People-Centric Software Design - cf.Objective() 2010 Pecha Kucha BOF
At this year's cf.Objective() 2010 conference (which was amazing), I was invited by Bob Silverberg to participate in the Pecha Kucha Birds of a Feather (BOF) session. For those of you who don't know what Pecha Kucha is (neither did I), it's a short presentation style consisting of 20 slides that auto-display for 20 seconds each. All in all, it forces you to get your point across in 6 minutes, 40 seconds. For my presentation, I decided to talk about people-centric software design and how taking such an approach can add a tremendous amount of value to the software design process. The following is a video of me practicing for the cf.Objective() presentation:
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Obviously, during the live presentation, I don't have to hold the slides myself. Mike Canonigo was nice enough to send me a video of my actual live presentation which I will see about publishing and posting up as well.
If you are interested in the slides, here is the embedded FlashPaper version (CFDocument rocks!):
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Drawing the slides out with a Sharpie was a lot of fun. I've never made slides before that didn't have bullet points or code on them so this was a whole new experience. Special thanks again to Bob Silverberg for organizing the whole thing and actively getting me to participate. It was a blast!
Reader Comments
Ben, I really enjoyed this presentation at cf.Objective(); the whole Pecha Chuka BOF was fantastic, in fact.
My wife had arrived to meet me for dinner, and since you were the last to go, she got to see it as well. Even though she's not a developer, she wanted me to let you know she thought it was wonderful. The personal metaphors are not only relevant, but poignant.
Looking forward to seeing more Pecha Chukas at future conferences!
@Seth,
Thanks a lot! And tell Katie thanks as well; that's doubly-awesome that a non-developer appreciated it :)
Ben, great video! I am angry I missed the BOF session now :(
@Ryan,
Thanks my man. It was a great BOF - 8 other guys, great variety of topics. I think there are videos floating around of all of them.
Ben,
My man, your preso was fantastic! The way you brought your personal experiences into how you interact with clients was pretty slick. There was absolutely no reason for you to be nervous about it either ... you did great!
On a side note, it's Pecha Kucha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha) ... no biggie, but thought you'd want to know.
I look forward to your next one!
By the way, nice touch using FlashPaper in your blog post ... haven't seen that in awhile. ;)
That was a really great talk, and a good reminder of what will set a good developer apart from the rest.
@Steve,
Oh dang! I totally misspelled it :( How the heck did I get it right in the video and NOT on the blog!
Thanks a lot my man. I really enjoyed all of them. I even now know that beer is the 3rd most consumed fluid on the planet!
I laugh, I cried and most importantly was inspired. Excellent video and compelling. Though I was half expecting some to sneak up behind you ;)
@Emily,
Thank you very much :)
@Kevin,
Ha ha, we made a special point to booy-trap the office specifically so no one can sneak up behind you.
@Ben,
That's good, proper caltrops are always appreciated.
I did a Pecha Kucha at Business of Software last year. It was so hard. I loved it. The timing of the whole thing was intense. I practiced those 6.5 minutes 10x more than I did a different 90 minute presentation.
I like the stick figures. Excellent work!
@Glen,
Thanks Glen! That means a lot - I've seen your slides; they are very good. Yeah, the timing was intense! I feel like it was going to a "Reading" and then not letting the author use his book. I actually recorded it as a voice memo on my iPhone and listened to it a bunch of times.
I think I was more nervous about this than my standard presentations.
A hundred-thou a year buys a lot less beer than it did in ~1985 when Timbuk 3 released that hit (assuming you were making that reference).
Good presentation and answers a portion of my "Ask Ben" question I posed earlier today.
I attended the first Pecha Kucha presentation here in StL. Very fun!
@Ben,
yeah ... but at least you didn't have to go FIRST ... I almost peed my pants!
@Randall,
Heck yeah I was making that reference!
@Steve,
Word up! It's a toss-up between first and last though - both equally stressful.
@Ben,
Yeah, I suppose ... I guess after I did mine, I was actually able to just sit back and enjoy the rest.
@Glen,
I totally agree with the amount of time put into the presentation prep work ... I usually allow for about 1 hour for each minute when preparing for a preso ... I swear I spent way more than that on this.
Hey all, Bob Silverberg just posted the live recordings of all these videos:
http://www.silverwareconsulting.com/index.cfm/2010/5/3/View-the-Presentations-from-the-cfObjective-Pecha-Kucha-BOF