T-SQL Tuesday #84 – Helping New Speakers

Ok everyone; here goes my first crack at replying to a T-SQL Tuesday. For those that don’t know what it is, it’s a Monthly blog topic hosted by a member of the SQL Community. It was started originally by Adam Machanic (t | b)

This month’s topic hosted by Andy Yun (t | b) is on Growing New Speakers, which I find to be a perfect topic for me to leap off from, since this was my first year speaking and blogging.

How did I get started?

I 100% blame Derik Hammer (t | b) whom at the time was running my local user group. After attending just one meeting I was “volun-told” I would be presenting in August. Yep my name was now on the speaking calendar and I hadn’t even thought of a topic, let alone ever contemplated speaking.

My First Steps to Presenting

After the shock wore off, I sat back and began to think of anything of value I could talk about. Since it would be my first time speaking I really wanted a topic I could talk about and not necessarily a technical talk. Thus my Lone DBA talk was born. Everyone has something of value in their career to talk about, for me this seemed logical.

Simple Steps to Get Started

Where to begin is always the hardest part after choosing a topic. This was my approach. Of course there is a lot more to it, but getting this far a huge step forward.

• Jot down a list of things you want to talk about
• Then put them in a logical order
• Then write a sentence or two about each line item

Just taking the time to do this will get you going.

Don’t Be Nervous (HA! Yeah Right)

It’s very hard not to be nervous. The way I “try” to get around this is to strike up a conversation some attendees prior to the start of the session while you are standing up front.  I pretend after the session begins that I am still having that one on one conversation with them.  For me it creates a “friendly” atmosphere rather than one like a teacher\ student. Now my biggest problem is talking fast, I try REALLY hard not to but it’s bound to happen as I get excited about the topic. My point is nobody is perfect at speaking everyone will have their fault, don’t let it discourage you.

Lastly

Start with your user group, listen to feedback, have another review your slide deck, and most of all enjoy it. There is nothing like a “speaker high”. Being able to share your knowledge and influence just one person is very rewarding.