Summary
I talk about my experience at having presented at the Lang. NET 2006 symposium.
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I presented at the Microsoft Lang .NET 2006 Symposium. The slide deck is available here in PDF format.
My presentation didn't go great, primarily due to the fact that I don't have a lot of experience presenting, and tried to cover too many slides. Dennis Hamilton said it very politely:
Christopher Diggins is an enthusiast (his day job is at Microsoft, but not in anything to do with developing languages), so it was a bit more like being at Code Camp. I'm glad he was there. It is a little difficult to present the key concepts and I think this gave him some great practice. (Think Forth with well-defined operators, and everything an object, although I am being simplistic.)
Some people seemed to appreciate the ideas and theory. I had occasion to chat with some very nice people, such as Frank Krueger, Dennis Hamilton, and Markus Lempe, to name a few.
I felt like I got the cold shoulder from Microsoft employees, but I am kind of used to that. I find it ironic that I work there, yet so few people know anything about what I do. It probably is related to the fact that my job is writing documentation, and that keeps me isolated.
Some of the other presentations went far too slowly for my liking, or didn't reveal much of substance. My impression was that a lot was more about impressing people with shiny things (look what this cool tool can do) rather than presenting interesting ideas. I had to leave after the first day, because I couldn't afford taking unpaid leave from my job.
Here are some links to what people said about my presentation:
I liked that Wesner Moise called me well-known. This may seem small, but for someone trying to get traction for their ideas, and to be taken seriously, it is a big deal. I guess it is all a matter of perception.
Finally here is a picture of me presenting, but don't let the long-hair confuse you: I was shorn two days ago.
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Ok, next time you'll present only some core concepts and provide a "Further Reading" list. Positive Thinking: You've learned a lot - about presentation.
> Ok, next time you'll present only some core concepts and > provide a "Further Reading" list. Positive Thinking: > You've learned a lot - about presentation.
OK, just because I recommended the conference judo link, I had to re-read it.
Some interesting points are slide 25 ("I try to run my classes at a speed that is faster than 75-80% of the people in the class would most prefer"; followed by slide 26 explaining how to make that work), and 34 (about getting cakes, but with the advice "unless at least sixty percent of the class says you're going too fast, then you're going too slow"; the fun stuff, however, is "You really will get every possible complaint. ... I got an evaluation that had nothing on it except the complaint 'Too cocky'. I also got one that said 'Thinks he's funny, but isn't.' My favorite evaluation comment was from the person who came to 'Tricks of the Wizards' and complained that the material was too advanced").
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