The 360Flex have posted the results of session surveys. Here are mine. Based on a few other speakers I spoke to, I got a lot of responses (20 once you discount the joke review I filled out for my own session).

I thought my session went great, and was in a room with 40-50 people or so. I felt I was able to facilitate a discussion with my attendees (as opposed to just lecturing them), which is what I aim for. I was really worried about having to "repeat the questions", which the ""signers" asked me to do so they could relay to the hearing impaired attendee. But, I think I did pretty good with that.

A few comments that I felt were worthy of mention:

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1Very nice personality; funny and easy to listen to.

This is a huge boost to my ego. I don't usually think of myself as funny (although I can be sarcastic), but I'm glad you were entertained.

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1...he was able to facilitate the audience for answering those he did not have knowledge on.
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3Good conversational communication style

This is the vibe I shoot for when presenting, so I'm glad that at least two person 'got it' and enjoyed it.

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1He didn't think AIR was broady applicable

This is true, and I'm not ashamed to say it. In fact I did say it in the intro to my presentation. I do not think AIR 1.0 is primed up for wide adoption. The business case for AIR, as I see it, is that it makes it very easy to write "Partially Connected" applications.

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1More for beginners.

I was very torn whether to tell John and Tom that my preso was a "100" level or "200" level. I went with 200 level. Maybe I shouldn't have. I went with 200 because there is a lot of code that I just glaze over because it was not the focus of the presentation. However, the beginning of my preso deals with things such as "What is AIR and why do we care?" and "Why do we care about code reuse?" That is very intro stuff. However, I made the audience answer those questions to make sure we were on the same page moving forward.

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1ppt skillz = -1

Oddly someone else said that the slides were useful. The presentation was not about powerpoint, and I think I used it well enough to communicate what I needed to communicate. I'm fine with not being a powerpoint wizard.

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1He had a hard time answering alot of the questions. It seems like he was relatively new the Flex. I felt like the attendees wanted more answers than he was able to give.
This was sentiment echoed a couple times in the comments, and that surprised me. There was a question or two that I didn't have answers to. I wish I remembered what they were. I don't remember being totally clueless, though. I'd rather say "I don't know" than to BS an answer so I look like I know stuff.

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1Was a little short

I find it hard to fill up fifty minutes worth of time. 80 minutes scares me. I've spoken to other presenters who have expressed chagrin about the 80 minutes presentations. However, I also know many presenters who could fill up 3 hours without a second though.

And for those that read this far, thank you! Postcards for The Flex Show will be making appearances in the attendee swag bag at two separate Flex Camps:

There is a chance (schedule permitting) that I'll be at Flex Camp Wall Street recording interviews for The Flex Show, although I'm out of the office the day before it for a separate event, so I'm not sure. But Mike Labriola said he used to have my laptop model and may have some extra batteries I could "acquire" from him, so...

I need to figure out April's schedule. Are you going to be at Flex Camp Wall Street? Would you like to listen to me podcast (live) from Flex Camp Wall Street?

This entry was posted on March 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM

posted by Jeffry Houser in Flex, Writing and Presenting, AIR, Professional
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