Preparing, rehearsing, delivering, and improving technical instruction.
26 associated posts26 primary posts
I just had a champagne moment. Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert) blogged about having these champagne moments in his life, times when he was almost-but-not-quite-ready to pop the champagne open because he still wanted to take things higher. My standards aren't quite so high - I recognize certain achievements as being champagne-worthy, and this is one of 'em.
Buck Woody (Blog - @BuckWoody) and I did a presentation at the PASS Summit called, "You're Not Attractive, But Your Presentations Can Be." The audience asked a lot of good questions, and I wanted to recap some of 'em as blog posts. The first one - and one of the most frequent questions I get - is, "How often do you really practice presentations before giving them?"
Several hours into Edward Tufte's day-long seminar on visual communications in Chicago, he revealed what he really hates about our communications tools. He briefly touched on the origin of the desktop with the Xerox Alto, a document-oriented computer. He said that users didn't see applications - they saw lists of documents, and they chose which…
I'm just like you, except I'm from your future. Lemme rewind a few years and explain.
My Job Search Five Years Ago
In 2005, I was working from home doing database administration, coding, and Classic ASP. I absolutely loved my coworkers, but I was burned out, and the company was in rough financial shape. They'd missed a couple of paychecks, and I decided I needed to make a change.
Knock the audience out by knowing how to end the presentation, how to use your blog as resource material, why you should avoid sentences on slides, how to get the attendees involved, and how to fire yourself up with inspiration.
Stumped about what to write about? Not sure what to talk about to your local user group?
I bet you're focusing on the presentations you would ATTEND, instead of the presentations you would GIVE.
