JSSUG Speaker Idol 2012 Review

Last Wednesday at Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG) we held our annual Speaker Idol event.  Read more about what the events all about here.  The event was a success and the speakers all got some great feedback from our panel of experienced speakers (Eric Wisdahl, Jorge Segarra, and Mike Davis).

First up was Hari Reddy on a presentation on Wait Stats. His presentation was very through and easy to follow.

Next was John Kauffman on a demonstration of script he created to audit delete statements.  It was a very interesting presentation and had a lot of people thinking how they could use it in their environment.

Our third participant was TJ Brown who gave a presentation on Reporting Services parameters.  He was the winner of the night and won a DVD set of all the PASS Summit sessions from 2011.

Anthony Coleman was our last presenter and walked the group through an introduction to SSIS.  He captured the crowd quickly with a joke about his presentation topic of preparing BBQ ribs.

I’m looking forward to the next Speaker Idol because not only does it give these new speakers an opportunity to get their feet wet but the audience loved it.

JSSUG Speaker Idol 2012

The Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG) has always encouraged new talent to be added to the pool of local speakers.  That’s why tomorrow we will be hosting an annual event called Speaker Idol (I know the name isn’t very original don’t kill me!), which is for anyone that’s interested in speaking at events like SQL Saturday but need a safe place to get started. 

The group of speakers we have participating are:

• John Kauffman
• Hari Reddy
• Ryan Cox
• TJ Brown
• Anthony Coleman

Each speaker will do a 10-15 minute session on anything SQL Server related.  Instead of having the entire room provide feedback after each session, a panel of 3 experienced speakers will provide constructive feedback on what they could do to improve for next time.

The panel will score each speaker in the areas of:

Presentation

• Content
• Slides
• Demo
• Presentation flow
• Clear beginning and end

Speaker

• Speaker was well prepared
• Effective use of time
• Confidence presenting topic
• Ability to answer questions

Just like any good 5 year old kids soccer league everyone gets a trophy here!  We’ll be giving away a set of PASS 2011 Summit DVDs with the winner getting their choice first between the set of sessions or pre-con DVDs.

Please come out tonight, August 15, 2012 and support this group of new speakers as many of them get their first experience in public speaking.  Event details can be found at www.JSSUG.com and you can RSVP here.

I’ll post a follow up tomorrow with pictures and results of our meeting.

If you’re interested in free training on professional speaking Pragmatic Works is offering free onsite training in August that you can find here
http://www.tinyurl.com/speakertrainingaugust2012
.