I did it. I became a PASS speaker. My first event was at SQL Saturday Phoenix 2017 which happened on March 25, 2017.
I skipped the normal process of presenting at the local user’s group and went straight for a SQL Saturday. Why would I do that? Well, two reasons:
- Not scared, didn’t feel the need to practice at a local UG first to get over my “nerves”.
- The local UG meets at 3pm! I work a significant distance from there, so I’d have to take off a half-day of work to make the trek there.
I wouldn’t advise taking my non-traditional route to speaking, unless you’ve had tons of previous speaking experience and/or a degree in education.
I really wanted to speak, but had no good ideas for what to speak on. Everyone covers TSQL. I could do something that focuses on math from a non-statistical angle, but I wasn’t excited about that topic either. I was working on a really cool new thing at work (BIML) so I submitted a session abstract on that topic. I knew that in order to be an effective speaker, I must be passionate about my subject. BIML at least gave me that.
Phoenix selected that session! Woot! My preparation for the session happened mostly at my day job. I was in a lull between projects (usually ETL w/SSIS) so I had time to do some research & development. I was able to give a mini presentation at my job on the subject of BIML and why we should use it. My boss green-lighted my continued work on the project, so I worked on it at work while only needing to abstract it (setting it up to run against an AdventureWorks database instead of a work database) at home. The planets aligned!
I never had a chance to practice verbally. I had planned to the weekend before the session, but I got pretty sick with bronchitis and asthma and almost lost my voice. I decided to forego the verbal run through, and just rehearse in my mind instead. Again, I do not advise using this approach. A verbal run through is a good thing! Especially if you’ve never spoken!
The time to travel to Phoenix arrived. I was still under the weather, but there was no way I was going to back out of this. I went to the doctor the day before I got on the plane and got some new asthma medication to treat the bronchitis. That would at least keep me out of the ER in Phoenix.
I made the conscious decision to flip the switch to “extrovert” in my mind, and go out of my way to introduce myself to people at the conference and socials. I figured that most people in tech are probably introverts, so they might actually appreciate my introductions. It worked! On Friday, there was a speaker event at a local bar, and I met a handful of people that I had really good conversations with. Grant Fritchey was also speaking at the event, so I made sure to talk with him. He’s the only technical writer that I’ve bothered to print! I really hate reading PDFs. PS: He’s NOT scary! I also spoke with Peter Kral. He won #SpeakerIdol at PASS Summit 2016, and it was quite fascinating to hear his take on the whole event. I don’t think I’d ever enter that. I know my weaknesses, and only having 5 minutes to speak would make me speak really fast. No bueno. I’m a detail person, and by no means a salesperson, which is what you have to be in such a limited amount of time. I also spoke with Mindy Curnutt. I didn’t realize that I had attended a session of hers a few years ago, and remembered thinking at the time that it was odd that she worked for a company that I’d dealt with as the IT Manager for a produce company. I went to their user’s conference in fact. We spoke about those industries and the problems we encountered. Wow, small world!
Anyways, I’m really glad I flipped that switch. Met some great people and had some great conversations with them. In fact…I managed to get two of them to attend my session.
Saturday arrived. My session was scheduled for the last slot of the day. I knew that the odds of having a bunch of people in my session were small. BIML may be new and exciting, but unless you work with SSIS/SSAS on a regular basis, you probably wouldn’t be attending my session. Grant Fritchey attended my session, which turned out to be huge blessing. I ended up borrowing a cable. I had problems connecting to the projector, and that ate of ALL of my time before the session. I also fought a new laptop that I didn’t spend enough money on that took a million years to load SSMS and Visual Studio.
My presentation, despite the road bumps, went really well. My audience was small, but I strove to make it relevant and coherent. I already mentioned that I was passionate. I think I succeeded. I feel that I succeeded. There are things I’d do differently, like bring all the cords. I’ve already upgraded the hard-drive on my laptop to SSD so I won’t be terrified of rebooting the laptop when SSMS doesn’t connect, but overall, I was happy with it. I think I’ll spend a little bit more time in the intro about what BIML is and what you’re doing when you use it, but other than that, I think my angle on covering the BIMLSCRIPT (C# within the BIML files) was a good plan. Grant gave me some feedback immediately afterwards, and he said I did a great job. Phew! Someone who knows how to speak said I did a great job! Yay! My teaching degree wasn’t a complete waste after all!
At this point, I think it’s likely I will present again, but I’m not sure when or how often. The planets aligned for this, and I suppose they may align again. I will be presenting the same session to the local UG in May of 2017. After that though? I’m unsure. I would like to speak at PASS Summit one day.
My advice to you if you’re considering become a speaker? Try it at least once, but remember to strive for passion, relevance, and coherence. You need to be useful to your audience. Also, flip the switch to Extrovert! Introduce yourself to people you’d like to meet. You won’t regret it. Tech geeks are awesome!