T-SQL Tuesday 153: The Conference that Changed Everything for Me
This month, T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by an old friend of mine Kevin Kline. He’s an old friend as I’ve known him a long time, not because of age. (There are lots of miles left in Kevin). The invite asked about a conference or event that changed your life, that created an opportunity, or just changed your life. It could be career related or another area.
Background
I was invited to join the Microsoft Regional Director program back in the early 2000’s. The RD program had grown out of the original DevDays events, and the RDs were the people who spoke at those events. By the time I joined, they were commonly used as speakers at events like TechEd around the world.
In fact, unlike the MVP program, the RD program had an agreement. An MVP award is for what you’ve done in the previous year. There are no expectations of what you’ll do during the year you are awarded, apart from basically not being a horrible person. The RD program had an agreement on what you will do in the upcoming period. Speaking at tier-1 events was expected, and you were also expected to be in the top 10% of speaker ratings at those events.
Tough crowd to join!
TechEd USA events
I was used to technical training, and I spoke at many TechEd and other events around the world. However, at one of the first TechEd events in the USA, I remember signing up for the provided speaker training. I can’t tell you the effect that had on me.
Microsoft had set aside a full conference room, with lighting, etc. just for the training, and they had an amazing speaker coach (Richard Klees) who worked with you one-on-one. Interestingly, his entire focus was on “big room” speaking, not on presentations in general. Speaking in big rooms is different. I remember him pointing out that the Rolling Stones don’t play coffee shops, and if they did, they would act entirely differently.
Confronting Impact
I spoke to several other RDs who had attended the training with him before, and did not like him. Ironically, I loved working with him. Others said they found his training far too confronting. They didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t there to be your friend. He was there to change just enough things to help you make a better impact, without trying to totally change how you speak. He didn’t want to turn you into a basket-case a day or so before your session or sessions.
There were so many things I learned in those sessions. A big issue for me is that I was too softly spoken for a big room. By the time he was happy, I felt like I was pretty much shouting, and he still rated the energy level at about 5 out of 10.
By the time it was finished, I was fairly shattered and completely exhausted. Did it improve my sessions? Absolutely no doubt about it. There are so many things he said that are stuck in my mind still.
TechEd Australia Keynote
I loved speaking at TechEd when it ran. I remember presenting in various locations in the USA, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and more. Working with the developer evangelists from around the world was a highlight. And of course our local ones like Chuck Sterling, Andrew Coates, Dave Glover, etc. were highlights.
The 2004 event in Australia was notable for me, because as well as my sessions, I presented part of the keynote with Eric Rudder, a Microsoft senior vice-president of server and tools. I ended up spending quite a bit of time at various events with Eric during that week.
It was fascinating to see the contrast between the social Eric with user events, and the business Eric in the rehearsals for the keynote, where he was razor-sharp focussed on the delivery were all going to make. People attending those keynotes really had no idea how much work and rehearsing went into delivering them. The section that Terry Clancy and I delivered was pretty smooth. You’d hope so, given the number of times we rehearsed it over many nights. Let’s just say that I’m glad I wasn’t part of the SharePoint section.
When the event arrived, I remember watching Eric psyching himself up to present, and the level of energy he put into each of us backstage. I was pleased with our section and Eric seemed super happy backstage afterwards.
2022-08-09