Presenter Mentor is a new user group whose goal is to grow local talent into capable and confident technical speakers thru a highly-interactive and focused gathering. If you're looking to break into speaking or just need a little help to find your style, this is a group you need to attend.

*** NOTE: We have moved the day from our normal date for this month!! ***

Meeting will start promptly at 11:30 and there will NOT be a sponsor this month so please remember to bring your lunch.

Date:      Wednesday, April 15
Location: Microsoft LC1

Please sign up on CodeZone to get more information and future notifications (use "BuildingSpeakers" as the code to register).

        

Presenter Mentor is a new user group whose goal is to grow local talent into capable and confident technical speakers thru a highly-interactive and focused gathering. If you're looking to break into speaking or just need a little help to find your style, this is a group you need to attend.

*** NOTE: We have moved the time!! ***

Meeting will start promptly at 11:30 and there will NOT be a sponsor this month so please remember to bring your lunch.

Date:      Wednesday, April 15
Location: Microsoft LC1

Please sign up on CodeZone to get more information and future notifications (use "BuildingSpeakers" as the code to register).

        

Presenter Mentor is a new user group whose goal is to grow local talent into capable and confident technical speakers thru a highly-interactive and focused gathering. If you're looking to break into speaking or just need a little help to find your style, this is a group you need to attend.

Meeting will start promptly at 11:30 and there will NOT be a sponsor this month so please remember to bring your lunch.

Date:      Wednesday, March 18
Location: Microsoft LC1 Visual Basic

Please sign up on CodeZone to get more information and future notifications (use "BuildingSpeakers" as the code to register).

        

Presenter Mentor is a new user group whose goal is to develop local technical speakers. Have you ever wanted to speak at a user group meeting? Would you like to hobnob with the other speakers at TechFest? This is your opportunity to get on the agenda at a local user group or event.

The first half of the meeting will be somewhat like a Toastmasters meeting – community members will have the opportunity to speak and have their presentation skills critiqued. The second half of the meeting will be devoted to having experienced speakers share their tips and tricks.

Date:      Wednesday, October 15
Location: Microsoft LC2 Room 1105 (note: this room is in the building next to the building that we usually meet in.)

Time   Task
11:00  Doors Open – Pizza is served
11:25  Greet Guests
11:30  Call To order Introductions Opening Remarks Inspiration from the DE
11:40  Introduce Meeting Helpers Explanation of Icebreaker presentations
11:45  Icebreaker 1 – Todd Stone
11:55  Feedback for Icebreaker
12:10  Caleb Jenkins: Public Speaking for .NET
12:30  Zain Naboulsi: Speaking Tips from the DE
12:50  Guest Comments
  1:00  Meeting Wrap-up

Please send your RSVP to rsvp@presentermentor.org and sign up on CodeZone to get more information and future notifications.

        

rob vettor

        

Presenter Mentor (PM) held its second organization meeting on 8/20/8 at Microsoft.  The focus was on scope and approach for the group effort. Highlights included:

• Ask user groups to sponsor "mentee" speakers, scheduling a presentation slot for mentee in a 3 to 6 month time frame. Providing the slot and securing commitment from the mentee provides a target goal for the training effort.

 

• After acceptance into the program, require the mentee to deliver a 10-minute ice breaker presentation to the PM group. PM group will use the presentation to gauge speaker needs and facilitate the assignment of an individual mentor. The presentation will be video-taped to discover areas of improvement and measure progress. Ice breakers can be of any topic, such as what the speaker liked and didn't like about their last project.

 

• Assign each mentee to an experienced PM mentor for personalized guidance and training.
• Assignment would be based upon special needs of mentee and strengths of mentor
• Mentor would coach mentee on a one-on-one basis and complete standardized presenter checklist to ensure that all major presentation skills are covered and ensure consistency across speaker development 
• Upon completion of the checklist, mentee would be coached by the full PM group
• One-on-one training could include a short team presentation (mentor/mentee) at local user group meeting

The next PM meeting will be held on Wed 9/17/8 at Microsoft from 11:30 - 1:00.  Target agenda is to attempt to wrap up scope and approach and implement first pass on providing speaker training. 

rob vettor

        

I am looking for speakers on the following topics:

Testing & Debugging with Visual Studio 2008 - This presentation will familiarize the audience with all of the testing and debugging tools that come with Visual Studio 2008

Best Practices - This presentation will cover the Enterprise Library and design patterns.

Server Controls - This presentation will cover how to create custom, reusable, professional-quality server controls with rich design-time functionality.

The dates you can choose from are Oct. 28 and Nov 25.

Thanks,


Toi Wright
President, Dallas ASP.Net User Group

        

Proposed Meeting Formats

(This is a draft! Feel free to add)

Structured similarly to a Toastmasters meeting, following is a proposed format for a Presenter Mentor meeting (with mentees):

(Presenter Mentor member serves as timer, closely monitoring that each meeting aspect adheres to time limits, presenting visual feedback to speakers)

5 minutes:    Open Meeting, introductions, format 

10 minutes:   Presenter Mentor member performs short presentation, featuring both conceptual (.pptx) and code content, explicitly demonstrating presentation best practices.

10 minutes:    Mentee presents both conceptual and code content.
10 minutes:    Mentors provide feedback
10 minutes:    Mentee represents same conceptual and code content applying feedback from mentors.

        

The Charter Meeting

Presenter Mentor kicked off its Charter Meeting on Wed, July 16, with a subset of the DGC, including two DEs.

The majority of the meeting was spent defining the need for building local speaking talent and various approaches for delivering guidance and support.

At a high-level, the group crafted a "first-pass" mission statement:  "Raise the overall quality of local (Dallas area, to start) technology presenters through guidance and mentoring."

A number of very good suggestions were raised:

• Monthly meetings at which prospective speakers can be critiqued and trained.
• Simulating various speaking environments (from smaller rooms to larger venues, such as the room in which the DDNUG and ASP.NET SIG meetings are held.
• Videotaping both rehearsals and the actual presentation.
• Presenter Mentor providing detailed written evaluation of a presentation.
• Co-presenting by pairing a new speaker with a more experienced, each presenting portions of the presentation.
• Group presentations in which multiple new speakers present short segments, reducing the pressure of attempting to deliver a full 2 hour presentation.
• Warm-up presentations, in which a new speaker presents for a 10 - 15 minute time slot.
• Establishing a repository for content, including slides and code, thus providing resources for other speakers to build similar presentations for their region.
  

Next steps include:

• Refiining workable approaches to mentor speakers.
• Defining a set of presentation best practices.
• Defining a format that mentoring meetings can follow. 
• Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 8/20, noon, at Microsoft.

 

        

This is the proposed agenda for the charter meeting.

1. Define Mission Statement
2. Determine Target Members
3. Select Date, Time and Location of First Meeting

Please add additional items to the comments.