5.23.2007
Speaking at JavaOne
This year I had the fortunate opportunity to speak at Sun's 2007 JavaOne conference. Needless to say, it was one my greatest professional experience. As a first-time attendee and a presenter, it was information overload as soon as I entered the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I guess after so many JavaOne's (this year was the 11th I think), Sun has worked out the kinks. From registration to the moment I left the place, everything was smooth. However, getting there was another story.
So, You Want to Speak at J1...
Back in December of last year (2006), I saw a post online (think it was on serverside) about Sun's call for paper. So, I decided to submit one on JMX since I had been working with the technology for a while and had done presentations on the topic. I thought "... what's the worse that could happen, they say no ..." and I would have been OK with that. That would be one less thing I would have to worry about anyway. I Felt good about the concepts I proposed, so I submitted my topic and abstract on Dec 15 (or around that time). And that was that. No words or even confirmation that the web process I went through to submit my materials worked. So, ok maybe it worked, maybe it did not.
...Well, Here You Go!
January went by, no words. February, nothing. By then, of course, I completely forgot about the show. So much time went by that I forgot that I even submitted a paper for consideration. So, couple of months went by and during that time, my wife and I made plans to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. We were excited about the chance for a well-deserved vacation in May. Then, mid-March, I got an email confirming that that my topic was accepted for JavaOne. Yeah! Ok, wait, wait... when is the cruise honey? The cruise, as you guessed, on May 7 - 11. Oh crap, JavaOne is the same week. It took me 2 weeks to come to make my decision to speak at JavaOne instead of sailing away with my wife. It was agonizing since we were both looking forward to it. In the end, it worked out. My sister-in-law went on the cruise (instead of me) with my wife, and I got to do my presentation.
Show Me the Goods
Submitting a paper topic to Sun is one thing. Preparing viable and presentable materials is another matter. I decided to revise an existing JMX presentation that I had done prior so that it would stand JavaOne scrutiny. I ended up redoing the entire thing, including: applying Sun's sanctioned templates, graphics, logos, etc. My first submittal to Sun for review went something like this "... this presentation is not ready to be presented ... change slide 1, change slide 2, slide n ... etc " My Sun-assigned reviewer was really helpful with valuable tips and suggestions. Between reviews, suggestions, and gloat prevention, I redid the entire presentation at least 2 times. In the end, the presentation was accepted with no problems.
Present! Present! Present!
Having relationships with the Java community in Florida helped. I ended doing my presentation 3 times for different Java User Groups. It was great to be able to get feedbacks on the presentation before JavaOne. That drove me to keep refining the presentation.
The Day Of
Still nervous. All I can think about are these knowledge-hungry beasts with piercing and skeptical eyes starring at me on stage. I mean, how many of them will there be? I ended up taking the Sun's provided presenter coaching service to appease my apprehension. That was helpful. The next day is presentation day. I rehearsed the demo's on my laptop at least 3 times with no problem, of course. After I walked to Moscone from Nikko Hotel, my brain was numbed from thinking about the presentation. In the room, the guys from the previous session were still on stage answering questions "... Come on ... I need to setup guys ... " I turned on my laptop, to find out that the wireless connection in the room was useless. Luckily, the AV guys had corded connection. Unfortunately, I ran into issues with a bug in JConsole that causes connection issues with multi-homed PC's. Crap! I went on to do the presentation. Ran into some problems with the Demo, got around it and moved on...
You May Be Next
If you are thinking of speaking at J1, here are some tips:
- Take A Chance - If you have a good topic, submit it! You never know, you may be the next JavaOne speaker.
- Submit Interesting Topic - pick a topic that you know and you think others will learn from or may be interesting to others. Stay away from the obvious or the common (i.e. introduction to EJB3, etc).
- Keep Calendar Open - once you have submitted your abstract, keep your calendar open for J1 dates. You won't hear from Sun right away, so don't make the mistake of making plans for J1 dates until you get a Confirmation from Sun you've been accepted or rejected.
- Submit Early - the earlier you provide your presentation to Sun, the more time you will have to review it. It also gives more time to implement changes from Sun's reviewers.
- Simple Presentation - don't over complicate your presentation slides. Keep your presentation light. About 50 slides top! Fill in the details with your your delivery. Include slides with screenshots, code snippets, graphics, etc to break to monotonous flow of just textual slides.
- Practice, Practice, Practice - present your presentation to whoever willing to listen. The more you present, the more opportunities you will find for refinement.
- Review Often: Once your presentation is "Done!", it can always be optimized. Every time you look at it, you will find improvements. You will have the opportunity to review your presentation up to 24 hours prior to your presentation. Take advantage of it!
- Have Fun!
Click to download presentation.
So, You Want to Speak at J1...
Back in December of last year (2006), I saw a post online (think it was on serverside) about Sun's call for paper. So, I decided to submit one on JMX since I had been working with the technology for a while and had done presentations on the topic. I thought "... what's the worse that could happen, they say no ..." and I would have been OK with that. That would be one less thing I would have to worry about anyway. I Felt good about the concepts I proposed, so I submitted my topic and abstract on Dec 15 (or around that time). And that was that. No words or even confirmation that the web process I went through to submit my materials worked. So, ok maybe it worked, maybe it did not.
...Well, Here You Go!
January went by, no words. February, nothing. By then, of course, I completely forgot about the show. So much time went by that I forgot that I even submitted a paper for consideration. So, couple of months went by and during that time, my wife and I made plans to go on a cruise to the Caribbean. We were excited about the chance for a well-deserved vacation in May. Then, mid-March, I got an email confirming that that my topic was accepted for JavaOne. Yeah! Ok, wait, wait... when is the cruise honey? The cruise, as you guessed, on May 7 - 11. Oh crap, JavaOne is the same week. It took me 2 weeks to come to make my decision to speak at JavaOne instead of sailing away with my wife. It was agonizing since we were both looking forward to it. In the end, it worked out. My sister-in-law went on the cruise (instead of me) with my wife, and I got to do my presentation.
Show Me the Goods
Submitting a paper topic to Sun is one thing. Preparing viable and presentable materials is another matter. I decided to revise an existing JMX presentation that I had done prior so that it would stand JavaOne scrutiny. I ended up redoing the entire thing, including: applying Sun's sanctioned templates, graphics, logos, etc. My first submittal to Sun for review went something like this "... this presentation is not ready to be presented ... change slide 1, change slide 2, slide n ... etc " My Sun-assigned reviewer was really helpful with valuable tips and suggestions. Between reviews, suggestions, and gloat prevention, I redid the entire presentation at least 2 times. In the end, the presentation was accepted with no problems.
Present! Present! Present!
Having relationships with the Java community in Florida helped. I ended doing my presentation 3 times for different Java User Groups. It was great to be able to get feedbacks on the presentation before JavaOne. That drove me to keep refining the presentation.
The Day Of
Still nervous. All I can think about are these knowledge-hungry beasts with piercing and skeptical eyes starring at me on stage. I mean, how many of them will there be? I ended up taking the Sun's provided presenter coaching service to appease my apprehension. That was helpful. The next day is presentation day. I rehearsed the demo's on my laptop at least 3 times with no problem, of course. After I walked to Moscone from Nikko Hotel, my brain was numbed from thinking about the presentation. In the room, the guys from the previous session were still on stage answering questions "... Come on ... I need to setup guys ... " I turned on my laptop, to find out that the wireless connection in the room was useless. Luckily, the AV guys had corded connection. Unfortunately, I ran into issues with a bug in JConsole that causes connection issues with multi-homed PC's. Crap! I went on to do the presentation. Ran into some problems with the Demo, got around it and moved on...
You May Be Next
If you are thinking of speaking at J1, here are some tips:
- Take A Chance - If you have a good topic, submit it! You never know, you may be the next JavaOne speaker.
- Submit Interesting Topic - pick a topic that you know and you think others will learn from or may be interesting to others. Stay away from the obvious or the common (i.e. introduction to EJB3, etc).
- Keep Calendar Open - once you have submitted your abstract, keep your calendar open for J1 dates. You won't hear from Sun right away, so don't make the mistake of making plans for J1 dates until you get a Confirmation from Sun you've been accepted or rejected.
- Submit Early - the earlier you provide your presentation to Sun, the more time you will have to review it. It also gives more time to implement changes from Sun's reviewers.
- Simple Presentation - don't over complicate your presentation slides. Keep your presentation light. About 50 slides top! Fill in the details with your your delivery. Include slides with screenshots, code snippets, graphics, etc to break to monotonous flow of just textual slides.
- Practice, Practice, Practice - present your presentation to whoever willing to listen. The more you present, the more opportunities you will find for refinement.
- Review Often: Once your presentation is "Done!", it can always be optimized. Every time you look at it, you will find improvements. You will have the opportunity to review your presentation up to 24 hours prior to your presentation. Take advantage of it!
- Have Fun!
Click to download presentation.
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