Over the summer I presented on the topic of how the technology powering Mozilla’s Webmaker suite of products is a good example of the future of web development. It was so well received at the time that Dawn Mercer suggested I do an encore performance at this year’s Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS). I was excited at the suggestion, and not sure about how it would turn out but I agreed to try.
It was quite an experience, and one that I’ll hopefully be able to repeat. I want to talk about how I put the presentation together, and what presenting to such a diverse audience of (mainly) professionals was like.
The preparation
The presentation spawned from the need to present on our work at CDOT, but to talk about something different for a change! The year before had been full of presentations by our team, all talking about various technological aspects of the Webmaker suite. This made sense, since we were actively developing it at the time. This summer, we were developing a new combination of products called MakeDrive and Nimble and presented on their specific technical details extensively.
So rather than rehash the same old thing, I decided to present a broader view of what this technology meant for web developers. I started with one of the main selling points of the Webmaker suite – that it was built on only web technologies – and went from there.
What resulted was a presentation focused on explaining why such a product was even possible. Not relying on third-party plugins for advanced functionality? Coding the entire project, front and back ends, in JavaScript? The implications were staggering in my opinion, so I set out to excite any developers that weren’t already aware of the possibilities that HTML5, JavaScript and modern browsers allowed.
The question of “who?”
A good presentation is focused on it’s audience, as I’ve written about before. So who was I presenting to? I decided that I was targeting professionals and enthusiasts, which meant that I could go into some technical detail without overwhelming them.
This turned out to be a nice balance, since it allowed me the use of a broader range of topics to keep my audience’s interest. It also cut down on how much preamble was required, since I could assume a greater baseline knowledge.
The key was to provide information while exciting them, and hopefully leaving some questions in their minds. To that end, I’d say I succeeded.
My specific assumptions were:
- Intermediate to advanced knowledge of high level technical concepts, specifically with regards to the DNA of a web application
- Age range in the 20s-50s
This flexibility was something I hadn’t experienced before. The perfect presentation would be to someone as knowledgeable as yourself, who also happens to be interested in what you have to say. For every concession that leads away from this, restrictions are put on the type of content being presented, with greater care having to be taken to deliver information in a digestible way.
My base assumption was that I was speaking to peers in a context they were comfortable with. My presentation covered a large amount of information, but I felt this was appropriate considering who my audience was. In other words, they could reasonably be expected to both keep up, and not be bored to tears! Very liberating.
The question of “why”
The idea of my audience being more peer than plebeian raised an important concern, which ended up being the central force I used to refine the presentation: Why should they care to listen?
Being a developer (in training) with experience (as a student) didn’t automatically sell my ideas as worth listening to, and rightly so. I’m a nobody, with big ideas, without impressive credentials, but still opinionated. I had to better make damn sure I knew what I was talking about if I wanted to keep any dignity afterwards, let alone make my audience’s choice to listen to me worth their time. My post-talk grilling (also known as the question and answer period) made me glad I’d done my homework.
And this isn’t even to speak of the main reason someone asks this question when preparing to present! Assuming everyone respected me enough to listen, and assuming I was fully prepared, why should anyone care what I had to say? I needed to be saying something worthwhile.
I focused on two main goals:
- Conveying just how far the web has come as a common shared platform, with examples of its technology being used in surprising ways (JavaScript in Nodejs for example)
- Providing lots of examples of this technology being used to do extraordinary things, or at least being used in ways my audience may not have previously considered.
The Talk
What a surreal experience! I was introduced with a list of accomplishments that they’d tricked me into writing when I applied for my presentation, and as I looked across the room of the largest lecture hall I’d ever had class in, I realized that I had a big audience.
I was impressed with the volunteer tech responsible for keeping me mic’d, and quickly got right into the talk. Here are some of my main observations:
- Having the focused attention of professionals is an incredibly humbling experience. Staying in control of myself and my confidence in the face of a room full of web developers (some with 10+ years of experience) was difficult, though I mostly succeeded.
- This was a formal setting. If someone came in late during a presentation during my work term with CDOT, friendly jabs might have been appropriate considering my relationship with everyone involved. But having four people enter ten minutes into my presentation left me confused about how to handle it. Did I interrupt myself and wait? Did I continue regardless? My general distractibility didn’t help.
- I’m not the only one with strong opinions. The question and answer period (which I think I handled really well) was a strong indicator of this. The opening gambit was essentially, “Why drop the old way? What’s so special about angular/node/HTML5 etc. etc.”?
- I dropped into the role of facilitator! As I answered questions, and took on particularly confrontational audience members, other people would put their hands up, wanting to respond on my behalf! Now I was having to make sure everyone involved saved face, while standing my ground, while acknowledging my blind spots, while answering the question!
In the end I came away reinvigorated, and more determined than ever to continue my pursuit of web development. The feedback I received was tremendous, with claps on the back and much encouragement.
I’d like to thank Dawn Mercer, David Humphrey, Chris Tyler and the entire FSOSS team of volunteers for putting on such a great conference and giving me the chance to participate. That experience won’t be forgotten any time soon.
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