I just finished my session on Design Principles in the South Florida Code Camp. I feel kind of pwned by what happened at the beginning. I should have expected it. After all, there are over 600 people here, and I warned everyone at the beginning that it was meant to be an introductory class (hence the 100 level). The presentation still has good nuggets even if you're an experienced developer.
My room was packed. About 5 minutes into it, 20-30 people walked out. Having all those people get up, walk by me, and opening the door distracted me. I lost my focus, and it took a while to get my bearings. I need to keep in mind that this can happen and not let it get to me. I can't believe I actually
faltered.
I realize I didn't write about my experience in Philadelphia. I had an incident there as well. At the beginning, the projector messed up. I spent a few minutes trying to get everything working but eventually realized I would lose the audience if I didn't move on. I ended losing my local screen, and had to move the desk around and look at the projection This prevented me from using my slide deck. Luckily, I knew my material well enough to talk while doing demonstrations (though I strained my neck). It ended up being successful. albeit unstructured.
After I did my presentation here in Miami, I spoke to
Joe Healy about it. He mentioned something about my session at the end of the day. I didn't even realize I am doing another one! This time it's in the Birds of a Feather and Panel Discussion room, so I'm going to make it a discussion rather than a presentation.