Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Day 1, for completeness, I spent shopping with Dave Woods, which he really should hire himself out for as a service considering how often he does it. Also saw No Country For Old Men (review, such as it is, is over at my usual movie haunt; short version: it rocks) and attended Party With Palermo and we now have undisputed, non-Photoshopped proof that Justice Gray and I are two different people.

Summary sessions I will leave to others because as it is, this post will be lost in a sea of DevTeach: Day X blog posts. Instead, here are my reviews of the presenters' styles. No links to their blogs because they're pretty much all more well-known than I am.

Jeremy Miller: How does design get done on an Agile project?

Presentation alias: The Story Teller (no pun intended...ok, it was intended)
Underlying motif: Down-home folksy; free and easy going
Summary: Watching Jeremy present is kind of like talking with your older brother whose just come back from a trip to Europe and has some good stories to tell. Any advice he gives seems as if it has been passed down for generations.

Donald Belcham: Continuous Integration with CruiseControl & NAnt

Presentation alias: Pipes
Underlying motif: Understated; commands respect
Summary: Don, with his low, resounding voice, is the Barry White of presenting. Everything he says sounds like it will help you, personally, get laid. You could hear audible swooning from the audience whenever he said "continuous integration, baby".

David Laribee: User Stories, Iterations, and Releases

Presentation alias: The Hippie
Underlying motif: Approachable and affable;
Summary: Dave is the master of fonts and presents with a bit of an edge. He's got a quick wit that he pulls out sparingly but pointedly. And I'm pretty sure he was wearing tearaway pants.

James Kovacs: The Persistence Ignorant Domain Model

Presentation alias: The Ambassador
Underlying motif: Professorial; Wise and well-traveled
Summary: James' style is well-rounded and well-grounded. Ever the diplomat, he always manages to find good in everything. Such is the power of his pursuasion, for a fleeting moment, I considered using the ADO.NET Entity Framework.

Richard Campbell & Kent Alstad: The Scaling Habits of ASP.NET Applications

Presentation alias: The Geeks (I mean that in a good way)
Underlying motif: Dynamic, good-natured rapport;
Summary: I stayed only about fifteen minutes into this (family emergency, not content-related) so I didn't get the full Camb-stad experience. But the two feed well off each other and give a solid presentation well balanced 'twixt friendly jibes and hard-core techspeak.

Kyle the Presented