Cast as Sheep Amongst Wolves

I wanted to share my experience as a session speaker at BrainShare 2008 on the topic, Best Practices for Migrating NetWare 6.5 to Open Enterprise Server 2 Linux. It was a very popular session. In the top five, I was told and attendance was 300+ for each of the two sessions we presented. My boss attended one of the sessions and a close colleague attended the other. I presented the session with a Novell Engineer from Germany, Peter Reck.

BrainShare opened on Sunday, March 16th, for registration and there was a reception that evening. Peter and I had only spoken over the phone and through email. We met for the first time that Sunday, in the speaker's lounge at the Salt Palace. We had arranged with Novell to open one of the ballrooms and allow us to practice our session Sunday afternoon. We timed the session to make sure we weren't going to exceed the 2 hours allotted. The practice session went very well and we found that we were quite compatible speaking together. I remember thinking, "We're ready. This is going to be fun." Novell provided all the speakers with distinctive, blue, long sleeved, oxford style shirts with the Novell logo on the front. Speakers were required to wear this shirt on the day their session is scheduled.

Monday, I began to get a bit nervous. I couldn't eat lunch, even though I tried. As the time drew nearer, I would attend other sessions and watch the speakers for their mannerisms and tips on making my session more appealing to those in attendance. I couldn't concentrate on the material that was being presented. I began to chain smoke outside the Salt Palace. Finally, it was time for me to make my way to Ballroom B. I stopped by the men's room to grab some paper towels. I'm a sweater. I sweat at the drop of a hat. I wanted to be able to blot my head, which I knew would be soaked in no time. I walked into the ballroom and there were the previous session's presenters talking with some of the attendees, answering last minute questions. Peter and I checked our equipment and pulled up our session slides. The remote microphone had a bad cord and crackled each time I moved. The room was hot. We summoned the techs to replace the mic and a building person set the room temperature lower. Peter told me he was very nervous. I agreed, but it made me feel better that I wasn't the only one feeling that way. The room began to fill and I could feel my heart rate increase. Sweat began to bead up on my forehead. I could see my boss in the third row on the left side. I blotted my head. Show time....

I started the session by welcoming everyone and stating the session. I, then, introduced myself and explained who I was and where I came from. Peter did the same. Blot head. The first couple of slides were done by Peter, then I started my own presentation. It was to take about 40 minutes, and I had to pace myself or I would have completed it in 5, due to my nervousness. I began my presentation and blotted a couple of times. Then, after about 5 minutes, I must've found my groove, because I stopped sweating and I began to really enjoy doing this. I spoke and looked around at the crowd and they were listening, all eyes were trained on me and what I had to say. This is not to say that I was great at it, far from it. This was my first time to speak to a large crowd of judgmental geeks, who will rip you apart if you're BS'ing them in a heart beat. I know. I'm one of them. I would stop occasionally to answer a particular question, and once someone tried to call me on an article I had published on this same topic last year. I stated what the article had said, verbatim, and silenced the heckler. I was on a roll. Finally, my part was complete and the presentation was turned over to Peter.

Peter was very nervous and I felt for him as he struggled with, one, being his first time to present, and two, translating German to English in his head and dealing with a heavy German accent in front of a room full of impatient attendees. I enjoyed his presentation and the information he provided, I learned from also. I scanned the crowd and saw a lot of note taking. The last part of the session was questions and answers. And there were a lot of them. In fact, when the session was over, there were people still in their seats, like they were waiting to be dismissed. Go, we're done. Peter and I tidied up the area and people lingered to talk about the subject and to ask more questions. Some even approached me, shook my hand and thanked me. I was very humbled and thanked them for attending. We had done it. I shook Peter's hand and thanked him. We left the ballroom and I thought to myself, "I need a drink."