This evening, I did my first presentation at a user group at my local user group. Sure, it was just a lightning talk, but the New England SQL Server user group is a tough crowd. People ask tough questions. Nobody is timid about interrupting you to ask their question. My friends were there–and my friends and I like to heckle each other. Oh, and mostly everyone was there to see Grant Fritchey (twitter|blog), and my opening lightning talk was standing in their way.
Those same things that make the NE SQL group intimidating also make it a really exciting, awesome group. I love that my local user group is large, active, smart, and eager to learn.
My talk went great and I got a lot of fantastic and positive feedback from people. I even managed to teach Grant something (actually, he said he learned at least two things)–considering all the things I’ve learned from him, I consider that a tremendous accomplishment.
If you were there and want the slides (or just couldn’t make it in), you can download the slides here.
Thanks for being awesome, NE SQL buddies. See you again soon!