Teaching the Masses
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Gilles: If you and I were to meet in person, you would find me the most tolerant guy you ever met as far as listening and accepting of your accent. I am hearing impaired, plus I have a child with a speech problem, so I am a really careful listener. But if you took the stage at a presentation that I spent precious time and money to see, and I can't understand what you're talking about, or, worse, you didn't organize your presentation well (remember Steve's comment about cramming 5 minutes of information into 40 minutes) I am going to be the guy in the back of the room with the rotten tomatoes. Those guys on stage are supposed to be professionals, and they're getting something out of being there, whether it be cash, advertising, or trolling for clients. As Dirty Harry once said, (through clenched teeth) "A man's got to know his limitations."
And Loner, I disagree, there are many people who are born good presenters. There are many more who have been trained to be good presenters. http://www.dalecarnegie.com
There is no "i" in team, but idiot has two. -
I love you closing signiture Dave !!!
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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Rudy, it's from an article I saw on CodeProject. A guy who helped found the PageFlakes web site was detailing all that could go wrong. One I could relate to was connecting to a server via RD and forgetting which server you're on. The DBA thought he was on a test server and dropped the production database to free up disk space. Been there, done that. That feeling that your stomach has just taken an elevator ride to visit your ankles is like none other.
There is no "i" in team, but idiot has two. -
Well thanks for the proper reference Dave ... I still love it !
Oh, by the way, about 'that feeling'
... been there and done that myself a time or two ...
Have a great day !
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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I was probably in that session also so I can relate.
Out of the 6 sessions I've seen so far at PASS, 4 have been superb, 1 was interesting but presently poorly due to accent problems from the Microsoft presenter (he spoke way to fast with a thick accent), and 1 was just awful as he wasn't prepared and his public speaking skills were terrible for a senior level position he has at his company. People were leaving the presentation very quickly as we had to sit though technical difficulties and his rambling speaking style.
Overall the sessions are great, just a couple that have gotten the sharp end of my pen in their reviews. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
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Having been a trainer for many years, it is very disheartening to attend these events where delivery of 'Important Information' is no better than a [Insert company or choise] chest beating exercise, (IMHO). I attend when ever I can, or get the company to shout the delegate fee, to do one thing, Network. I Network my ass off.
The selected speakers/sessions for me do nothing except create an environment where 'like minded' or 'technologically focused' individuals meet for 30-40 minutes. The information from talking to these people are far more interesting than the 'Presenter'. And a discussion over glass of wine or a coffee discussing their point of view has given me more ideas than the people on the podium.CodeOn
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Heh... I've gotta agree with that part... we've gotten more done on cocktail napkins that we have at such seminars.
Beer... the greatest "networking" tool there is
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
Not ignoring you guys, I'll get more posted tomorrow. Too tired tonight.
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I must've missed that MS session on wednesday. With only a couple of exceptions, I found the presentations to be good and relatively informative. The ones I didn't, I left and went elsewhere.
As someone who's hoping to be up at the podium next year, I can imagine how disheartening it must be to see large portions of the audience walking out, but with 10 concurrent sessions, there's better things to do than sit it out.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverabilityWe walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass -
This was my first PASS Community Summit and I found it much more enjoyable end educational that this year's TechEd even though it was shorter. My experience started on Tuesday with some great information from Andrew Kelly on DB maintenance in SQL 2005. The rest of my sessions were quite good. After my experience at TechEd with a lot of good sessions have problems with insufficient space for attendees I made sure to have a backup session planned for each time slot. That worked out great for me and I managed to get something useful out of every time slot except for one.
I also ended up sitting next to another PASS Summit attendee on the plane from Denver to Charlotte (about 3 hours) and he had been to previous summits. He wasn't as impressed with this year's Summit but expected next year to be better since it's in Microsoft's back yard.
[font="Tahoma"]Bryant E. Byrd, BSSE MCDBA MCAD[/font]
Business Intelligence Administrator
MSBI Administration Blog -
Networking is definitely something you should do. I spent most of my time talking with people about everything and I'll probably do more of that next year and not hit any sessions. The exception I'd make is the Bill Baker Power Hour or Unplugged sessions. They're a blast.
Gail, you'll do fine next year. A few tips here for presenters:
- Focus on your topic.
- Don't give too much background. Assume we know something and get through the setup quickly.
- If you answer 3 questions with "I'll cover that later", you're moving too slow. Pick up the pace.
- Don't read slides. EVER. Just talk about what they're covering. Most people will read them faster than you can anyway.
- Take questions as you go. They'll help you get a feel if you're moving too fast or too slow. If they get off topic, don't feel bad about asking them to come see you at the end or in the hall.
I'm not complaining about the accents. Being a rather simple individual that speaks only English and has bad hearing, I prefer US speakers, but I usually sit in the front and get used to the speaker after a few minutes. And I appreciate how hard it is. I'd be the worst speaker at the conference if I had to do it in Spanish, German, or anything. Even if I could learn enough words to get by!
The biggest complaints I have are when the sessions move too slow. I know I've done this stuff a long time, but there are many experienced DBAs and we don't need too much set up or background. Tell us it's like xxx and then discuss your topic in detail. Detail is good, stuff we can use is good, general hints are bad.
Other than that, I'll say that of all the sessions I saw at 3 conferences this year, most were really good. Granted quite a few were MS people talking about Katmai, but even ones on topics I was familiar with were quite good. I highly recommend sessions with Bill Baker, Brian Welcker, Paul Randal, Kim Tripp (Randal?), Euan Garden, Robert Zare, Dan Jones, probably more, but those are good speakers that are comfortable with what they talk about.
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Can't agree more with Steve on this one. Networking is definitly the best ROI you'll get from those events. Why? because you get to directly ask your questions to 1,2 5, 10 professionals at the same time. This forms small mastermind groups for even just a few moments and it will inspire some great ideas almost everytime.
As for the conferences, I can't say they were all excellent, but I had way more than my money's worth. It's also worth to mention that it was the first time I was at PASS and it was a very memorable week for me. I especially liked that MySpace / Sql Cat presentation. I still can,t figure out and they can handle 250 000 transactions / SEC. My server doesn't do that in a day (only 10 employees on the system).
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I would have to agree with your comments Steve.
I've been to a few Microsoft seminars and also attended a couple of inhouse classes and you go get varying levels of presentation skills. It's not that the guys presenting didn't know the topic they were discussing, it's just a lack of presentation skills that ruined the experience for me.
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