PHPBenelux User Group Meeting Gent
5 Oct 2011 at Combell

I can only concur with the above, try to focus on getting your message across, and try not to read your presentation from the screen (people tend to get distracted when you do). Though maybe this was due to time constraints as well, since you covered a lot of ground in a small amount of time.

Try to tell a story, and spice it with some anecdotes - ie. how you solved some specific issues you encountered while implementing XMPP (assuming you have had them, but don't we all :p). That should catch the audience. Oh, and a real live demo would be great as well (with a local XMPP server), so that you only have to use the video when Murphy strikes.

Good talk, to the point and a nice live demo. We use puppet at work (at least that's what I'm told, haven't checked the setup yet :p), and it was nice to see how it works.

Like I already said after your presentation. I recommend to focus more about the differences between the different possibilities of using XMPP in your project. The examples are good but more time on the examples with a little bit more information is better then some slides with code if no one really understand it. Maybe it can be nice to include the examples in the slides instead of at the end of the talk.

Good talk, Joshua. You seem to be quite confident in front of an audience. The content was quite good too, but try to make the demo a bit shorter. Good luck at Zendcon, you'll do a great job.

Good talk, in-depth and combined with some nice examples. Good move to record the demo to avoid Murphy.

A word of advice regarding the delivery: try to tell a story, don't read the text from your presenter screen notes. I know the nerves are killer, but it's clear that you have what it takes. For Zendcon just throw away all preparation and focus on the story you want to tell. You'll do a great job, I'm sure of it.

Nice talk about an advanced topic. I could see your passion for XMPP, try to work on the stress and the rest will follow! Build a story as you told me in the break, see it as an open conversation. You're on the right track man! BTW: great example "are we there yet:)" loved it!

Really advanced & detailed technical talk about XMPP. Only thing that was missing for me are its practical usages and advantages. You mentioned briefly auctions/chatting and security/performance, but maybe this could be a little more detailed? All together I enjoyed learning a lot of new things about this subject!

Really interesting talk. As you mentioned "I hope everyone gets an idea about what puppet is and what you can do with it", was absolutely true for me.

Nice to have a talk about a more advanced setup/topic. I will definately keep this in mind when a real-time project comes along. I agree with the comment above about trying not to read too much from the screen. But all things considered, a very nice talk!

At first I didn't really think this would be an interesting talk for me. But then I realized how useful Puppet could be and I already made plans to integrate it into our workflow. So job well done for giving the introduction and inspiring me.