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So, I got some direct feedback from some folks and for the most part it was good. I ran over my time by a little bit and fudged up some of the pages a bit. So definitely some room for improvement. Peggy says I used the words “uhh, umm, like, right?” quite a bit and that’s also something to improve upon. I’d like to think I’m eloquent but in the heat of the moment, all the control over that just goes out the window.

I didn’t know we were going to get a room that big actually. The last time I was there, we were cramped in a smaller space. I’m glad it worked out for us. It’s also a good thing I brought my mini-displayport to VGA adapter.

Michael Schaffner, who runs the group, said it was great and that he got lots of good comments from the presentation. I quote

I just wanted to drop you a brief note to thank you again for last
nights presentation. We have been planning this thing for a long time,
but it was without a doubt worth the wait. I found your presentation
outstanding and the amount of time you put into getting it together
was very apparent. We drew a great crowd and many first time
attendees. It was nice to have someone with such great presentation
skills deliver so much valuable  information. It reflects well on our
group and  guarantees that first timers will return for more. In fact
upon my return home last night I had already received e-mails about
the meeting and registration for next month.

I understand the amount of time and effort it takes to put together a
presentation and I want you to know how much I truly appreciate you
stepping up and volunteering to present. Our group has always been
dependent on the contribution of generous folks like yourself willing
to share.

Well, that is just awesome! I felt quite appreciated and I also felt good about myself. Made some new connections and some people who are really trying to get around the PHP “issue”. Learning new things is always tough especially when you’re the only one responsible for learning. No one is pushing you to do it and so it becomes very easy to cast it aside and focus on things you enjoy doing. We’re all guilty of it. I’ve been trying to learn Flex and iPhone programming for months now but I prefer the TV it seems more than anything when I get home. We all have uphill battles and some are more difficult to conquer than others. But if you try, I think you’ll make some progress and it’s enough to get the ball rolling. That’s what I learned on Monday night.

I’m looking forward to doing more presentations to help people and to help myself.

Picture from the back of the room from Peggy's Blackberry

That’s a picture of me (sort of)  basking in the warm glow that the macbook screen emits.

Normally, I pride myself on public speaking. I’ve had the privilege of training folks at several of my last jobs but for some reason, today, I feel especially nervous about tomorrows presentation.

I volunteered (shoot me now) to present at the Chicago Adobe Users Group on how to get started with using PHP & MySQL. I know there is a misspelling in my name. Don’t worry about it. The talk is scheduled for Monday, 21st September, 2009. It’s a great group and the people there are very nice. The person who I spoke to about presenting, Mr. Michael Schaffner, is a very warm person who cares about the people in this group and helping them learn new things and to explore new things. I appreciate that in him a lot as there aren’t a whole lot of people who care like that these days.

Anyway, I’ve been working on my presentation and my whole goal is to try and sort of simplify things as much as possible so that the audience is more comfortable asking questions about things that are confusing. Of course, I have no idea if I’m successful or not. I’ll find out on Monday.

The example I’m using is an address book. Of course, no one actually wants to write an address book because those things serve no purpose at all. That’s what iPhones and addressbook (macosx) are for. But this example will be simple, direct, to the point and quick! That’s part of the goal too. I want to cover all my material and leave plenty of time for Q&A. Also, I’m teaching it as I learned it. Baby steps!

Here is my problem. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten better about my PHP and being around all the developers at work has made me realize the incorrectness of my ways. Now, I find it disturbing to write code that looks messy and is somewhat flawed. Maybe it’s an evolutionary process. Maybe someone who is just starting off and learning on their own is supposed to write code that has errors but works anyway. The more you write, the better you will become and the better you will become, the better your code will be. Is that possible? I hope it is. If not, this audience is doomed and I will be responsible for all of it.

It is my sincere hope that the group members will consider using a small amount of PHP on their next project and then slowly start using MySQL.

After the presentation, I’m going to make final tweaks based on the feedback and then post the zipped copy of the code and the presentation up here. Hopefully, my embarrassment will be short lived.

If it is successful, I’d love to present more talks like

• PHP && MySQL II
• Building a PHP && MySQL Development Environment
• Flex for beginners (I’m not great with flex, I’ve only just begun)
• Tomcat for beginners

Who knows. I’m excited and scared at the same time. But maybe that’s a good sign?

Update: The link if you want to register for it (sorry for the late notice) is at http://augchicagosept2009.eventbrite.com/ but you can find it from the AUGChicago home page too. cheers!