Presentation Advice
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My workplace participates in the “Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day” and I have to give a 10-15 minute presentation about how important technology is to our business. Their idea was to sort of demo our ecommerce site and show we conduct business online. Then explain the process of designing and building a website of that nature. I could talk for hours on the subject easily but I don’t know how to make that topic interesting for adults, let alone a room full of children. The children will range in age from 8 – 16. Does anybody have any pointers on how to go about setting up something like this?
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Sean Lange (4/9/2015)
My workplace participates in the “Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day” and I have to give a 10-15 minute presentation about how important technology is to our business. Their idea was to sort of demo our ecommerce site and show we conduct business online. Then explain the process of designing and building a website of that nature. I could talk for hours on the subject easily but I don’t know how to make that topic interesting for adults, let alone a room full of children. The children will range in age from 8 – 16. Does anybody have any pointers on how to go about setting up something like this?From the top of my head, do two parallel "shopping" stories, one the old way and the other when still in the pyjamas but having even a better shopping experience (on the tablet/phone/whatever). Then correlate the two, that is what needs to be there, how it's provided etc. Punch in an example of having to wait for the delivery of a video game and few other such blasts from the past.
😎
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That's tough, but for a 10 minute presentation, focus on communicate a single idea. Don't try to cover too much. You want to show the magic of development, find one piece of magic that will make them go "ooooh." Other than that, I'm used to boys. They're easy. Tell a fart joke and they're yours for the next 10 minutes.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Grant Fritchey (4/9/2015)
That's tough, but for a 10 minute presentation, focus on communicate a single idea. Don't try to cover too much. You want to show the magic of development, find one piece of magic that will make them go "ooooh." Other than that, I'm used to boys. They're easy. Tell a fart joke and they're yours for the next 10 minutes.I know what you mean. We scout leaders have it easy in that respect...one reference to farting or underwear and they are in stitches.
One thought I had was to kind of veer away from development per se and talk about how computers talk to each other. I could easily split them into 4 groups (or classrooms) and have them pass a note to somebody in another "class room". They could write it on a piece of paper and discuss how that note travels to the other person. That would at least get them involved both mentally and physically which might make it work.
If all else fails a resounding chorus of:
"God bless my underwear
my only pair
stand beside them and guide them
through the rips, through the stains, through the tears"
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
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Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/ -
I was expecting an advice from Grant involving a kilt. 😀
Seriously, now.
- Try to be very organized as your time is very limited.
- Measure the time it would take you to give the presentation and add 20% of that time for anything that could slow you down.
- Use examples and comparisons with real/common life.
- Avoid going technical.
- Try to get impressive facts and examples.
- Give logical puzzles that relate to the coding problems but can be solved by anyone in the audience by giving it a good thought.
I'm not sure if this helps, but I could elaborate some more. I just need DDL and sample data. 😛
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Luis Cazares (4/9/2015)
I was expecting an advice from Grant involving a kilt. 😀Seriously, now.
- Try to be very organized as your time is very limited.
- Measure the time it would take you to give the presentation and add 20% of that time for anything that could slow you down.
- Use examples and comparisons with real/common life.
- Avoid going technical.
- Try to get impressive facts and examples.
- Give logical puzzles that relate to the coding problems but can be solved by anyone in the audience by giving it a good thought.
I'm not sure if this helps, but I could elaborate some more. I just need DDL and sample data. 😛
Hehe. The mechanics of doing a presentation are not an issue at all. I just don't have any experience doing this with kids in a ridiculously short timespan.
If you can just give me the DDL I will make up some data and post again that this is incredibly urgent and my job depends on your ability to help me. 😀
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/ -
Here's an idea. Something similar to this could work. We did a "deployment" by blowing up balloons, not tieing them off and then asking the audience to get it from dev to production. Everyone is seated and they have to pass the balloon backwards over their head not communicating with the next person in line that it's not tied off. Hilarity ensues.
You could try something similar related to your technology. "This is a sale on our web site, deliver the product.... See, programming is hard." Something. Heck we had adults rolling on the floor.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Oh, and don't try to move them out the room. You only have 15 minutes. You can't move kids anywhere in less than 10 minutes.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Here's what I did at a similar event at my workplace. You might not have time for it all, but it's a place to start and the kids loved it.
http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/96276.html
EDIT: Feel free to alter the idea in order to explain your website building process.
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Grant Fritchey (4/9/2015)
Here's an idea. Something similar to this could work. We did a "deployment" by blowing up balloons, not tieing them off and then asking the audience to get it from dev to production. Everyone is seated and they have to pass the balloon backwards over their head not communicating with the next person in line that it's not tied off. Hilarity ensues.You could try something similar related to your technology. "This is a sale on our web site, deliver the product.... See, programming is hard." Something. Heck we had adults rolling on the floor.
I remember that one, from the SQL in the City: Chicago a couple years back. I was towards the back, I think the balloon was deflated by the time it got to me...
One other suggestion Sean, not related to what to present, but how to present. Don't talk down to the kids. Look for ways to create analogies to something they might either care or know about, but don't "dumb it down."
Hmm, if you've got some racks of servers actually in the office, maybe start with a quicky demo of the ecommerce site (works best if you're right next to the server room,) ask the kids (rhetorically) "now, doesn't this seem like it should be easy?" then show them the racks of servers and explain that it takes all of the equipment in the server room to handle something as "simple" as ordering a widget. Even better if you can have a lot of blinky lights where they can see them (flashing drive lights, link lights on the switches, etc.)
Dramatic?
Sure, but like Grant's balloon demoonstration, it's attention getting.
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Brandie Tarvin (4/10/2015)
Here's what I did at a similar event at my workplace. You might not have time for it all, but it's a place to start and the kids loved it.http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/96276.html
EDIT: Feel free to alter the idea in order to explain your website building process.
Stupid netnanny won't let me view this. I will check it out from home this weekend. Thanks for the idea.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/ -
Do a preso on building a hamburger, banana split or hotdog and mesh that into an ecommerce site.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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Did the presentation this morning. I started by making sure this is the "new hire orientation" and that everybody was ready to get some information on their first day of work. Since the age range was 8-17 with majority of them being in the 8-10 range it was fairly easy since that is about the maturity I have anyway. 😉 I talked through explaining what ecommerce is and why it it helpful. Thankfully I was the first presenter so they were still actually interested. Then I demonstrated how easy it is to actually build a web page. I opened up trusty notepad and we designed "My profile" page to put up on my blog. This was entirely their idea. We then took ideas of what we should put on the page and using notepad we built the html for it. The kids ate it up and thought it was super cool. Then I decided to include my profile picture which "I just took yesterday". The cool thing is there were obviously some of the kids who were really interested and asked some questions about where they could find more information about getting into technology and building websites.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/ -
Sounds great. Nicely done.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Kids love presentations more when they get to have input. All classes should be taught this way.
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