Conference Speaking And Presentation Skills: Mike Hall Interviews Angelique Martin | SCNA 2013

[Music] Alright so basically you know I'll do that introduction and then I'll ask you the question when we get to a few minutes and I'll be trying to watch the time a little bit so that we don't go too long and then I'll just say well thank you very much for taking the time to sit down with me I know you're really busy well shake hands pause for a moment and then I'll stop it again and then we'll and then you're you can run off to do the next thing okay oh and just real quick I threw a UGtastic shirt into the raffle bin I don't know if that's like too small to raffle off okay oh that's the other thing sorry the conversation is between you and me and we just treat it as if we were sitting at a table and somebody came up and just started listening in on the conversation and if you're free to address that the camera as if it was a person if there's something you would want to tell the listener but mostly it's it's us talking and we pretend that the the camera is just somebody who's come and sat down with us okay okay hi it's Mike with UGtastic I'm here at SCNA 2013 right now I'm sitting down with Angelique Martin who is the lead organizer for SCNA and you've been doing this for a couple years now but well first I know you're really busy so I appreciate you taking that time to sit down with me but so 2013 you've been doing this for a few years what if what has it that you've learned over the last couple years that has affected 2013 and how is 2013 maybe different than what you did in 2012 well the differences were actually pretty subtle the the main concept of the short talk with the long breaks for networking remained what we did this year is that we try to change the the schedule a little bit so that the second day would start a little bit later right so we could have a code and coffee session so as to allow for more technical time we've reintroduced the 5k that we had three years ago this is actually a SCNA's fifth year and we used to go back and forth now it's been a flight has been organizing it for I would say the best three years and then one year before so this is really the fourth time that we do this so the the the big picture stays the same and is really terrible that's the world but the idea is to well hopefully reiterate the conference and make it well I think it was really terrible I was like I said wow that's like to reiterate yeah no no no it is it is a word at least for the sake of this conversation we will say the reiterated word no it is um and but I but as far as kind of the joke they're really terrible I there's a lot that goes into these these conferences that people might not realize oh absolutely the the big challenge this year was to get our speakers right even though we had announced our conference dates last year at the end of the conference we had a conflict with another major event with which we were competing for speakers so we had a lot of speakers that couldn't make it the Ruby Countdown and some other event in Chicago no fluff just stuff no fluff just stuff but luckily we were still able to you know have 13 wonderful speakers and devote a total session to lightning talks and a panel which featured four of our speakers we tried to put a certain dose of entertainment so we had a couple cadets and the Jeopardy game and some other events that we do every year and I think having the introductions by different people absolutely so so between sessions when a new speaker was coming up it wouldn't always be the same person introducing the speaker and there was one little snag as there always is in anything anything more one of the speakers had gotten locked outside right and but because of having you know a person up there that was comfortable they could talk and kind of control the room a little bit and right we had a bunch of software jokes and it was winged pretty well and Gary made it to just what three four minutes late yeah okay we were a little bit early on our side as well but that's that's what shows a strong organization is being able to be resilient through those kinds of hurdles absolutely and but also other things about just like the cost and expense of doing a conference I remember our conversation you and I had before where you mentioned that previous years I don't know if it's last year or the year before water bottles were were ridiculous ridiculously expensive yeah aside the the main cost for the conference is really food beverages and the venue we've detached ourselves from the hotel because a few years ago we had an experience but right there's consumption costs that are not necessarily so when you take a bowl when you take a bottle of water keep it because it might be really expensive and it might affect whether or not there's gonna be a conference again next year right and we're always looking for sponsors I mean I want to really say clearly that events like this could not be produced if it wasn't for the help of the sponsors so that we can I don't know if you've noticed but SC&E's price is the same that we've had for for as long as I remember putting the conference together and it's getting to be a stretch it's going to be difficult to maintain that low price with you and competing for sponsors because they're also looking at okay if I if they're a ruby company or they provide ruby services they're gonna already be pre-allocating for a direct ruby conference and now you're competing for those dollars just because you cover a broad spectrum anything that if somebody was looking at how they could maybe look at starting their own conference in an area what are do you have any other little tidbits you might think of that if somebody's looking at a conference that they might want to just think about before they get into it what are you know you mentioned costs and sponsors but right I think the the biggest part is the venue I found the best couple of years we've had this venue which is by the way UGtastic but it's not a hotel venue so we we are able to limit the cost and limit the liability because when you do book a conference in a hotel depending on where you do it at least that's the experience in Chicago they have some sort of ratio of hotel rooms to meeting space but with the technology nowadays it's not uncommon for people to find a really cheap rate elsewhere leaving you with a liability for hotel rooms that are actually not right because they don't seem to be giving you an optimal rates absolutely not yeah they're they're they're charging sticker price and yeah yeah I definitely can say that I am personally myself when I go to a conference I'm looking at Hipmonger you know it's you know it's I would love to support the conference but sometimes it's just the rates are so high that it's right to even like go as an attendee right exactly so that's why by not by not having a hotel venue we're able to leave the choice to the people as to what tools they want to do right what they want to use to find the accommodation rates that so much like we were trying to write our good software we decouple things I know you're not a software person but but anyway I know you're very busy and I'm catching you around a little I appreciate you taking the time to sit down Thank you. very much thank you okay great [Music] you