The Results Are In

By all accounts, my Austin GDC talk went very well. I was in one of the upstairs rooms, seating -- at a guess -- between a hundred and two hundred people. It was packed, and since I don't think I know a hundred to two hundred people, there must have been quite a few who were there just to see the talk.

Had a moment of terror when I realized, ten minutes before the presentation was to begin, that the video connections in the conference room were VGA and my MacBook Pro only had a DVI out. I called the conference organizer, who dispatched an A/V tech to my room with a DVI to VGA cable, and managed to start on-time. Although I was annoyed that I didn't have a volunteer in the room with a walkie (they gave me someone, but she was just for the "A" in A/V, and she bolted not long after introducing herself), I was pleased with how quickly and efficiently the problem got solved. Still, after the show I bought a DVI-to-VGA adapter, which now permanently resides in my notebook bag.

I did a small Powerpoint to use while setting up the video that said things like "This is not the talk. I am just setting up the video." That got a chuckle. Must remember to save that for future talks.

My metrics for how well it went were:

• Only a couple of people sneaked out during the talk, in spite of the fact that it was right before lunch and people generally like to leave early to get a good spot in line.
• About 60% of the audience stayed for the Q&A.
• They laughed at most of the jokes.
• People kept coming up to me throughout the rest of the show. Some just wanted to say "good talk," but many had questions that they weren't comfortable asking in a room full of people or didn't think of until after the talk was over. Either way, they were clearly engaged, so I'm happy about that.
  

I finished right on time, which was amazing considering that (given my off-the-cuff style) I hadn't really rehearsed it.

CMP recorded the talk, but they haven't told us yet where or when those recordings will be available. In the meantime, you can download the slides. (Note that these include some minor edits made the day of, including text animations. As such they are marginally more up-to-date than the ones you can download from the AGC website.)

Finally, note to self: transactions are a good way to help prevent dupes. Forgot to add that to the duping slide.