June 17, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Best Minds
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June 18, 2009 at 4:08 am
Yes, 'can't let go of the marketing' is nicely put. Actually, I'm not sure that it is the Microsoft people who are the worst offenders. The strange thing I've noticed in chatting to the Microsoft insiders is that they are far more relaxed and frank about the products than some of the MVPs are. As long as the Microsoft press office doesn't get too close, it is remarkable how near to a frank assessment of Microsoft's products one can get during discussions with the technical people there.
Here is a typical output from a well-known SQL Server MVP, picked at random from a double-page of a purely technical book.
'its features are nothing short of impressive ..Blah blah blah...the most demanding data-consuming applications..Blah blah blah.. many other benefits and advantages ..Blah blah blah..very intuitive ..Blah blah blah..meets the needs of the organization ..Blah blah blah..continues to deliver a robust experience ..Blah blah blah..introduces significant enhancements to make the ....even more simple and seamless...Blah blah blah....tremendous number of options....Blah blah blah... another great planning tool is the ...
The guy is fit to burst, with superlatives oozing out of every seam. At any presentation, this type of trail of value-judgments is always an enormous irritation to the audience.
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
June 18, 2009 at 6:02 am
"free admission to the contest"
I'm pretty sure the contest is free.
No, I don't need to see the "best minds" speak. I sat through a session with someone that I really respect, admire, and have learned from in the past. I'm DEFINATELY not naming this person. That session was so boring, so dull, so completely without life or knowledge or passion... I couldn't square the presentation with the brain that I had read so much from. I've never gone to another one of that person's sessions. I continue to read their stuff, and will. Not counting the all day pre/post-con all days sessions, most of the presentations are under one hour. You don't need the "best mind" presenting. You need someone that knows more than you do and has a passion for the subject and can speak coherently on it. That's all.
My favorite session last year was Gail Shaw's Dirty Dozen. Not because I learned so very, very much from the "best mind." Actually, she probably is one of the best minds, but her session was great because of the knowledge & passion she brought into it. She presented her information in very clear ways. I did learn from it, which is saying a lot for the 45 minutes she had to use. More of that is what's needed, not a focus on particular names.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
June 18, 2009 at 6:03 am
Totally agree with you Steve.
Phil, I've seen no signs that MS encourages the excessiveness you quote, I think it comes naturally to many that end up being MVP's (tis how they got there!). But I agree that it's frustrating when it's all good and no bad - truth always has some disagreeable element to it.
June 18, 2009 at 8:11 am
"Best minds" are great for open discussions, but not what I'd be looking for in a presentation. There, I'd be more interested in "knows more than I do, or has a different viewpoint than I do".
I've been to a lot of workshops in the last year (not SQL related), and in many of them, the person knows no more than I do about the subject, but has a different take on it, and that can be even more valuable. For example, one of the workshops was on "prediction of human behavior", and there's a set of patterns of personality types, one of which includes promiscuity as a standard characteristic. I'd always connected that with sexual habits, but the person delivering the workshop pointed out that it includes people who will walk away from a job without even a 2-week notice, with no loyalty to coworkers, etc., and sometimes without even a good reason for leaving. I'd never thought of it that way, but it made total sense. Easily expands out to include lack of loyalty to friends, family, etc.
That kind of insight is what I'm looking for in a presentation/lecture. It either needs to include information that's new to me, or it needs to look at known information in a way that expands my horizons on it. Best, of course, is a mix of both.
I don't look for the same things in a conversation as I do in a presentation.
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June 18, 2009 at 8:20 am
. . . . . can't let go of the marketing and just deliver technical information.
Don't you just hate it when they can't stop marketing the product. They just can't pass up the opportunity to tell you how wonderful the product is.:hehe:
:-PManie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
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June 18, 2009 at 8:23 am
If you're going to speak in public, take a course or two in public speaking. Or join Toastmasters, and if you complete their program, you'll be pretty good at it. Public speaking is a skill, and like lots of skills, you probably need some training for it. Some people are naturally gifted at it, but I'll give you odds that most of the people who are really good at doing presentations, both from the personality/presentation and the technical aspects, have either had some training or have done it for a long time and that has refined their skills.
One of the greatest things in Toastmasters are the "Uh" bells. One or two people are given 'ding' bells, the little silver dome-shaped bells stereotypically used in small hotels to summon the desk clerk, and every time a speaker says "Uh" or other filler/pause words, they get a ding. The dings are tallied, I don't recall if there's a prize for fewest or most dings. It makes you very conscious of how you speak and encourages rehearsal and preparation. It's a definite sign of improvement when you can see how your ding count goes down as you progress through the program. It also makes watching TV or other public speakers fun to do mental dings. (No, I haven't completed the program, nor am I currently doing it, so this is not an advert. I attended one, and it was a lot of fun.)
Teaching mini-seminars for small groups of co-workers is also a good way to develop, practice and refine your skill, I'd suggest recording yourself, either audio or video, and listen to yourself.
Many universities require one or more courses in public speaking for IT grads, I think this is an excellent thing.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
June 18, 2009 at 8:30 am
Wayne West (6/18/2009)
One of the greatest things in Toastmasters are the "Uh" bells. One or two people are given 'ding' bells, the little silver dome-shaped bells stereotypically used in small hotels to summon the desk clerk, and every time a speaker says "Uh" or other filler/pause words, they get a ding. The dings are tallied, I don't recall if there's a prize for fewest or most dings. It makes you very conscious of how you speak and encourages rehearsal and preparation. It's a definite sign of improvement when you can see how your ding count goes down as you progress through the program. It also makes watching TV or other public speakers fun to do mental dings. (No, I haven't completed the program, nor am I currently doing it, so this is not an advert. I attended one, and it was a lot of fun.)
I am all for improving my presentation skills, and the gods know i could use use, but I swear, if someone were ringing some little bell every time I said "uh" during a presentation... It wouldn't be pretty. That's all I can say.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
June 18, 2009 at 8:54 am
Grant Fritchey (6/18/2009)
Wayne West (6/18/2009)
One of the greatest things in Toastmasters are the "Uh" bells. One or two people are given 'ding' bells, the little silver dome-shaped bells stereotypically used in small hotels to summon the desk clerk, and every time a speaker says "Uh" or other filler/pause words, they get a ding. The dings are tallied, I don't recall if there's a prize for fewest or most dings. It makes you very conscious of how you speak and encourages rehearsal and preparation. It's a definite sign of improvement when you can see how your ding count goes down as you progress through the program. It also makes watching TV or other public speakers fun to do mental dings. (No, I haven't completed the program, nor am I currently doing it, so this is not an advert. I attended one, and it was a lot of fun.)I am all for improving my presentation skills, and the gods know i could use use, but I swear, if someone were ringing some little bell every time I said "uh" during a presentation... It wouldn't be pretty. That's all I can say.
It's actually done in very good humor and a cordial atmosphere, at least at the club that I was at. 😀
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
June 18, 2009 at 8:55 am
I took public speaking in High School, which in my day was a regular offering at the school I attended. This was a great experience and very useful, but I would further endorse what Wayne West has suggested: ToastMasters.
I have belonged to my local ToastMasters group now for about 13 years and it is a great way to practice, sharpen and enhance your public speaking skills. Not to mention it can be a lot of fun. Besides things like the "Uh bells" exercise Wayne describes, ToastMasters also does things like having you give presentations on something you are not expert on - teaching you how to become somewhat expert, and present a brand new topic. They also reverse that by having you present something you are expert on, but your audience is not - then you get judged on whether you actually transferred useful, working knowledge. It is a great organization, easy to join, not overly time-consuming, but very valuable to your speaking skills as well as being comfortable as a speaker/presenter.
The only drawback to ToastMasters is that after becoming part of their organization I find I get very frustrated when I go to a presentation where the speaker has no public speaking skills. Things like not making eye contact, endless 'Uhs' and 'Ums', presuming your audience is 'getting it' without checking - these drawbacks and others can make going to conferences about as much fun as a root canal, and about as useful as an umbrella in a meteor shower.
Anyone, especially technical people, can really benefit from ToastMasters - I strongly recommend the organization.
June 18, 2009 at 9:01 am
blandry (6/18/2009)
...Anyone, especially technical people, can really benefit from ToastMasters - I strongly recommend the organization.
One thing that definitely should be mentioned about Toastmasters: it's an excellent social networking opportunity, and chances are that most of the people in the group are not IT, so you can develop business contacts within your community that could become very valuable at some point in time.
And if you work in a big building with lots of different companies, there's a decent chance that there's a Toastmasters chapter there. Lots of companies allow them to use their meeting space because of the benefits their employees can get through attending.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
June 18, 2009 at 9:11 am
Wayne,
You are absolutely right. I was brooding on the same point at Teched during one particularly amateurish presentation. The speaker had interesting things to say but his delivery was so poor that the whole effort was wasted. Someone who has been properly coached is always streets ahead. Why on earth couldn't a company the size of Microsoft ensure that their staff knew how to speak in public? It is so important, but it ain't a mystic talent: it can be taught, just like configuring clustered servers. It is not just the subject matter, the preparation, the voice; it is how one stands, how you make eye contact, the sort of gestures you do; The way you use presentation materials; How you use your notes.
The process of coaching is painful. No public speaker is aware of the frightfulness of their presentations. It is very humiliating to realize that one has been making a prize idiot of oneself for years.
Once one gets a hang of the techniques, it is all terribly simple. Proper coaching is well worth the money. It is an essential life-skill. I still make a complete mess of it but I'm much better than if I hadn't been coached!
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
June 18, 2009 at 9:12 am
I attended a public speaking class where the first thing they did was give us five minutes to prepare to give a five minute talk on “How great you are at your job”. The class was encouraged to interrupt, ask questions, heckle, or just laugh at our mistakes while we spoke. They video taped it and played it back to the class while the teacher and other class members gave a withering criticism of our speeches. After the trauma of that learning experience, we all had a lot more confidence from knowing that any public speaking we did after that was unlikely to match the embarrassment of that speech.
I learned what comedians mean when they say “they were dying up there.”, but I don’t think I will be doing any stand-up comedy.
June 18, 2009 at 9:49 am
I did public speaking for 3 years at high school. Was ok, I didn't enjoy it that much. Apparently some of the things they taught sank in.
What I've found, by trial and error, works well for me is to not use speaker notes at all, to not memorise what I'm going to say and to just use the slides as a framework for what needs saying. If I have notes, I tend to semi-read them and the presentation sounds woody and stilted.
As for listening to presentations I don't want to sit and listen to a dry technical recital by someone who doesn't have a clue how to present well. I had enough of that at university. On the flip side, I also don't want to listen to someone who's doing a fantastic presentation about absolutely nothing.
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
June 18, 2009 at 10:06 am
Well, I'm one of the people running the public speaking merit badge for the local Boy Scouts, so hopefully I've learned a few things I can pass on.
I think part of what MS does is get new people out there to grow more speakers, but I'm not sure how much training they get. Personally I'd like to see them send new speakers to local user groups, smaller events, etc., and let them work out the kinks there.
It seems like you mostly want a good public speaker. Perhaps PASS/Connections/TechEd should be requiring a short video submission in making their choices.
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