I’ve been neglecting all my sites in the past week and a half because I’ve been preparing to give a presentation for a conference at work.
It was a training session on how to design a relational database, then applying that skill to creating an XML schema. Yes, I know I’m turning you on.
I spent a fair amount of energy building my slides, and I practiced the presentation daily for about a week. Well, I made my presentation on Friday, and it went over better than I expected.
I thought I was bombing because the bits of humor I put in the slides didn’t seem to be getting many laughs. I also couldn’t read my audience’s faces. Were their brows crossed because they’re struggling to understand? Or was it because they were comprehending something new they hadn’t seen before?
I did a classroom exercise, which I think brought everything together in everyone’s minds.
A friend of mine who showed up for support ended up reaching an epiphany about previous work she had done as a user of another organization’s database. People who missed my presentation asked me to schedule a repeat after hearing the reaction of people who had gone.
A co-worker who’s been hesitant to delve into XML told me my presentation made her feel like she could actually understand the stuff.
I was really getting high off the ego stroking.
Part of me wants to schedule an encore performance right away, but another part of me knows that I’ve set a bar with that presentation, which I could easily screw up with a repeat.
I’ll see what happens on Monday, when I’ve recovered from the ego boost. By then, I can probably rationally gauge the interest of people who want to see the presentation.