Here are the slides and demos from my How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love jQuery presentation at the 2013 CodeMash conference.

Demos and Slides

Episode 239

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell on The .NET Rocks Road Trip

I'd like your feedback on a conference I am considering helping to organize.

This idea was originally suggested by Matt Ruma, but I like it and I would like to help him execute it.

The conference would feature speakers delivering 10-15 minute "Lightning Talks" on a technical topic. Following each talk, a designated panel of experienced speakers would provide 5 minutes of feedback to the speaker about his presentation. The feedback would cover the topic, the demos, the speaking style, the slides, anything that contributed to the quality of the presentation. After 2 speakers, we would all take a short break to stretch.

Using this format, we could have 12-15 Lightning Talks in a single-track, all-day conference.

There are two primary goals of this conference.

1. Audience members could learn from hearing a series of Lightning Talks, possibly getting a brief exposure to some new technologies.
2. Speakers (particularly inexperienced speakers) would receive valuable experience speaking in front of an audience and valuable feedback on their presentation. One advantage of this format is that delivering a 15-minute presentation is far less intimidating than delivering a 60- or 75-minute presentation.

Part of the inspiration for this conference comes from the excellent Kalamazoo X conference, organized each year by Michael Eaton. However, the speaker feedback and the emphasis on technology rather than soft skills would distinguish this conference from Kalamazoo X.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. Is it something you would be likely to attend? What ideas could make the conference more successful? Please add your comments below or post them on Twitter with the hashtag #SpeakerConf. You can find me there at @DavidGiard.

Even though I’m still recovering from delivering 5(!) presentations at the Tampa Code Camp, I am actively seeking new presentation opportunities.

Here is a list of events at which I am currently scheduled to speak:

If you would like me to speak at your event, please send me an e-mail at [DavidGiard] [AT] [DavidGiard] [DOT] [COM].

As always, I am grateful to Telerik for their sponsorship that allows me to speak at so many events.

You can see a list of all my presentations (past and future) at http://www.davidgiard.com/Schedule.aspx

For many, the Tampa Code Camp was an experience to learn about others; for me, it was a challenge and an adventure.

I submitted five talks because I wanted to allow the organizers to pick what they wanted and in case someone else submitted some of the same topics I did. Little did I know that they would ask me to deliver all 5! There were only 6 time slots and I was scheduled for 5 of them! To be fair, I could have e-mailed the organizers and asked them to cancel some of my talks, but I saw the thrown gauntlet and I accepted the challenge.

Because I was speaking almost the entire time, I didn't get to experience much of the Code Camp directly. However, I can say that the audiences in my sessions seemed really energized and there was a lot of enthusiasm at the after-party.

The Tampa Code Camp was held in conjunction with the Tampa Bar Camp. About 1000 attendees turned out in total. I don't know the numbers for Code Camp versus Bar Camp, but it didn't much matter as the sessions all took place in the same 2 buildings. I was told that the Bar Camp tends to include more open source presentations, while the Code Camp was focused more on Microsoft technologies. I love this kind of mix because it gives attendees a chance to learn about things about topics outside their comfort zone and to meet people working in other disciplines.

I did record an interview with Kevin Wolf, who had built a remote-controlled helicopter using a variety of hardware and software. This will be available on Technology and Friends in a few weeks.

I was able to attend this year’s Tampa Code Camp, thanks to the support of Telerik.

All in all, the Tampa Code Camp was a great success for the organizers, for the attendees and for me personally. I will definitely consider this conference again next year.

The Horror, the Horror…

I have been delivering technical presentations for a long time and have experienced many highs and lows. Here are a few of the more difficult challenges I’ve faced while presenting.

Expert in the Audience (Cincinnati, OH, 2000)

I used to do a lot of classroom training and my habit on the first day was to go around the room and ask each student to describe his or her experiences and goals. I once taught an XML class that included a module on a new product called “BizTalk”. I knew almost nothing about BizTalk but it was so new that I assumed no one else would realize the extent of my ignorance.

Imagine my surprise when, during Day 1 introductions, I learned that one of my students was a senior Microsoft consultant, who was currently implementing BizTalk Server for his client.

Thinking quickly, I asked this consultant to deliver the final module to the class. We all learned something from him and I was spared any shame or embarrassment.

No Laptop (Southfield, MI, 2008)

I was asked by a Microsoft Architect Evangelist to deliver a presentation at a Microsoft event. The slides and demos were provided for me, but I did not have access to a laptop, so I asked the evangelist to find me one. Unfortunately, he never did, so I ended up borrowing a laptop from a friend at the last minute. This laptop had two major problems:

1. It was woefully underpowered, so all the demos ran very slowly
2. Someone had installed an unlicensed copy of Windows on the laptop, so an “Illegal Software” warning repeatedly appeared during my presentation.

No one commented on the warnings that popped up, but the audience grew restless with the time it took each demo to run.

Dead Video (Toled0, OH, 2008)

I arrived at a user group in Toledo to discover that no image would display on my screen. User group leader Jason Follas came to my rescue. Using a crossover cable, Jason connected his computer with mine, which allowed me to remote into my laptop and present from his, averting a crisis. Sometimes one has to think outside the box.

Lost in Genesee County (Flint, 2009)

The Flint, MI .NET User Group met at a New Horizons training center. I had the address and a map, but I drove around the area for at least a half hour looking for the building. I had to stop at each building in several adjacent office parks and walk inside to see if it was the correct one. I finally found the group inside a building hidden behind an unlit parking lot. I only discovered this was the correct location because someone happened to be walking out as I was walking in.

I was 45 minutes late and completely rattled and this as one of the worst presentations I ever delivered.

Overcommitted (Southfield, Lansing, 2009)

I try to avoid overcommitting, but it sometimes happens. One memorable time occurred when I was scheduled to deliver a talk at Lansing Day of .NET; and was subsequently asked to fill in the day before for an event in Southfield. Another presenter was called away by a family crisis, so I had little time to prepare for my 4-hour presentation and I had to create nearly all the materials myself.

I was unable to start preparing for the Lansing presentation until the night before, so I ended up staying up most of the night.

Dead Laptop (Lansing, 2009)

My laptop completely died the morning of the 2009 Lansing Day of .NET. I had to borrow one from Michael Eaton. Unfortunately, I did not have a backup of my presentation (I now use DropBox, so I always have a backup), so I had to recreate it. To make matters worse, I was unable to install the necessary software on his laptop, so I had to forego my demos and only display slides.

The Bomb Threat (Lexington, KY, 2010)

It was a crazy idea to drive down to Lexington, KY and back in a single day; but I wanted to be the first speaker at this new user group. The meeting was scheduled in the basement of a public library. After a five-hour drive, I called my host, who informed me that a bomb threat had been called into the library and the police had evacuated the building and the user group attendees were standing on the corner outside the library. The projector and the pizza remained inside. The building did not reopen until the following day and I ended up delivering the presentation (sans projector and demos) at a local restaurant.

So, What’s the Point?

I share these stories for several reasons

1. Preparation is the key to success. The more familiar you are with your material and your demos and your hardware and the location of the event, the less likely things will go wrong. You will also be more aware of what can go wrong and ready to deal with it.
2. It's possible to recover from a mistake. It doesn’t matter if it is your fault or something beyond your control – things will sometimes go wrong. Deal with it and move on with your demo. Don't assume that everything will go well. Have a backup of the completed project or a video or slides showing code. You can still teach concepts even if your demo fails.
3. Know that it's OK to screw up. If you are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about your topic, your audience will be surprisingly forgiving. Don’t dwell on your mistakes: Learn from them.

Several people asked me for my Data Visualization slides, so I am making them available here. You can download the entire deck here.

I recently delivered a presentation titled “Persistence in the Cloud: How to Use Azure Storage” at the aspconf online conference. A recording of this presentation is available at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/aspConf/aspConf/Persistence-In-The-Cloud-How-to-use-Azure-Storage.

I recently delivered a presentation titled “HTML5 is the Future of the Web” at the aspconf online conference. A recording of this presentation is available at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/aspConf/aspConf/HTML5-is-the-Future-of-the-Web.

This week, at Tech Ed North America, I participated in something called "Speaker Idol".

Speaker Idol is a contest organized by Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin of .NET Rocks Fame. The contestants are speakers who have never spoken at Tech Ed before and the grand prize is an invitation to speak at Tech Ed next year. Each speaker delivers a 5-minute presentation and a panel of judges rates that presentation afterward.

I entered the contest and delivered a short talk on Data Visualization. The judges liked my presentation but made a number of suggestions about providing more real-world examples.

I won the first heat, which placed me in the finals. The competition in the finals was intimidating to say the least. There were three other contestants: Jeff Fritz (who was the runner-up in the first heat), Seth Juarez, and Jim Holmes. I only met Jeff this week, but I've seen Jim and Seth deliver many presentations and they are both excellent, so I knew I needed my A-game.

Fortunately, the judges liked the fact that I took their feedback and my finals presentation included some practical examples at the end of my presentation. One of the judges paid me a very high compliment, saying that he planned to change the way he did some things based on what he learned in my talk.

When it was over, I came in first place overall.

Speaking at a major contest like TechEd has been a personal goal for a long time, which made it gratifying. Having it happen among competition like that makes me suspect divine intervention was involved.

I'm very excited about this and I wanted to share it right away.

In a few days, I'll have a full brain dump on my experience  at Tech Ed North America.

Next week, I will attend my first Tech Ed conference. I don't really know what to expect. Although I attend a lot of conferences, the great majority are small to medium community-run conferences. Larger conferences like this are usually out of my price range. Fortunately, I'll be doing some work for INETA at Tech Ed, so they will pick up my ticket.

I have scheduled a few things.
I will be delivering two Birds-of-a-Feather sessions: Getting Involved in my Local Developer Community: How is it a Win-Win? on Tuesday evening and Is Windows Azure a Contender for my Next Application? on Wednesday morning.
I will be working at the INETA booth, answering questions about how our organization helps user groups.
I signed up to compete in Speaker Idol, a contest in which each contestant delivers a 5-minute technical presentation. Winners of each heat advance to the final round and the grand prize winner is invited to speak at Tech Ed 2013.

I will also be working and presenting at the Community Leadership Summit the day before Tech Ed.

Looking through the web site, I see that Tech Ed offers a great many technical presentations and workshops. I hope to attend some of these. But, more importantly, I hope to have a chance to talk with a lot of smart people and add to my toolbox.

Once again, I have filled my summer with conferences and user groups. Here are the presentations that are confirmed.

In addition, I intend to compete at Speaker Idol at Tech Ed. This is a technical presentation contest hosted by Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin of .NET Rocks fame.

I have the following presentations scheduled

On March 20 (tonight), I will present Persistence In The Cloud: How to Use Azure Storage at the 24 Hours of Pass online conference. Here is a link.

On March 24, I will present Persistence In The Cloud: How to Use Azure Storage at the Detroit Day of Azure in Southfield, MI (http://DetroitDayOfAzure.com).

On March 31, I will present Using the Database Tools of Visual Studio 2010 at the Orlando Code Camp in Orlando, FL (http://orlandocodecamp.com/).

On May 4, I will present Data Visualization: The Ideas of Edward Tufte at Stir Trek in Columbus, OH. (http://stirtrek.com/).

I have a busy month coming up. Here are my confirmed speaking dates the next 5 weeks.

On Oct 12, I will be the host of a panel discussing "The Impact of Windows 8" at the Ann Arbor .NET Developers Group  in ann arbor, MI. Link

On Oct 29, I will present "Real World Lessons with Windows Workflow Foundation" at the Ann Arbor Day of .NET in ann arbor, MI. Link

On Nov 5, I will present "Data Visualization: The Ideas of Edward Tufte" at 1DevDay Detroit in Detroit, MI. Link

On Nov 17, I will present "Data Visualization: The Ideas of Edward Tufte" at the Detroit Area FoxPro Users Group  in Southfield, MI. Link

User groups are a great place to hear technical presentations to industry leaders. User groups tend to attract speakers who live nearby. Bringing in speakers from far away is harder because of the expense and travel time.

This week, the user groups near me (in Michigan) are fortunate that a famous speaker from far away (Vancouver, British Columbia) will be visiting.

Richard Campbell is best-known for the podcasts he hosts (Dot Net Rocks, RunAs Radio, and others), but he is also a featured speaker at many major conferences around the world. This week, he will be presenting The Scaling Habits of ASP.NET Applications at user groups in Toledo, OH; Southfield, MI; and East Lansing, MI. His schedule is below.

Date	Group	Location	Link	Registration
Tue Sep 20	Northwest Ohio .NET User Group	HCR Manor Care 333 N. Summit Street Toledo, OH	http://www.nwnug.com	http://nwnug10year.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount
Wed Sep 21	Great Lakes Area .NET User Group	Microsoft office 1000 Town Center Dr. Suite 1930 Southfield, MI	http://migang.org
Thu Sep 22	Greater Lansing .NET User Group	TechSmith Corporation 2405 Woodlake Drive Okemos, MI	http://glugnet.org	http://glugnet092011.eventbrite.com

The Northwest Ohio Group is celebrating their tenth anniversary at this meeting. If you attend the Northwest Ohio group or the Greater Lansing group, please register in advance at the links above.

Richard is here because he was kind enough to donate his time to our groups and because of a generous donation from Telerik, who is covering Richard’s travel expenses.

If you are in Michigan or Ohio, I strongly recommend you attend one of these meetings. It promises to be educational and fun.

I am scheduled to deliver my Data Visualization presentation 4 times in the next few months: At DevLink in Chatanooga, TN on August 18; at the Dayton .NET Developers Group in Dayton, OH on August 24; at 1DevDayDetroit in Detroit, MI on November 5; and at the Detroit Area FoxPro Users Group in Southfield, MI on November 17.

I’m a big fan of the Deep Fried Bytes podcast. I’ve listened to every episode since Keith Elder and Chris “Woody” Woodruff began recording years ago. So I was thrilled when they asked me to be a guest on Deep Fried Bytes this month.

We talked about Data Visualization. I recently developed a presentation titled “Data Visualization – The Ideas of Edward Tufte” that I’ve delivered at the Kalamazoo X and at Codestock. I’m scheduled to deliver it again at Devlink.

Keith was packing for a fishing trip the night we recorded, so Woody and I spoke via Skype for the better part of an hour. I think it turned out very well. I had a blast and I hope I get invited back.

You can hear the interview and download it at http://deepfriedbytes.com/podcast/episode-71-talking-data-visualization-on-an-audio-podcast/.

The Kalamazoo X conference isn’t like other conferences. Although it is targeted at technical people and the audience is filled with software developers, the content presented is typically not technical. Instead, sessions highlight soft skills, such as team building and education.

Another major difference between Kalamazoo X and other conferences is the session format: The length of each presentation is limited to 30 minutes – much shorter than the 60-90 minute presentations seen at most technical conferences. This serves to keep the audience focused. It’s rare to see any audience member get up out of his or her chair and walk out of a session, partly because they will miss a significant part of it and partly because the session is always close to the end.

The final major difference is that Kalamazoo X offers only one track. This provides all attendees the same shared experience, that they can discuss and compare afterwards. One never has to choose or feel he is missing something.

This year’s conference took place last Saturday at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and featured something for everyone. Nine speakers delivered ten presentations and the day ended with a panel discussion on Interviewing. A fishbowl exercise during lunch got the crowd excited. 5 chairs were placed in the middle of the room and a topic was thrown out. The ground rules of the fish bowl were: You must be seated in one of the chairs in order to ask a question; and one chair must always be empty. Attendees entered and exited the fishbowl area frequently and the conversation grew excited as ideas fired back and forth.

Kalamazoo X is the brainchild of Michael Eaton, who envisioned a conference that fill gaps he saw in the education of software developers. Technical information is readily available to technical people from a variety of venues, but soft skill training is much more rare and this lack of training often shows up in the lack of soft skills displayed by the developer community.

Kalamazoo X is now in its third year. I have attended all three – including the one last Saturday. I have spoken at two of them. Each time, the success was evident – The room was full, the content was excellent, and the atmosphere was electric. I’ve learned about leadership from Jim Holmes, about Community from Mike Wood and Brian Prince, about self-promotion from Jeff Blankenburg, and about life from Leon Gersing.

I’m already thinking about next year’s conference.

Photos from 2011 Kalamazoo X

Kalamazoo X home page

Photos from 2010 Kalamazoo X

Episode 154

'Going Independent' panel discussion

Below are slides from the Data Visualization talk I delivered at the Kalamazoo X conference today

I do a lot of technical presentations and those presentations often contain code demos. As a general rule, I favor creating my code demos in advance over typing them in during my presentation. If a demo involves more than a few seconds typing, no one wants to sit and watch the presenter type (or, worse, debug code that he mistyped).

Often I'll have a number of related demos in the same project or the same class. Each demo will be a little more complex or show off a slightly different feature than the prior demo.

In the past, I've added code and commented it out, then commented / uncommented during  the presentation. Here is a sample of this technique.

Unfortunately, this method is error-prone. It’s too easy to accidentally uncomment or comment the wrong line or too many lines, causing errors that you will need to debug quickly and with the pressure of an audience staring at you.

But I've found a different simple technique that works very well for Console application demos. I prompt the user to enter a number - then capture the user's input and run the method corresponding with that number. The Console.ReadLine method allows me to capture the user's input and a switch statement allows me to easily translate a number entered into the appropriate method call. A few Console.WriteLine statements clarify what the numbers mean. Below is an example.

This technique allows you to prepare all of your demos in advance, so you don’t need to change anything during your presentation. I like the fact that the technique does not excessively complicate the code you are presenting. Simply focus on the code in one individual case statement at a time.

One thing I really enjoy is speaking at conferences and user groups. I learn a lot and I get a chance to interact with other developers around the country, and I get a rush when I can pull off a really good presentation. Unfortunately, traveling can be expensive and I need to limit my talks to what can fit in my budget.

One thing Telerik enjoys is supporting the developer community. They have great products and presentations at user groups and conferences are a good way to let people know about those products. Unfortunately, Telerik does not employ an army of professional presenters to cover all the events they’d like.

Telerik recently solved both those problems by forming the Telerik Insiders Program. The program consists of people in the community – like me – who enjoy speaking at developer events. The deal is that Telerik will sponsor our trip to a conference or user group and all we need to do in exchange is give away a bundle of their software. This is a great deal for me because I’ve been a fan of their products for a long time and because I love giving away stuff that someone else paid for.

Telerik has recruited a number of outstanding speakers to this program, including John Petersen, Lee Brandt, and Malcolm Sheridan.

You can learn more about this program and request a speaker for your event at http://www.telerik.com/community/insiders.aspx.

I recently added a few dates to my speaking schedule. Here is the most up-to-date information.

I’m still waiting to hear from DevLink and MadExpo, so this list may grow.

Last week, I delivered a new presentation on Microsoft Windows Work Foundation at the Microsoft Developers of Southwest Michigan user group in Kalamazoo, MI. The slide deck is below. The presentation was heavy on demos and light on slides, so I had fun with PowerPoint – I included a photo of Mike Eaton on almost every slide. Mike is the president and host of the user group and the man who invited me to speak there. He was impressed enough to suggest a throatpunch was appropriate.

I have retitled this presentation “Real World Lessons with Windows Workflow Foundation” and I am scheduled to deliver it again in ann arbor, East Lansing, Toledo, and Flint over the next few months. In addition, I will be presenting on Visual Studio database tools at the Redmond .Net User Group next week.

Below is my upcoming schedule.

On October 12, I will present "An Introduction to the Entity Framework" at the West Michigan .Net User Group in Grand Rapids, MI. More information is available at http://www.wmdotnet.org/

On October October 23, I will present "An Introduction to jQuery" at the Grand Rapids Day of .Net in Grand Rapids, MI. More information is available at http://www.dayofdotnet.org/GrandRapids/Fall2010/Default.aspx

G. Andrew Guthie and Dane Morgridge invited me to be the featured guest on Community Megaphone Podcast this week.

We talked about community, give camps, user groups, INETA, MVPs, fried foods and kilts.

I had a blast.

You can listen to the show here.

Don't let anyone tell you that nothing ever happens in central Kentucky. The Great Pork Chop Incident of Carrollton, KY was still fresh in my mind as I drove the 300+ miles from Michigan to Lexington, KY Tuesday to speak at the first-ever meeting of the Lexington .Net User Group.

The drive down was uneventful and I arrived early enough to review my presentation before the meeting began.

Matt McKnight, who - along with his wife Tiffany - had founded the user group, sent me several text messages directing me to a good parking spot, the ideal building entrance and the location of the meeting room inside the Lexington Public Library.

But I never made it inside the library. Matt's final text message arrived as I was getting out of my car. That was the moment that everything changed. The police had arrived and ordered an evacuation of the building. I found Matt outside the library and he took me to a local bar, where about 20 user group attendees were self-applying beer to help recover from the emergency evacuation. The bar wasn't adequately equipped for a presentation, so Matt made some phone calls and found that DeSha's Restaurant had an available back room. The entire group headed across downtown Lexington to our new destination.

The restaurant had no projector, so I gave an abbreviated version of my presentation - Writing Your First ASP.Net MVC Application - using only my laptop. It went well. People were engaged and asked good questions and no one complained that my presentation was too long.

I was really impressed with this crowd that was willing to walk 5 blocks across downtown Lexington in order to attend a user group presentation. I think this bodes well for the future of the group.

I'm very glad I was present for the nascence of this group. I expect great things from them in the future.

LEXNUG site.

I have two presentations scheduled in August

DevLink is August 6-9 in Nashville, TN. I will be presenting Effective Communication in the Workplace.

August 31 is the first-ever meeting of the Lexington (KY) .Net User Group. I will be presenting on a topic to be determined later.

• Saturday April 17, I will be presenting "Building Your First ASP.Net MVC Application" at the Pittsburgh Code Camp at The University of Pittsburgh. More information is available at http://codecamppgh.com/codecamp.aspx

• Saturday May 1, I will be presenting "Extending your Application with the Managed Extensibility Framework" at the Ann Arbor Day of .Net at Washtenaw Community College. More information is available at http://www.dayofdotnet.org/AnnArbor/Spring2010.

• Friday August 7, I will be presenting "Effective Communication" at DevLink in Nashville, TN. More information is available at http://devlink.net.

Tuesday March 23, I will be presenting "Extending your Application with the Managed Extensibility Framework" at the Cleveland .Net User Group in Cleveland, OH. More information is available at http://clevelanddotnet.blogspot.com.

Saturday April 17, I will be presenting "Building Your First ASP.Net MVC Application" at the Pittsburgh Code Camp at The University of Pittsburgh. More information is available at http://codecamppgh.com/codecamp.aspx

Tomorrow I travel to Ohio for a user group tour. This is a trip I've been hoping to do for some time. The .Net user groups in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus meet on consecutive evenings, so I am planning to speak at each of these this week. The idea began last summer, when I invited Phil Japikse to come to Michigan from Cincinnati and speak at the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group. I notified the leaders of user groups in Toledo and Lansing that Phil would be in town and they invited him to speak at their groups the same week. Phil asked me to come to Cincinnati in January and he reached out to Dayton User Group president Joe Wirtley about hosting me in Dayton the following night. Joe liked the idea and confirmed the meeting. Later, I contacted James Bender, the newly-elected president of the Central Ohio .Net Developers Group in Columbus about completing the sweep through the Buckeye state. He had already booked Jeff McPherson for January but Jeff was willing to defer his talk to March, allowing me to speak Thursday in Columbus.

Phil and Mike Wood have also arranged for me to speak at an internal user group at the Cincinnati Financial Group Tuesday afternoon.

So I'll be doing 4 user group presentations in 3 cities in 3 days. The topic will be the same for each talk: Extending your application with the Microsoft Managed Extensibility Framework. I've given this talk a number of times in the past, but I recently reworked my presentation and added to my demos. I'm excited to do this tour. It reminds me of a similar tour I did during the fall of 2008, when I spoke at user groups in Toledo, Southfield and Lansing on consecutive nights. By the time I got to Lansing, I knew the material inside and out.

My schedule at public groups this week is

Tuesday 1/26: Cincinnati .Net User Group (http://www.cinnug.org)

Wednesday 1/27: Dayton .Net Developers Group (http://daytondevgroup.net)

Thursday 1/28: Central Ohio .Net Developers Group (http://condg.org)

If you are in or near Cincinnati, Dayton or Columbus this week, I hope you come to hear my talk and to say 'Hello'.

Juanary is offically MEF month. I have scheduled "Extending Your Application with the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)" at least 6 times this month. The first time was last week, when I delivered a Grok Talk at Sogeti that was available via Live Meeting.

The following presentations will all be about MEF

• Fri Jan 15 at 3PM, I will be delivering a vendor session at CodeMash in Sandusky, OH.
• Tue Jan 26 at Noon, I will deliver a presentation to Financial Corp User Group in Cincinnati, OH.
• Tue Jan 26 at 6PM, I will present at the Cincinnati .Net User Group in Mason, OH
• Wed Jan 27 at 6PM, I will present at the Dayton .Net User Group in Dayton, OH
• Thu Jan 28 at 6PM, I will present at the Central Ohio .Net User Group in Columbus, OH

In addition, I will deliver two presentations Fri Jan 22 at the State of MI Developer Briefing in Lansing, MI.

• At 1PM, I will deliver my MEF presentation (of course).
  At 2:30PM, I will present on "Speeding your application with Microsoft Velocity".
  

Tomorrow evening - Thursday December 10 - I will speaking at the Flint .Net User Group. My topic is An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming, a talk I've done twice before.

More information is available here.

This will probably be my final presentation for 2009.

I will be presenting technical talks in Kalamazoo, MI and Grand Rapids, MI. My schedule is below.

Also, my colleague Jesse Murray will be speaking about "SharePoint - The Right Way" at the Great Lakes Area .Net User Group Wednesday October 21 in Southfield, MI. This event is sponsored by Sogeti (so food will be provided). You can get more information here.

Edit: My VSTS 2010 / TFS 2010 talk scheduled for October 29 has been postponed to December 3.
    -Dave, 10/24

I will be presenting "An Introduction To Object Oriented Programming" at the Findlay Area .Net User Group August 25 (next Tuesday) in Findlay, OH. For more information visit the group's web site at http://fanug.org

This is actually my second time speaking at this group but it's the first time since 2002, so they have probably forgotten.

If you are in Northwest Ohio or central west Ohio, please come.

Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points proposes a radically new approach to creating presentations based on Microsoft Power Point.

Atkinson provides a template (available for download); an outline that splits a presentation into lengths of 5, 15 and 45 minutes; and an abundance of advice on improving your presentations.

After reading the book, I discarded the template and the outline but I embraced many of his ideas.

Here is some of the book's best advice:

Allow your presentation to tell a story.
The first presentation I did after reading this book included a story about consultants Juan and Amal, who had nearly identical skills and accomplishments but received very different performance reviews. Most of my presentations are instructions on how to use software, which doesn't lend itself well to a story format. If possible, however, I try to weave a story into the presentation.

Minimize the text in your slides.
Atkinson recommends eliminating all bullet points from every slide. The only text on each slide should be a headline. I haven't gone that far, but I have drastically reduced the amount of text on each slide. When I open an existing deck, I move much of the slide text into the Notes section. This simplifies the presentation, but keeps the text with the slides when I distribute them to users. During presentation, I make the former bullet points part of my verbal presentation, rather than something the audience reads off the screen. This keeps the audience's focus on me, rather than on the screen.

Use simple graphics
A simple graphic communicates an idea visually. I have been replacing the bullet points in my slides with a headline and a single photograph that relates to the slide topic. The slides become more interesting but less distracting.

Rehearse your talk
I already knew this but the book's reinforcement helped remind me how important it is to be familiar with one's material. Nothing achieves this goal like a couple dry runs through your presentation. Ideally this should be in front of other people (to provide feedback) and in a room similar to the one in which you will be presenting; however, filming your presentation and reviewing it yourself is also very helpful.

I have not bought entirely into the Beyond Bullet Points approach. But I have internalized many of the ideas in this book and my presentations have improved as a result.

Link: Beyond Bullet Points Online

NPlus1 is an organization designed to assist architects and lead developers and those aspiring to these roles.

The organization began last year with the launch of the NPlus1.org web site. This site features articles written by and for architects; links to screencasts and other resources; and announcements of upcoming events.

Recently, NPlus1 decided to expand its reach by organizing events of its own.  One of these events - the Architecture Summit - takes place Friday July 31 at the Microsoft office in Southfield, MI.  This event will feature three topics: "Introduction to Object Oriented Programming"; "Software Patterns"; and "How I Learned to Love Dependency Injection". The first topic is optional, as it is aimed at those who are new to Object Oriented Programming and, therefore might struggle with the concepts presented in the other two presentations.

I will be delivering the first two presentations (Intro to OOP and Software Patterns) while James Bender will deliver the Dependency Injection presentation.

It is not too late to register for this event and you can do so at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=139245

Next week will be a busy one for me. I wrap up my current billable project on Monday and I need to prepare for Friday and Saturday when I will present three different talks in two cities on two days.

In addition, I am scheduled to speak at the October meeting of the Microsoft Developers of Southwest Michigan.  Sadly, a death in my family forced me to postpone last week's MEF talk at the West Michigan .Net User Group. Thank you to Jeff McWherter for filling in on short notice.

CodeStock 2009 is in the books. I didn't attend last year, but this year, the Knoxville developer conference expanded to two days and more than doubled the number of attendees.

This conferences ranks high on the important value-per-dollar scale. As a speaker, the $25 conference fee was waived; I shared a ride to Tennessee with five other attendees; and I used the last of my Marriott points for the hotel. All told, I had 2 days of great content for under a hundred bucks in meals and gas. By far, my biggest cost was the two vacation days I had to spend in order to attend.

I saw some very good sessions and met a lot of bright people. In one spontaneous open space, I solicited feedback on the layout of my blog. As a result, I've removed some unneeded links, moved the RSS feed to the top of the main page and enabled Google analytics.

I even had a chance to talk with CodeStock organizer Mike Neel near the end of the conference.

I presented a session on Microsoft Managed Extensibility Framework. It was well-received and many in the audience were actively engaged, asking questions that indicated they grasped all the concepts I was trying to communicate. 

You can download the slides for my MEF presentation from the link below.

The content and samples of this presentation are covered in the articles below.

• Why MEF?
• Simple Contracts in the Microsoft Managed Extensibility Framework
• Interface Contracts in MEF
• Metadata in MEF
  

I'm really looking forward to attending the CodeStock conference in Knoxville, TN this weekend.

The speaker lineup looks amazing (not just because I'm in it) and the two-day format should give me time to talk with a lot of attendees outside of the sessions.

I will bring my video camera to CodeStock in hopes of recording more interviews for my online TV show "Technology and Friends". In this show I interview technologists about their passions. Past shows have focused on topics such as frameworks, careers, events and community-building. A typical show lasts 10-20 minutes, so it tends to be very focused. You can see the first 29 episodes by clicking here: http://www.davidgiard.com/CategoryView,category,Interviews.aspx

If you would like to be on this show, please e-mail at me at and suggest a topic you would like to cover.

And if you see me at CodeStock, please stop me and say "Hello".

SPEAKING

I am scheduled to speak at the following upcoming events

CodeStock 2009

The CodeStock conference will be held in Knoxville, TN on June 27.  I will be presentingon Microsoft Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).  You can find information on this event and register at http://codestock.org/

West Michigan .Net User Group

I will speak again on MEF at the July 14 meeting of the West Michigan .Net User Group in Grand Rapids.  You can find more information at http://www.wmdotnet.org/

LISTENING

I'll quietly spend all of Wednesday May 20 at the Microsoft office in Southfield so that I can attend a series of events throughout the day.  The details are below:

ArcReady
Time: 9:00-11:45AM
Topics:
Trends and patterns on the client tier
Applying Microsoft technology on the client tier
Register: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032408649
 
MSDN Unleashed
Time: 1:00-3:00PM
Topics:
Internet Explorer 8 for Developers
Developing on Microsoft Windows 7
Register: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032409548
 
Technet Unleashed
Time: 3:10-5:00PM
Topics:
Windows Server 2008 R2 – Optimize Your Time
Windows 7 – Maximize Your Potential
Register: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032410548

Southeast Michigan .Net User Group
Time: 3:10-5:00PM
Topic: RIA
More information:
http://migang.org/

Today I gave a presentation (again) on the Microsoft Managed Extensibility framework.  Below are the slides and demos used for this presentation.

ProjetListDemo A simple demo showing the syntax for MEF imports and exports 

DemoAccounting shows how to dynamically add modules to an application at runtime, without recompiling.

I expected that the Kalamazoo X conference would be a success but I was surprised by how successful it was.

Everything started with Michael Eaton.  He turned the concept - a conference consisting primarily of talks on soft skills - into reality.  Assisted by a staff of volunteers, Michael secured the venue, promoted the event, signed up the sponsors and recruited the speakers.  The speaker list was impressive - most traveled from Ohio and most have a solid reputation in the development community. 

I was grateful that Mike asked me to speak at this conference and I was excited to do it.

A couple weeks ago, Mike suggested that we switch from a multi-track to a single-track event.  This meant that all sessions would be held in the same room and that no two speakers would talk at the same time.  In order to accommodate this format, all sessions had to be cut from one hour to 25 minutes.  This was difficult for those who had already prepared an hour-long talk.  However, nearly all were able to make the adjustment.  (At least one speaker decided to back out after the format change was announced).  For me, this was less of an issue because I had never given my talk before and had barely begun preparing it. 

The format worked really well.  Speakers were forced to cut the fat from their slides and each talk was concise and to the point.  This also gave me the opportunity to watch every session, since I never had to choose between two excellent speakers.

One thing that added to the event was Mike's skills as a Master of Ceremonies.  He introduced each speaker by telling a personal story about him or her.  It was clear he was familiar with all the speakers and had put some preparation into these introductions.

My talk - Effective Communication with your Customer or Manager - was very well received.  Several people approached me afterward and told me how much they enjoyed it.  I'm working on a series of articles on this topic and hope to have them out in the next few weeks.

The most telling thing about the success of the conference was that there were attendance was higher at the end of the day than at the beginning.  Whatever small attrition occurred during the day was more than offset by others showing up.

I'm looking forward to next year.

See more photos here

Episode 18

Halfway through the first West Michigan .Net University, Chris Woodruff and Bill Miller sat down with me to discuss why they organized it and how it was going so far.

For more information on this event, you can visit dodn.org/WestMichiganDotNetU or read my earlier posts here and here

17 mins, 50 secs

I enjoy attending technical conferences and I try to make it to as many as I can.  I like talking to and learning from bright people in the developer community and picking up the latest technologies.  Developer conferences are a great way to get this information and there is no shortage of such conferences.

The Kalamazoo X conference is different.  Although the target audience is software developers, the content will focus on soft skills.  Topics such as Leadership and Social Network dominate the agenda.  The conference features four tracks: Soft Skills; Architecture, Design and Process; User Experience; and Career Development.  However each session will be short enough that an attendee will be able to see 100% of the content.

I'll be there to share ideas on effective communication with your customer or manager, a topic I've given a lot of thought to in recent years.

The conference is scheduled this Saturday April 25 at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Center for New Media in downtown Kalamazoo, MI.  You can register and get more information at http://kalamazoox.org/

I hope to see you there.

Tomorrow (Saturday April 18), I will be speaking at the Central Ohio Day of .Net in Wilmington, OH.

My topic is Using Microsoft Distributed Cache to speed your application.  This is similar to a talk I gave last summer at three user groups in Ohio and Michigan.  However, the topic is more relevant now as the release of Microsoft Velocity nears.  I have updated and expanded my presentation and written all new demos for this talk. 

A consistent caching strategy becomes critical as enterprise applications grow in size.  With Velocity, Microsoft finally has a product in the enterprise caching space.

You can get more information and register by clicking the badge below.  I hope to see you there. 

The dust has settled and the first West Michigan .Net University is now history.  You can view photos of it here.

I was fortunate that my talk (Intro to SQL Server Data Models and T-SQL) was in the morning because I had tickets to the Final Four in the evening on the other side of the state.

Shane and I put together a talk aimed at people with very little database experience.  We agreed that I would cover the basic introductory material first; then he would explain some more intermediate topics.  I rehearsed a story about the history of databases that included people keeping records on stone tablets and storing these tablets in a file cabinet; I wrote a lot of sample queries demonstrating the syntax of a T-SQL statements; and I wrote a series of articles on T-SQL

I turned out that I didn't use any of this material.

We had a small group in our session so we let them set the agenda.   Everyone already had at least a year of database experience so I scrapped the introductory stuff.  I spent far more time than I expected showing off the features of the SQL Management Studio.  We answered questions about the strategies for normalization, backing up data, and primary keys.

In fact, I showed almost none of the slides we prepared.

The good news is that the audience seemed happy with the session.  The got their questions answered without wasting time on things they already knew.  In the end, I think they were glad we were so flexible and so was I.

The feedback I heard on the other sessions was also positive.  Congratulations to Chris Woodruff for organizing a successful event.

Overall it was a very good day.  Oh... and the Final Four?  Well, my Spartans won of course.  It was a great day!