Improving the quality of conference talks
The feedback from techies after my talks is often "Less Powerpoint, more IDE", and also that people get more out of a talk the more they can get involved.
So here is my (evolving) plan for how to deliver some killer talks for The Ajax Experience in October.
I like live coding. It's always a bit seat of your pants, but it's honest and open and the risk that the speaker is taking keeps the audience interested: "Can they pull it off".
So the experiment is taking this up a level. The plan is to run a CVS/SVN server and check-in the code I'm writing. I'm also planning on live coding an interactive application so people with a network connection can both use the app we write and can also check-out the code for themselves.
And while we are at it, why not allow the audience to check code in as well?
What do you think? Could it work? Would you come? Odds on me messing it up?
Also what sort of Ajax / DWR application should we write? It needs to be interactive and fairly simple. Any suggestions?
Re: Improving the quality of conference talks
Maybe quick little examples... Maybe if the coding example were pre-recorded so the speaker knows it's going to work and they can concentrate on speaking to the audience.
Re: Improving the quality of conference talks
But the point is well taken - just because I'm thinking of being more ambitious does not mean I should be less prepared.
Joe.
Re: Improving the quality of conference talks
An example I think you should do is reverse Ajax, since it can show so many really cool things at once: Reverse Ajax (cool by itself), DOM manipulation on the server side, and Effects (when it works). These three things are among the coolest upcoming features in 2.0, and they can be combined in one example. I can send you my example files if you want.
Mats
Use Windows Media Encoder (or similar)
Whenever I'm doing technical talks / code demo's , I pre-record it using Windows Media Encoder , or similar recording tool. At the time of the presentation, you just play back the video files on your Laptop.
It makes life a lot easier , the presentation is better as you're concentrating on talking to the audience, not fumbling with a keyboard. It also keeps the 'look how easy this is to code' sense for the audience.
The other plus is you know exactly how long that part of the presentation will take.
Paul, http://www.firstpartners.net/blog