Voice of the DBA

Tag: speaking

  • SQL Bits is Looking for 20 Minute Sessions

    As Simon Sabin (SQL Bits co-founder) pointed out recently, the 2022 SQL Bits conference is looking to get 40% of their sessions to be 20 minute talks.

    He did the math for me, if you look through the thread, but I’ll repeat it here. It’s also in the speaker guidance.

    • 50 minute sessions (174) – 56%
    • 20 minute sessions (108) – 35%
    • 5 minute Lightning Talks (30) – 10%

    Those are rough percentages, but a little over a third of the sessions will be short.

    Thoughts

    I like shorter talks. I find a lot of fluff and wandering around in sessions when speakers aren’t quite sure what to talk about and end up covering lots of material around their central theme. Not all of them, but plenty of sessions could be tightly focused.

    I’ve experimented with these, and we ran some shorter events at Redgate Software that were 20 minute talks with 10 minutes of questions. They worked well, and I had hoped we’d do more. It seems marketing really wants 40-45 minutes talks and hour webinars.

    In the virtual world, I think we can all use breaks, and even in the physical world, I like having a few minutes to get up and move between sessions. 50 minutes allows this, as do 20. A little break, but not a long one as speakers change or people move from room to room.

    While this is a change for speakers, I don’t think it’s too hard to shrink a 60 minute talk to 50. I’ve already had to move 75 minutes to 60, and really it was a question of focusing more on you central idea and less on filling time and space by covering lots of related information.

    This also means that audiences will need to read what the talk is about and understand this isn’t teaching you something. This is about getting you to think about a topic and start further exploration.

    Building a 20 Minute Talk

    What does this mean for me, as someone that is submitting to Bits. First, I need to tightly scope the talk. For me, I want to talk about Git for one of my submissions, and I can’t spend time talking about what a VCS is, the history of Git, centralized v distributed, or a bunch of other stuff I covered in my Data Community Summit talk. Instead, I need to focus on a few things about Git.

    Here’s my agenda for an hour:

    • Who am I?
    • Why use Version Control
    • The basics of a versioning software
    • Git introduction
    • Push/Pull
    • Branches
    • Merges
    • Pull Requests

    If I want to get this to 20 minutes, then I need to cut some things out. I’d likely start to think more about an agenda like this:

    • Who am I? (cut, check online)
    • Why use Version Control – cut
    • The basics of a versioning software (cut, this is about Git)
    • Git introduction (shorten)
    • Setting up a repo
    • Saving Changes
    • Branching and sharing
    • Pull Requests
    • Merging Code

    I haven’t removed a lot, but I would do is remove most of the slides and spend more time showing people how I use the tool to accomplish something rather than an explanation and then showing a demo.

    That might be the key. Talk about how I do things in a demo, not describe the process orally and then show a demo.

    I also would look to minimize the switching between slides and demo, as each transition eats up time.

    Goals

    The big way that I focus down my talk is that I set up goals. A few conferences have required 3-5 goals in each submission. I liked this because it forced me to think about the things I specifically want to show. For this talk, I’d likely aim get help someone:

    • set up a repo
    • save changes
    • share changes with others
    • branch, create a pull request and merge code

    That’s likely it. I haven’t completely decided, and I’d need to run through demos of these things to see if I could explain them relatively slowly in 20 minutes. I don’t want to go too fast, and I do need to allow for a few questions. What I really want is about 10 minutes of demo, a few minutes to describe what I want to show, and then a summary.

    If you tightly scope sessions, I think this isn’t too hard. Twenty minutes is a good amount of time to explain something, but only that thing. Not a lot of background or side stories.

    Focus is the key.

  • Summit Reflections

    This is the second year that the annual PASS Data Community Summit has been virtual. Last year, as a pandemic gripped the world, I thought we might never see another one. I’m glad we have one this year, and I look forward to going back to a live, in-person Summit in 2022. That being said, this year’s event has been better than I expected in many ways, mostly because of spatial.chat.

    I can remember walking through the hallway of the Washington State Convention center and seeing Taiob Ali coming the other way. We stepped to the side of the hallway and had a chat among hundreds of people walking by. I thought about that in the Community Zone when he and I, with a couple others, were talking with each other in a group, away from others that were also in the room. We could see their avatars, but we were far enough away in the virtual space that our conversation didn’t upset others.

    At early Summits in Washington, there were couches in the Convention Center. Andy Warren and I often planted ourselves for hours on a couch, chatting with each other and those that came by. People would walk up and spend some time, others would drift away, but we had a conversation ebbing from work, life, Microsoft, family, hobbies, and more. We’d laugh and joke among ourselves, bonding and sharing, inspiring, and encouraging each other. I had that experience a few times in the Community Zone last week, as I stopped in various rooms, sometimes gathering in a crowd, sometimes (virtually) walking away to chat with just a friend or two.

    When I presented at the Summit, I often felt pressured, rushed, and excited by interacting with people. Getting questions and needing to go off script and explain something was a challenge and a joy. When the Summit opened this Wednesday, I had one of the first Q&A sessions. Most people hadn’t watched my recording, so I started to deliver the talk, but quickly realized I didn’t have time. I saw a few questions come in the chat, feeling pressure to get to them and quickly answer them. I had no idea how many I’d get, so I did my best to share my screen, show examples, talk through some of the concepts. It was scary and invigorating. It reminded me of the times I’d get a few questions, realize I wasn’t quite explaining things well enough, and then feeling pressure to deviate from what I’d rehearsed to help clarify the idea.

    Most years I’d have early mornings and late nights. I’ve be buzzing from my interactions and physically exhausted. As I logged off from holding open the Community Zone Wednesday night, I felt the same way. Getting going Thursday to host the SQL Saturday room for a long time and trying to watch other sessions was tough. Friday harder. Exactly like I’d feel many years at the physical event. I needed a break. I’ve enjoyed walks around the grounds of the Gaylord, or in the park behind the Washington State Convention Center; at home I go outside and see the horses. Rather than a quiet dinner with a friend (or even solo), I could go cook something and relax with my wife and son here. Both different shades of the same experiences.

    I am tired of virtual events. For me, they often lack the excitement and interest I get when I’m in a physical space. I wandered into different sessions, listened in on conversations of others, and enjoyed the interactions of being able to see and chat with others. I escaped at times to get away from the hectic environment, embraced it at others. Unlike my experience two weeks ago at Ignite, I felt like I was at an event.

    That being said, I’m looking forward to more live events in the next year. I want to engage with actual people and remember the wonderful emotions of being in the same room. I’ll miss those that don’t feel comfortable, I respect your choice, and I hope we can continue to find ways to touch each others’ lives. I’m also grateful that some of you are willing to come back to physical events and enjoy the #sqlfamily.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • What I Learned at Community Summits

    I went to the first  Community Summit in 1999. This was one of the first conferences of my career, and I was excited to have one focused on SQL Server and data. I met Kalen Delaney and shook her hand after having her educate me about how tempdb worked in SQL Server 7. That event started a 20-year journey of traveling to subsequent Summits nearly every year since. Over the years, I have a lot of memories from Summits, mostly of people that I’ve met and talked with. Much of the time I’ve been at any of the Summits was spent on networking and business purposes more than learning, but I have picked up a few things along the way.

    Early on Brian Knight and I delivered a presentation in a debate format. We were talking about the pros and cons of using identities. It was an enjoyable session and one where we learned a few things. A developer from Microsoft was in the audience and helped clarify some of the specific numbers related to limitations and scaling issues with using the feature.

    When SQL Server 2005 was ready for release, I still remember going to watch Donald Farmer talk about Integration Services, a radical change from the way that Data Transformation Services used to work. It was quite an eye opening session for me.

    Early in the time when I was working with DevOps and databases, I watched a talk on how you might apply some of the techniques with Reporting Services to implement CI and ensure your report changes would actually work correctly. It was a hack, but I think that a number of the technologies that Microsoft has added to SQL Server aren’t designed with version control and automated code review, which is a shame. However, that’s one of the great things about Summits. You can learn how someone else solved a problem.

    There are many other memories from the event where someone taught me a bit more about SQL Server. Being in the same place as so many smart, talented, inspiring data professionals was magical. That was one of the big reasons that my boss wanted to see the conference continue. Nowhere else in the world brings so many people together.

    You can still register for the event next week. It’s virtual this year, and completely free. No cost, and even if you get busy next week with work, you have access to the content after the conference, so register today. It’s a few minutes, and you’ll get the chance to learn from some amazing speakers.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Live Learning at the SQL Server and Azure SQL Conference–Dec 2021

    It’s been a long two years for most of us, with little or no training budget being spent on us at conferences. Online events are convenient and accessible, but they aren’t the same. I know I learn better when I’m in a room with others, watching something live.

    If your company has a budget and you feel safe attending an event, come join me in December at the SQL Server and Azure SQL Conference in Las Vegas. Use the “SQLSERVERCENTRAL” discount code and save a bit more.

    SQL Banner_Jones-Discount

    Everyone needs to be vaccinated or have a negative test. The conference is following guidance from the venue and city, which requires masks at this time. However, I coached all last year while wearing masks. Any inconvenience was worth the chance to be around others.

    There’s a great promo showcasing some of the speakers. This is a great chance to learn from some of the most talented professionals from Microsoft at the event.