Speaker of the Month: September 2015

Feast or famine.

The last several months I just haven’t seen that many speakers, let alone that many community speakers. Then, in the last month, I’ve seen a ton. Contests being what they are though, someone has to win. To everyone I saw speak at SQL Saturday Oklahoma City and SQL Saturday Omaha who doesn’t see their name here, apologies. I saw great presentations this month. The winner though is Ryan Adams (b|t) and his presentation: Backup and Restore Tips and Tricks.

Ryan started off great, walking around the room, looking people in the eye has he talked and using the slides as a guide, not reading from them at all. He had a bunch of slides that visualized different aspects of backup and restore. I really loved the one on restoring to a point in time. I really liked how he approached the topic as a beginners guide, reassuring them that yes, maintenance plans were OK, probably not a final stopping point in your process, but a great place to start. He had a bunch of excellent demos that highlighted all his points really well. I also loved how he explained the use of STANDBY in backups. It’s one of those things that I know, but I always forget to use well. I’m going to try to incorporate it better because of Ryan’s explanations and demos.

Ryan and I discussed a few places where I thought he could improve. He never read from his slides, but he had a tendency to face away from the audience while talking so that he could use the slides as reference. While I don’t think you have to stand there staring at the audience the whole time you present, you shouldn’t look away from them too long. I also thought the fonts were small on the slides. Yeah, I’m getting old, but that doesn’t mean I should just be kicked to the curb. Make those fonts bigger. Other than that, it was a very professional and informative presentation.

I strongly recommend you track down where Ryan is speaking next. He knows what he’s doing and is absolutely worth listening to. Thanks for the great presentation Ryan.