Asterisk Talk Recap

I just got back from my Asterisk presentation to TriLUG. The room was absolutely full. I don’t think there were seats available. Must have been close to 130 people there.

My slides somehow got corrupted about an hour before my talk was to begin, so I madly recreated them from memory right before packing things up and heading out. I looked like a college kid moving into his dorm, with arms full of computer stuff, backpacks, and laptop bags hanging off of me.

My demo system didn’t behave, which led to some delays, though fortunately not many. My reconstituted slides worked just fine and gave me a good story to tell in the process. I was surprised when Jason Tower motioned to me that I had five minutes left as I felt like I was just getting warmed up.

It was a great turnout. A huge turnout. Lots of fantastic questions were asked. I kept most everyone’s attention for a full 90 minutes, in spite of my technical difficulties. Looking back on it, I’m amazed I pulled it off as well as I did.

Next month’s talk is by former Red Hat CEO Bob Young. Ironically, I owe my speaking success to getting fired by his company. Three years ago, I would have never imagined standing in front of a crowd of total strangers and speaking for five minutes, much less 90 minutes. Leaving Bob’s company led me to my sales engineering job at my last company. It was there I gained confidence in public speaking.

Thanks, Bob, for canning me. Oftentimes those bumps in life are there to teach you something.