Presenting And Loving It!

This month T-SQL Tuesday #41 is hosted by Bob Pusateri (b | @SQLBob). T-SQL Tuesday is an event where where SQL Family join in writing and reading a new topic given each month. The topic for this month is Presenting and Loving It! So, I would like refer to my personal story, my journey to presenting. 

Being Taught and Taught

In my late teens, I started tutoring Mathematics to a few primary school and high school students back in Australia as my second part time job. I quite enjoyed teaching one-on-one; because I got to know the students and tailored the way of teaching. I took the step further and applied to become a lab/class tutor for 1st year students when I was in my 3rd year at Australian National University. I did not like presenting much when I was younger, but I loved sharing knowledge with friends, teaching them how things worked. So I thought tutoring at University was not the same as presenting. I was wrong. It was very similar. The difference is that the agenda for tutoring at University for each week has been decided (which was nice!). So in this case tutoring was easier. But everything else was fairly similar. This was how my attachment to presenting started…

Career in Data

I stopped presenting (teaching) in front of a group when I started my full time job. Eventually in 2011, Victor Isakov suggested that I should go to PASS Summit; and that I should get into presenting. I said to Victor that I had past experience in terms of tutoring, but my skill in SQL Server was not good and should be improved. Victor suggested that presenting is one of the ways for us in becoming better as a professional. I listened to him.

I started presenting with him at Sydney SQL User Group. I was very nervous, but Victor was a natural! I really enjoyed delivering a presentation with him and thought that he was right all along about becoming better at it because I really had to research the subject matter. I also met lots of new people from there and the audience were supportive. I thought, “Hey, I know I have a long way to go to become natural at presenting, but I could work on it, right?!”. So since then, I have decided to submit more presentations. I do not know everything about SQL Server, but I do know a lot more than I did 1.5 years ago; and I plan to learn more through presenting. What I love the most about presenting is the discussions; we all learn from each other.

Presenting and Travelling!

Through presenting, I have managed to visit a number of cities outside Australia and make friends from different parts of the world. Besides in Australia, I have presented in USA (Seattle, Dallas, Silicon Valley) and Canada (Vancouver). Australia, USA and Canada so far have proven to be similar but with subtle differences; from culture, audience participation, to how they serve their bacon!

My next trip is to Chicago for PASS BA Conference tomorrow (Apr 10, 2013), where I will be presenting with my friend, Joshua Fennessy (b | @JoshuaFennessy). I will also be presenting at SQL Saturday 211 on the Saturday (Apr 13, 2013) immediately after PASS BA Conference. The week after that, I will be presenting at SQL Saturday 201 Orange County (Apr 20, 2013). Hope to see you at these events and future ones too!

Wrap Up

Thank you, thank you, thank you and a thousand times thank you! Thank you to the event organizers who have given me a chance to speak. Thank you to the audience for attending/tuning into my presentations. Thank you to my #sqlfamily for giving me encouragement to be a better speaker; directly and indirectly. Thank you to all other speakers out there for putting the time and effort into sharing your knowledge with the community.

Thank you Bob Pusateri for hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday!