smoothness in transitioning between talking, demos, and even the various elements you deal with on the screen. When I see a presenter struggle to find a setting or a button on the screen, I’m think they haven’t practiced enough, especially the whole talk.

    It’s very easy to work on parts of the talk, maybe even all parts, separately and assume you can pull them together. When you do this, however, you tend to gloss over mistakes and tell yourself that you’ll fix things the next time. At some point the next time is the actual presentation to an audience, and that’s not the right time to deliver the entire talk the first time.

    I usually set aside an hour, and actually go through the talk from end to end. I may do this silently, running through the words I want to use in my head so that my family doesn’t think I’ve gone insane, talking to myself. I’ve learned if that’s the case, I’m usually talking 15-20% faster than if I actually had to voice the words. It’s quicker to practice this way, and I’ll do this a few times. I even do this on airplanes when I’m traveling to events.

    However there’s nothing quite like delivering the talk out loud, in real time. I usually do this by myself, with the door closed so as not to frighten the children with my arm waving and pacing. I open my mobile phone’s stopwatch application, start it, and keep an eye on it as I run through the slides, talk, and demos in real time.

    A Sigh of Relief

    Today was a full practice day for 2 talks, but with a twist. One of those, the brand new talk, was one I had to give on a conference call to a few people at Red Gate. This was partially to let the project managers know what I was demoing, but also as a backup in case something happened and I wasn’t able to deliver the talk.

    After about 20 minutes of Livemeeting issues, I finally was online and ready to go. I was short of time, so I ended up going through the synopsis of each slide, and then running through most of the demos, skipping a few items where my virtual machine was acting up. It wasn’t the best run-through, but it was complete.

    When I was done, it was nice to hear the people on the other end complement the talk and content. It’s always a little worrisome for me with a new talk, since I’m never sure how well people might receive the content. A sigh of relief today that people liked the talks.

    Recordings

    One of the things I did recently to practice a talk was to record myself. Using Camtasia, I delivered the entire talk to myself, recording the session. I was able to review it later, look for spots where the content did not flow together, as well as speaking issues (um, err, etc).

    I found that to be very helpful in terms of delivering a better talk, and building confidence in the material. I found that after recording myself, reviewing the talk, and incorporating my own critique into the talk, it went much smoother than expected in front of a live audience.

    Practice

    If you plan on delivering a talk, practice it beforehand. The whole talk, in real time. It will help you prepare and you will be surprised how much it might reduce your anxiety.

  • SQL in the City Goes Mobile

    sitc_e.jpgThis week is the kickoff of the third year of SQL in the City from Red Gate. As we have the other years, we start 2013 off in London, and I’ll be leaving Wednesday on a quick trip across the water to speak. I’m looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces and a few new ones as well. These events are always fun and well run by the staff from Red Gate. We have a new venue this year, the Congress Centre in the West End as well, which means more Underground map reading and memories for me as I make my way across the city from Heathrow. I lived just off Bayswater Road for a semester in college and it’s always nice to wander around the area and look for familiar landmarks.

    We’ve gone mobile this year, so if you’re coming to the event, check out our app at http://m.twoppy.com/sitc-ldn/, It’s a great way to get information on the event and follow along with what’s happening. I don’t know how much I’ll be tweeting this year since I’ve got four talks scheduled, but I’ll get a few in here and there.

    The event is full, so if you aren’t coming, please cancel and allow someone from the waiting list to take your place.

    If you’re in the US, our fall our will kick off in California in October and make it’s way across the US for 2 additional dates. You can get more information at the SQL in the City site.

    See you in London.

  • The 2013 SQL in the City Tour

    sitc_e

    Once again, Red Gate is planning on a tour of the US for the SQL in the City events. Last year we had a large tour, hitting 6 cities in the US during October and November of 2012. It was great fun, and very well received by the attendees. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it was a bit of a stressful time for me with all the travel.

    This year we’ve scaled back slightly, but we’re still moving around the US. We have three dates scheduled, all packed into a week: Pasadena, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

    sitc_b

    Our first stop will be in California, on Wednesday, Oct 9, 2013. Red Gate has a sales office in the Pasadena area, and we’ll have a large staff coming out to meet customers and the SQL community. This event will be at the Pasadena Convention Center, in the North East LA area. It’s close to Arcadia Wilderness Park, where I’m hoping to get in a #sqlrun Winking smile

    Register today and join us if you are in the area.

     

    sitc_c

    Atlanta has a great SQL Server community. They consistently have the largest SQL Saturday events every year and there is a lot of excitement about the platform in this area. It would be a great place for a future Summit (hint, send your feedback to PASS).

    We’ll be in Atlanta on Friday, October 11, 2013 at the Blackburn Conference Center. This is at the John Marshall Law School in the heart of the city. I’m expecting this event to sell out soon, so register today.

     

    sitc_d

    The PASS Summit is in Charlotte this year, and once again we’ll open the week with a SQL in the City event in Charlotte on Monday, October 14, 2013. If you’re in town early, or live there, register and come spend a fun day on Monday with us, talking about lots of development and DBA SQL Server topics

    You can register now to join us at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Charlotte.

     

    That’s our 2013 tour (along with sold out London), and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you and meeting even more this fall.

  • The Bicentennial SQLSaturday–#200 Philadelphia

    When Andy Warren (b | t | Li)started SQL Saturday with #1 in Orlando, we weren’t sure it would succeed. After a few events, we dreamed and wondered if we’d ever get to 50 events. Despite our success in the past, we weren’t sure if a free event, supported by advertising (essentially) would survive over time. We also weren’t sure if we could replicate and grow this event in other locations.

    It grew, and prospered, and then exploded, thanks to Karla Landrum (b | t). Under Karla’s guidance and nurturing, we’ve seen a tremendous number of events taking place all over the world. Not only did we get to 50 events, the SQL community blew past 100 a few years ago and earlier this year event #200 was posted.

    It’s somewhat fitting that in one of the cities that helped birth my country, and houses the Liberty Bell, will host SQL Saturday #200 in a little over a week. I’ll be traveling next week, along with Andy for the event. There’s an exciting lineup of speakers, bringing you a wide variety of SQL Server learning sessions.

    I’m looking forward to seeing friends and meeting new people, as we celebrate the bicentennial SQL Saturday. If you can’t attend this event, there are lots of SQL Saturday’s scheduled for the rest of the year. They’re free (other than lunch at a few events) and it’s worth your time to learn something new about SQL Server and network with some of the people in your local area.

    If you’re attending an event, you might even think about bringing kids and perhaps organizing a session for them.