Tales of a first time speaker at cf.Objective 2010

cf.Objective is still a great conference after 5 years. It is amazing how much work the people behind the conference work. This was my first year as a speaker. I have been attending the conference for several years (think I only missed the first year), paying my own way a majority of the time which is definitely worth it. It is quite an honor to speak in group with the likes of Matt Woodward, Peter Farrell, and Simeon Bateman. Guys I have been watching nail presentations over the years. I started the first day feeling random anxiety "attacks" (I use that loosely, they weren't bad) when watching sessions and thinking, I can't believe I will be doing that in front of such smart peers. I think the attendees count was around 200. cf.Objective is a programmer's conference with no fluff subjects. My first day, I started posting notes of sessions I attended but toward the end started slacking. I was fine tunining code for my my presentation and minor tweaks to slides. I had given ColdFusion on Wheels presentations to the MDCFUG and the ColdFusion Online Meetup but totally revamped the focus of the presentation. I gathered a couple guys that evening to give my preso to and I was really nervous in front of them which is funny cause it was Ryan Stille, a friend / CF guru and a co-worker of his. They gave great suggestions (what to cut, what to focus more on, etc) and I implemented the suggestion that night. I don't think I was up past midnight. The second day, my presentation day, I woke up around 5:30am I think, tweaked some more stuff and did the presentation out loud to myself while pausing to address any issues I found. My session was the last slot before dinner break. So I attended sessions all day, but skipped the slot before mine to work on the presentation and go over it again in my head. As I walked into "my room", I couldn't believe was walking up to the front, climbing on the stage to setup my laptop into the projector and hook up a mike. First time, I have ever had to use one before besides for recordings. I think it started out a little rough but once I got going it was better. The audience asked great questions which helped and seemed very interested. I gave out shirts after finishing, several people hung out to chat which was nice. The rest of the night was a blur. I had supper with a group of people near the hotel and went to the Pecha Kucha BOF Bob Silverberg put together. A Pecha Kucha is one speaker, 20 slides, automatically rotating after 20 secs. Bob lined up 9 speakers (me one of them) and really promoted it with business cards and podcasts. It was a great time but very nerve racking as Bob's program, flipped names for the next speaker. Thankfully, I wasn't the first selected. I think I was the third. Poor Ben Nadel had to sit through each random flipping waiting for his name to be selected since he ended up last. There were some really interesting topics. My Pechaa Kucha was over World War II Honor Flights. My grandfather, 98, attended one with the Southeastern Minnesota Honor Flight group last May before he passed away. I was lucky enough to have moved out to DC and was able to meet him at the WWII monument and be with him throughout the day. Since then I have helped out with several others. It is always a great experience I would recommend anyone look into volunteering. It is a long day but well worth it. It is always awesome to see friends like Marc Esher, Luis Majano, Ryan Stille, and Terry Ryan. Plus great to meet extraordinary people like Dan Wilson and Emily Christiansen. Plus since with the size of the conference, you are able to say Hi to guru's like Sean Corfield, Raymond Camden, and Charlie Arehart. I am sure I missed a bunch of people. Here is a complete list of speakers. Thanks to cf.objective for my first opportunity to present there on a framework I am really excited about ColdFusion on Wheels.