Well my first public presentation is in the bag. It was easier than I thought, got good reviews but not without glitches:
- Average score was a 4.1 ( out of 5 ) 😀
- Some items were missed during prep.
- I forgot to go back to the slide deck and the end.
- No blog post before the presentation told folks what code I was going to show during the presentation (will post that later this week).
- I made the egregious error of typing during a demo. I will never try not to do that again. Even after I did a copy and paste of working, un-edited code, it still didn’t work.
Anyways out of the packed room of people at my session, when I asked people to raise their hand if they’ve used PowerShell before today only about 20% or so raised their hands. 
What did I do right? I helped people really grasp some of the core differences between SQL Server and Power Shell–like how when you run part of a script and load some data into PowerShell variables that data persists for when you need it later. This is completely different from how T-SQL works and was literally a jaw-dropping point for some of the people in the room. The other thing I did right was to partner up with a speaker that knows more about PowerShell than I do. A safety net of knowledge is a wonderful thing! Finally. The whiz-bangs I had planned for the end of my demo worked great. (Look for those whiz bangs to start showing up on here in a few days.)
This was a great learning experience for me and hopefully it provided some helpful tips to the good folks who came to my session. I started out the session with a little video from Daft Punk. The video goes through some hand motions with words written all over the hands. I got to use PowerPoint for the first time in my life. I wonder if I could have put the video in the PowerPoint? (Jennifer says yes: http://tinyurl.com/yc7ndy8.) Hopefully I can learn from all these lessons and provide an even better session next time.
As promised, here is the link to my PowerPoint slide deck
Can’t wait for Richmond this Saturday, catch you there!
6 Responses
Aaron,
Do you have code snippets you can share? I’m wondering about doing a VC presentation on Powershell, but am trying to get some ideas on where it’s useful for DB Devs as opposed to DBA’s. I have some ideas, but they’re extremely current-job specific. 🙂 I’d love to know more about what you presented and how. Did you use Powershell ISE? Straight command line? Other?
Also wanted to say thanks for the recommended books and sharing your PPT deck. The books have been added to my reading list. Picked up Powershell in Action v2 MEAP for the 40% deal @ Manning. Well worth it so far.
SQL PASS had peaked my interest, but your session kicked me into motion. The following week I used it to do file cleanup of files via a UNC path and it worked great.
David Koth
Aaron,
Really enjoyed hanging out at SQLSat32. Your presentation was spot on and really a great job! Totally could not tell it was your first time presenting. Great Job!
Jeff Truman
I thought the session was great, I’ve been hearing a lot about PowerShell, but have not had time to research what the buzz was about.
I didn’t know and couldn’t tell that it was your first presentation.
🙂 Scott Gleason
PS..Loved the Draft Punk.
Peter,
Sorry about not calling that out better. I made the link to my slide deck more obvious and I will be blogging about the actual code/scenarios used later this week as time permits.
Do you have any code samples available or anything else you can share for those of us not on the East Coast? 🙂 This sounds like it would be really useful. I’m trying to learn some Powershell, but having trouble figuring out some useful scenarios tying into the average work cycles of DB Devs.
Congrats on how well it went. Sounds like you had a great session.