PASS Summit 2010 Presentation Feedback

Introduction

It’s always an honor to present anywhere. Presenting at the PASS Summit is a special honor. I delivered three presentations last month:

• Database Design for Developers
• SSIS Design Patterns, Part 2
• A Lightning Talk on SSIS

Database Design for Developers

First, a bit of explanation (defense): I submitted this abstract to the PASS Abstracts folks by mistake. I kid you not. Inspired by Adam Machanic (Blog | @AdamMachanic) I maintain a document of current presentations. I’ve recently published this to the Interwebz here. But I goofed. I think I was submitting abstracts to a couple events that day and became confused.

65 people attended and this presentation ranked 156th out of 185. It’s meant to be more interactive and because it wasn’t, I finished way early. Considering all that, I think the feedback was gracious:

How would you rate the usefulness of the information presented in your day-to-day environment?
Average: 4.03
5’s: 11       
4’s: 12       
3’s: 8        
2’s: 1

How would you rate the Speaker’s presentation skills?
Average: 4.34
5’s: 15       
4’s: 13       
3’s: 4      

How would you rate the Speaker’s knowledge of the subject?
Average: 4.53
5’s: 19       
4’s: 11       
3’s: 2 

How would you rate the accuracy of the session title, description and experience level to the actual session?
Average: 3.97
5’s: 8       
4’s: 17       
3’s: 6
1’s: 1 

How would you rate the amount of time allocated to cover the topic/session?
Average: 3.81
5’s: 9       
4’s: 10       
3’s: 12
1’s: 1 

How would you rate the quality of the presentation materials?
Average: 4.09
5’s: 10       
4’s: 16       
3’s: 5
2’s: 1 

Comments:
Title makes it sound like this would be about design/models, etc, but great info on TSQL formatting and deployment (Andy: True)

content was useful. would have enjoyed a little more (Andy: Thank you!)

I was expecting more design info (how to choose level of normalization, data type preferences etc.)

presentation too short -> needed more examples

speaker finished presentation 1/2 hr early

“worst session I attended at PASS.
-bad session description
-session ended 20min early
-very few design fundamentals were presented”

was nice having time for questions to be answered (Andy: You’re welcome.)

the presentation only last for 45 minutes

This seemed to be a session on the speaker best practices vs DB design

too short

Although this presentation has gone over better at SQL Saturdays and received accolades from .Net User Groups and Code Camps, I need to write a version of this presentation specifically aimed at database developers and DBAs. I also need to retitle this presentation Database Design for .Net Developers.

This presentation just didn’t play well. I own that.

SSIS Design Patterns, Part 2

This was a spotlight presentation. I couldn’t think of a good way to express that this talk was a continuation of the Applied SSIS Design Patterns presentation I delivered at the PASS Summit 2009, so I thought of a bad way to express that: “Part 2”. This led to confusion – “where is Part 1?” I own that, my bad.

This was the first time I’ve delivered this presentation. I literally crushed my personal laptop on the connector flight from Detroit to Seattle, so this presentation was delivered on a brand new laptop less than two days after I bought said laptop. Despite that, it went well. 196 people attended and it ranked 76th out of 185 presentations.

How would you rate the usefulness of the information presented in your day-to-day environment?
Average: 4.32
5’s: 66       
4’s: 39       
3’s: 21        
2’s: 2

How would you rate the Speaker’s presentation skills?
Average: 4.65
5’s: 87       
4’s: 37       
3’s: 4      

How would you rate the Speaker’s knowledge of the subject?
Average: 4.79
5’s: 101       
4’s: 27

How would you rate the accuracy of the session title, description and experience level to the actual session?
Average: 4.29
5’s: 63       
4’s: 44       
3’s: 16
2’s: 5 

How would you rate the amount of time allocated to cover the topic/session?
Average: 4.23
5’s: 52
4’s: 58       
3’s: 15
2’s: 2
1’s: 1 

How would you rate the quality of the presentation materials?
Average: 4.46
5’s: 71       
4’s: 48       
3’s: 7
2’s: 1 
1’s: 1 

Comments:
I will probably implement some things I learned

I was hoping for more advanced patterns

I was expecting data loading design patterns, not SISS function demo/usage

information presented expertly but this is not a level 300 class – 200 at best (Andy: I always struggle with the difference between 200- and 300-level)

I use a similar framework but this opened up some new ideas on the pattern

I think less time on the basics, more time on the advanced stuff would be excellent

great framework for SSIS!

had to leave midway through. Eval applies to 1st half only (Andy: You missed the super-awesome part. I juggled. Ask anyone who stayed. They’ll back me up on that…)

Great!

great polish and thorough demos

Great materials, demos and presentation

great insight!

it sounds like design high level topic but its more about managing deployment in multi server environment

Great flow and demo’s

hope you post the demos (Andy: I need to do that, durnit!)

mostly just explains config capabilities, very little framework

SSIS connection or SSIS config might be better

not Andy’s fault. Cool stuff, but not what I was anticipating

Great demo’s; good knowledge of SSIS intervals

very thorough

very clear

too slow (Andy: As Buck Woody stated in his and Brent’s presentation: “Andy is from the South.”)

too much on configuration, not enough on debugging and maintuiy

too “meta” need real data in demo

need more time. more info

This will save me a ton of time someday

thank you for the use of good demos

Thank you for demos!

somewhat disapointing not much learned unfortunately

really thorough cover of config approach, but very little framework or patterns

pace could have been quicker

not as deep as I had expected

The front row on the left hand side couldn’t see the lower left of the presentation screen because of how the stage was setup

good, clear examples

a nebulous title like “design patterns” would indicate a more broad view

Good job!

awesome presentation and presenter, larry the cable guy of pass summit 2010! (Andy: Wow thanks!)

Awesome presentation

Attack of SISS design patterns!

Andy Leonard is a great author and technologist, but most things in the presentation are not that complex and I was expecting more heavyweight stuff thats out already in production in most places

Andy is so composed and handled questions brilliantly!

Andy is a terrific resource for the SSIS community. Thank you, Andy!

awesomely presented

Andy has great presentation skills

always awesome and useful Andy

Wish I had seen this a year ago when we came up with our approach for the config files and connection strings

a little long for

a bit light for a 400-level presentation

🙂 almost didn’t come because I never saw part 1 (Andy: My bad!)

“-GTL design patterns would be great! GTL; ELT; how to minimize memory, CPU, IO, etc.

-logging class or package”

Andy brought up some really good ideas that I can use to manage our “new” SSIS environment

good stuff!

Best explanation of using configuration files that I have ever had!

Best presenter so far very informative

good info. similar to what we have done. Debug is difficult though. I heard that come-up at the end. Missing part 1 from last yr. – handout w/ info would help (Andy: Excellent idea.)

good demos

good content w/relevant yet simple scenarios that are very applicable

good clear, personality-driven style – a little monotone (Andy: See my comment above re: South)

good but almost put me to sleep (Andy: See previous comment.)

fantastic speaker!

best overall presentation so fun in the conference!

Excellent. Can you put parameters for an oracle sql statement in a config package?

Excellent! Great demos, entertaining speaker and I got a lot of takeaways!

don’t use SSIS all that often

Did not seem like an overly technical class

deep dive on a very specific topic

could have used more time!

clearly has lots of experience

excellent. Andy is one of the best, this session was great

would’ve like more time

A Lightning Talk on SSIS

Joking around on Twitter with Allen White (Blog | @SQLRunr) made this a fun adventure of a talk. You can read the history here. I was part of the Wednesday Lightning Talks, along with Allen White, Chuck Heinzelman, Denny Cherry, John Sterrett, Jonathan Kehayias, and Kendal Van Dyke. It was a hoot!

It’s hard to tell how many people attended. It ranked 51st out of 185 presentations. I’m only including the comments below:

Comments:

Some good, some bad. Would love to see more, though overall escellent! I really think this could be amazing – 5 mins can be a deep dive…but the fun talks were really cool. I thought the virtualization was a great ‘dive’ but all were awesome.

One of the best sessions i’ve been today.

Joe Webb – indexes – good. Denny Cherry – DB Shrinking – a bit too short. Andy Leonard – SSIS – excellent impromptu. John Sterret -Profiler – good; Chuck Heinzelman – Excellent; Jonathan Kayhaias – Good; Kendal VanDyke – PROF. Dev – Excellent; Allen White – Things change – excellent.

It really is too brief for day-to-day but can give ideas of topics to look into.

i love lightning talks! great concept. need more!!

I like the ‘lightning’ format very much.

Some of it was useful, some was not. All was interesting. What about a similar thing where a first session would highlight later sessions to give people an idea of what to expect beyond the abstract?

I enjoyed it but the bar could probably be raised.

Hot in here!

Great selection of speakers and topics. Great format.

great format. perfect time slot right after lunch when it’s hard to keep awake; the short sessions keep attention.

Fun. Enjoyed.

fun!

and hilarious

i didnt expect much in this aspect.

this was a great idea! it was g9ood yesterday but even better today. allen may need to do everyone’s deck.

Conclusion

If you didn’t know beforehand, you should now realize that it takes all types. People are at different places in their careers and experience, and it’s simply impossible to please everyone. These scores are a vast improvement over the feedback I received from the first time I presented at a PASS Summit way back in 2007. I will incorporate this feedback into future presentations. I thank everyone who took the time to attend my sessions and comment.

I’d like to encourage those whose presentations didn’t score as well as they hoped. It’s difficult to know what will do well and what will not. Presenting is a skill that is separate and distinct from your technology skills. But even then, everyone has good days and bad days. Stuff happens. Sometimes your laptop gets crushed on the flight, hypothetically.

You should feel good about being selected (I do!) – many weren’t. You should be commended for preparing an abstract, submitting, making the trip, rehearsing, and doing everything in your power to deliver the very best presentation you could possibly deliver. Thank you for serving the SQL Server Community. I applaud you!

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