I spent a good deal of time last week getting more than a little nervous about my session XSLT ‘Extreme’ which I was to give at the start of DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper Day Number  5 (DDD5). You always wonder how a session is going to be received, and as XSLT is a somewhat ‘left field’ subject, my nerves were jangling a bit as 9.25 Saturady June 30th came around.

 

"Faint Heart, Never Won Fair Lady" etc, etc, so I dived in and gave it all I had.  I thought the subject matter was good, strong and a little different.  Certainly my experience is that XSLT is a subject few people really delve into and discover it’s hidden secrets!  I was pleased with the reaction of the audience and has a couple of good questions and managed to announce my ‘Swag’ Distibute-O-Meter, a device inspired by Ray Starkey a longtime NxtGenUG member who came off worse in a tussle with some ‘Swag’ at the NxtGenUG Fest07 event in May!

 

Initial responses from some of the guys I met afterwards were really positive and complimentary, phew!  Just have to wait for the feedback now! 

 

I spent a good deal of the day filming and recording for NxtGenUG podcasts/videos but managed to see some of Ian Coopers and Oliver Sturm’s "Bluffer’s Guide to C#" which was very good.  Two confident speakers who don’t get phased when things don’t go to plan!!  Get to see these guys if you can, they know their stuff, unless they were bluffing …  Also I saw the whole of Gary Short’s Agile in Enterprise and ISV talk, which I only went to see as I’d seen most of the other sessions on at that time.  I was really impressed with Gary, nice delivery style and a well covered subject.  He seemed to run out of steam about 40mins in which was a shame, but it was well worth attending, as I now realise that I’ve been doing Agile Development for the past 5 years and not even known it :-).

 

I also popped in to see Chris Seary briefly doing his "Top 10 Security Tips for ASp.NET", Chris was elloquent as ever and also Guy Smith-Ferrier doing his "Tips and Tricks for VS 2005".  Guy is a great presenter, get to see him if you can.

 

The main thing about these events for me if the great atmosphere.  Everybody seems positive, keen and open-minded.  They don’t seem to mind too much if demos don’t work, they accept that the presenters are often learning their trade here.  For some guys it was their first ‘big’ speaking gig, for others it was their umteenth.  Some guys/gals speaking do it as part of their job, others like myself are ‘bit-part’ players in the presentation world, getting out there when our other responsibilities allow.  There was also the ‘Grok Talks’ organised by Zi Makki.  Short 5-10 min sessions to enable people who have NEVER spoken in front of an audience to have a go and see how they do and if they actually like the experience.

 

Watch out for a NxtGenUG podcast on DDD5 which will be coming out soon, and watch out for DDD6 which will happen near the turn of the year.

 

Cheers

 

Dave Mc

 

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