Meeting went good last night. Got to meet a few other peeps that I’ve talked to online, but didn’t get to talk long; guess they’re the responsible type who don’t go drinking after such meetings. This adult stuff blows.
At any rate, I’ve had a few things I wish I could do better. The crowd had a lot of new faces in it, and while coding and writing some notes before the meeting, I listened intently to what the crowd talked about to gauge their expectations. It seemed a few really hadn’t had much experience with Flash, while a ton had jobs like me. I figured it was best to dummy down a lot of what I talked about, and instead focus on overall technologies, and spit out some of the tips I’ve run into. Didn’t really go as planned as I wasn’t getting the reactions I needed out of the crowd; usually, I can use body language from a person to determine how my communication is working with them; same thing with a crowd, but I’m guessing either I was talking way too fast + talking very technical, or it was just a deep subject. It was definately more interactive than my Flashcom talk a year ago, but I feel I need to be more proactive pre-meeting to ensure audience expectations. I didn’t get into the minutae on purpose, but there were a lot of people there I thought maybe could benefit from it.
At any rate, one .NET’r brought up an interesting piont that I didn’t get to finish talking about. He was like, “What does Macromedia expect Central to have that appeals to a .NET’r that already has Smart Client?” My succinct answer to that is: .NET’rs can do what they do best; code their .NET web services, and code them well. Central can do what Flash does best and focus on the Rich GUI consuming those web services.
As always, I learn more about public speaking the more I do this. If Leif get’s it captured (since Flashcom didn’t work out), then I’ll post later in the week.
Thanks for those who came; need to make after hours time next time so we can geek out longer!