Thanks to everyone who participated! I’m excited to go look up some interesting information, see some new presentations when they come out, test out some PowerShell splatting, and start putting demo and sample code into SQL Notebooks!
Rob Farley – The Other Side of the Room: Rob has learned mostly non-technical lessons. He encourages people to put themselves in the presenter arena. When he gets useful feedback, he takes note and tries to give presenters he watches the same kind of feedback.
John McCormack – PowerShell Splatting – What was wrong with backticks?: John had a lot of backticks in his PowerShell code to make it more readable and “keep” code on the monitor. An attendee asked why John didn’t use splatting. John was intrigued and learned how to create a single variable at the top, consisting of an array or hash table of the parameters used in the code. This makes the code easier to read both for attendees looking at a slide, and others using your code.
Jess Pomfret – T-SQL Tuesday #133: Jess has learned Git and GitHub from contributing to dbatools (woot!) She now hosts presentation demos/slides there. She also learned how to run Docker containers on her laptop for presentation demos. Thirdly, she learned how to build pester tests to ensure her Docker containers are in the correct state for her demos.
Aaron Bertrand – What Else Have You Learned: Aaron has learned that not all airlines get you where you need to be when you think you need to be there, and that rehearsing content is valuable for a better idea on the content timing. And, sometimes, there are technical difficulties. The two biggest take-home lessons are to be prepared, and do NOT ad-lib 🙂 Oh, and pay attention to what presenters you’re watching do when the going gets tough, so you can learn those lessons a little less painfully! Thanks, Aaron!
Deborah Melkin –What Else Have I Learned From Presenting?:
Deb learned how to use SQL Notebooks for presentation by converting each script for her T-SQL 101 session into a Notebook. Now Deb is writing a presentation on a Starter’s Guide to SQL Notebooks, which I can’t wait to see because I too need to figure this stuff out! Deb is another converted user of Git and GitHub, and has learned some GitHub-based swear words along with a few lost files. Thanks for persevering and sharing with us!
Tracy Boggiano – What Else Have I Learned From Presenting?: Tracy learned that PowerPoint subtitles will get closed captioning! She also learned a whole bundle about Linux when presenting on a Telgraf/InfluxDB/Grafana stack she was involved with setting up at work.
Mikey Bronowski – What Else Have You Learned From Presenting?: Mikey had written a blog post about saving Outlook attachments with PowerShell, but wasn’t allowed to use PowerShell at the time in the office. So, he figured out how to save attachments from multiple emails that fit some criteria, using VBA. In Outlook. Cool!
Deepthi Goguri – What Else Have I Learned From Presenting?: Deepthi learned some great technical concepts including memory grant connections, redundant joins between tables and their relationship to foreign key constraints, and some information about the NOEXPAND hint. Hmm, I will be looking that up too!
Kevin Chant – Learning New Things By Building Demos: While building demos, Kevin has learned about SharePoint setup and configuration, how to record and edit a video in Camtasia, and Docker setup. Thanks, Kevin! I might not look up the SharePoint config though – I’ve managed to avoid it up to now so I’d like to keep that record going!
Todd Kleinhans – What Else Have You Learned From Presenting?: Todd learned that sometimes the most amazing ideas aren’t feasible for one reason or another – mostly one of the three roots of any project: time, resources, quality. He’d like to build a VR version of a technical presentation, which sounds amazing, and I hope the near future gives you more of what you need to continue on this project!
Nate Johnson – Learn By Presenting: Nate tried some Twitch streaming but didn’t have many views. However, he’s been involved in small group learning sessions and realized that he talks to quickly, he enjoys audience interactions, and the infamous, Never Type in Demos!
Justin Bird – T-SQL Tuesday #133: Justin learned about the contract that SQLBits has with the speaker. The speaker puts in a lot of time and effort and gets… feedback. So, anyone attending a presentation, anywhere – please fill out feedback forms to help them get better! Great point, Justin!
Elizabeth Noble – Filling In the Gaps: I love Elizabeth’s use of “sweet potatoes” as a swear word, which is completely unrelated to this topic. She learned how to create VMs with PowerShell, including domain controllers. But IMO the most important take-home message is that we don’t have to know all the answers, but be willing to learn!
Honorable Mentions:
Mike Walsh – Presenting: What I’ve Learned: Mike got struck with a case of the 2020 Blursday syndrome, so that’s why this is in the honorable mention (aka a little late) section. He talks about learning about log chains and what doesn’t break them, from the audience. He also recorded a video about presenting and things he’s learned about himself and life through presenting 🙂
Joshua Handler – Surprise!! You learned something you didn’t expect!: Josh had some blog host “unvisible” issues. Josh was presenting on dbatools and was talking about profiles. Afterword, one of the attendees who was also an MVP, let Josh know that there were many profiles you can use with PowerShell. He also got good feedback about his first time presenting!
Thanks again, and now I challenge all of you out there to think about what presentation you could write, and what ELSE you might learn while writing that presentation (or presenting it!) Go forth and learn – but stay safe and stay healthy!
