Email Interfaces Talk

Just realized I never posted anything about my last talk, “Email Interfaces for your Ruby Applications,” delivered at Developer Day Boulder in mid-October.

I consider the talk a success on the whole. Compared with my previous speaking engagements, where I spent weeks preparing and still struggled to fill the allotted time, this talk came together easily. On the other hand, I don’t think the audience was nearly as engaged as in the past; it’s a dry subject, email, and it was hard to differentiate between the audience’s reaction to the talk and the combined effects of my post-lunch time slot and an overactive heating system. There was a lively discussion afterward, though, so I think people were paying attention.

I’m still trying to find my sweet spot — I’ve done well with talks that use humorous technical gimmicks to tie them together, but the prep time for these talks has been huge (roughly an hour prep for a minute of presentation). Additionally, as the gimmick goes, so does the talk, so I have a lot of anxiety leading up to the presentation that I really didn’t experience before the relatively risk-free Boulder talk.

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME. Here are the slides:

Boulder is a beautiful city, if goddamn frigid. Hoping to spend some more time out there when it’s warmer or I’m ready for the cold. AND SPEAKING of hipster towns, I’m looking forward to refining the talk and then giving it again in January, when Developer Day (or whatever its new name is — I voted “Devtron”) heads to Austin.