Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184393 More actions · Answer 1

BLOB_EATER (9/29/2016)
so....I will be doing a presentation in front of 40 people soon, I was wondering if the vets here have any advice? Practice in front of a mirror? smile? Humour? No humour?
Yeah this is kind of new to me 🙂

As everyone has said practice is good, I don't necessarily practice out loud, but I do use visualization techniques. As far as humor, do what comes naturally, for me that includes humor. I usually work the room before the presentation which is where I joke around a lot, in the presentation I'm more serious, but still me.

Jack Corbett
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WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95409 More actions · Answer 2

BLOB_EATER (9/29/2016)
so....I will be doing a presentation in front of 40 people soon, I was wondering if the vets here have any advice? Practice in front of a mirror? smile? Humour? No humour?
Yeah this is kind of new to me 🙂

As everyone else said, rehearse.

Humour - depends on your normal style. I'm not a humourous guy, so it doesn't work too well for me. Plus, it's not natural for me. The few places I do inject some, it does work.

Other advice: One thing I was told about me is to not have a flat voice. Naturally, it will rise and fall. It needs to do that in your presentation also, otherwise it tends to become a very dull talk.

So: know your material well, and just be natural.

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734459 More actions · Answer 3

BLOB_EATER (9/29/2016)
so....I will be doing a presentation in front of 40 people soon, I was wondering if the vets here have any advice? Practice in front of a mirror? smile? Humour? No humour?
Yeah this is kind of new to me 🙂

Panic now, so you get it out of your system. Practice and if you haven't done many, record yourself and watch. You'll see things you want to change.

Keep water with you, don't be afraid to pause for 10s to take a drink.

Learn to say, "I don't know, but I'll check", and write down questions you don't know the answer to. Keep pen and pad with you.

If you tell jokes, don't pause for laughter. Pause only if there is laughter.

Greg Edwards-268690 SSC-Insane Points: 20676 More actions · Answer 4

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/29/2016)
BLOB_EATER (9/29/2016)
so....I will be doing a presentation in front of 40 people soon, I was wondering if the vets here have any advice? Practice in front of a mirror? smile? Humour? No humour?
Yeah this is kind of new to me 🙂
Panic now, so you get it out of your system. Practice and if you haven't done many, record yourself and watch. You'll see things you want to change.
Keep water with you, don't be afraid to pause for 10s to take a drink.
Learn to say, "I don't know, but I'll check", and write down questions you don't know the answer to. Keep pen and pad with you.
If you tell jokes, don't pause for laughter. Pause only if there is laughter.

Make sure any demos are setup and work. Especially if you need some resources not on your machine.

Setting them up in several stages, where you can avoid typing and pick out the key points usually works well.

It also gives you a way to move on in case of a mishap.

Last thing you want to be doing is having the audience help you fix a typo.

Eye contact with audience helps you gauge pace.

Also it gives you a chance to ask for questions. Many in the audience are as afraid to pop a question as you might be speaking.

In most cases, you know the topic better than most of your audience. That is why they are there. So Steve's I'll Check also is best with contact information at the end of the presentation.

Being able to download slides and sample code (with helpful comments) is something most like to have available.

If you have a couple of people - ideally of different skill levels - to practice a run through, feedback for pace and where you might get some questions is better. Also having some questions to feel out the audience for knowledge of the topic at the start can help you get an idea on the pace.

Most of all, relax and be yourself.

Robert Sterbal SSChampion Points: 11047 More actions · Answer 5

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/29/2016)
BLOB_EATER (9/29/2016)
so....I will be doing a presentation in front of 40 people soon, I was wondering if the vets here have any advice? Practice in front of a mirror? smile? Humour? No humour?
Yeah this is kind of new to me 🙂
record yourself and watch.

+1

412-977-3526 call/text

BLOB EATER SSChampion Points: 14609 More actions · Answer 6

Thanks to those that have given me advice! this is a great forum.

djj SSCoach Points: 18831 More actions · Answer 7

Greg Edwards-268690 (9/29/2016)
Make sure any demos are setup and work. Especially if you need some resources not on your machine.
Setting them up in several stages, where you can avoid typing and pick out the key points usually works well.
It also gives you a way to move on in case of a mishap.
Last thing you want to be doing is having the audience help you fix a typo.

Went to a talk by Grant and he takes a backup laptop.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398694 More actions · Answer 8

djj (9/30/2016)
Greg Edwards-268690 (9/29/2016)
Make sure any demos are setup and work. Especially if you need some resources not on your machine.
Setting them up in several stages, where you can avoid typing and pick out the key points usually works well.
It also gives you a way to move on in case of a mishap.
Last thing you want to be doing is having the audience help you fix a typo.
Went to a talk by Grant and he takes a backup laptop.

That might have been a joke or it wasn't me. I'm WAY too lazy to carry around a backup laptop.

However, I do all my demos against AdventureWorks (and moving towards WideWorldImporters, or, as I call it, World War I, WWI) and my scripts and presentations are all backed up online. I could pick up any machine or vm that has SQL Server installed and use that to do my presentation. In fact, I had laptop problems at Summit and was forced to do my presentation using a borrowed laptop and a VM running on Azure to do the demos. It was a little slower, but it worked.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 9

Grant Fritchey (9/30/2016)
However, I do all my demos against AdventureWorks (and moving towards WideWorldImporters, or, as I call it, World War I, WWI) and my scripts and presentations are all backed up online. I could pick up any machine or vm that has SQL Server installed and use that to do my presentation.

I'm busy designing my own DB for demos, blog posts, courses and the like, When (if) I get it finished the backup of the base DB and scripts to populate it to various sizes will be on Github. I'm starting to get my demos up there. Presentations are all in DropBox. (which might be a problem if I lose all machines as the password is complex, but I can always present off my iPad if it's just the laptop that blows up)

So laptop blows up and as long as I can get internet connection and a spare laptop, I can be ready to go in ~10 min.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

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BLOB EATER SSChampion Points: 14609 More actions · Answer 10

I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:

Beatrix Kiddo SSC-Dedicated Points: 32407 More actions · Answer 11

BLOB_EATER (9/30/2016)
I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:

Nice- let us know when it's available, as I'm working on a project involving that right now.

BLOB EATER SSChampion Points: 14609 More actions · Answer 12

Beatrix Kiddo (9/30/2016)
BLOB_EATER (9/30/2016)
I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:
Nice- let us know when it's available, as I'm working on a project involving that right now.

No problem - once I get the URL.

Thomas Rushton SSC-Insane Points: 22648 More actions · Answer 13

BLOB_EATER (9/30/2016)
I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:

Whoah, congratulations! :Wow:

Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182882 More actions · Answer 14

BLOB_EATER (9/30/2016)
I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:

Good job!!

😎

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734459 More actions · Answer 15

BLOB_EATER (9/30/2016)
I'm super pumped at the moment 1 of my tutorials on Azure DWH will be moving over to the Microsoft website-wiki. :w00t:

congrats