@media 2006 Presentation | June 18, 2006

Coming up with a presentation topic is tough, as it’s difficult to know exactly what level to pitch for. I prefer doing entertaining or thought provoking talks as they are the ones that usually stand out. However I’ve heard quite a few people complain that they never really learn anything from conferences, so I wanted to do something a little more useful this time. As such, this years talk was on bug hunting.

Bugs are something we all have to deal with on a daily basis, so I hoped it would provoke a modicum of interest. Still, it’s not exactly the sexiest subject in the world, which is probably why my session was only three quarters full. The talk itself went OK, and I had a lot of people come up to me afterwards with questions or comments. However I didn’t get the impression it was a raving success. It could have been the subject matter, the delivery or even the speaker, but despite what people say, I wonder if people really want to hear practical presentations? I know out of all the presentations I saw, it was the inspirational ones enjoyed the most.

Either way, if you came to my session I hope you found it somewhat useful. I promised to post the URL for my notes at the end of the talk, but got so carried away with questions that I forgot. So if you’d like a copy of my presentation notes, you can grab them from www.andybudd.com/atmedia2006/.

Posted at June 18, 2006 9:44 PM

Comments

Kevin Francis said on June 19, 2006 12:33 AM

Hi Andy
I attended your session on bug hunting and thought it was well delivered. When you have an audience of mixed skill levels its difficult for everyone to learn something. Bug hunting may not be sexy, but without it we wouldn’t get anywhere. And if you can attend a presentation by Andy Budd and not learn something, you should be pretty darn pleased with yourself.

I for one enjoyed it.

Steven Tew said on June 19, 2006 6:20 AM

I really wanted to sit in on your presentation but found myself lured away by the promise of wonderous WCAG 2.0 revelations in the other room.

Don’t beat yourself up over this. You were scheduled against one of the conferences biggest ‘hot topics’, a standing room only session, and you still mananged to pull in the crowds.

And if it’s any consolation, I heard quite a few gripes about the WCAG session being a bit of a waste of time, not what people were expecting, and so there were many regrets for missing out on your big bug hunt.

Thanks for sharing your notes Andy.

Chris Heilmann said on June 19, 2006 7:03 AM

Is there any chance to get your notes as well? I just downloaded the slides, but without the explanations they are not very helpful to hand over to people who haven’t attended the presentation.

I was at the WCAG one, too, which did confuse a lot of people in the audience (I sat in front of some people of accessibility consulting companies and they were thoroughly let down - then again what did they expect?) Looking forward to the 14th, I promise I’ll follow that one.

Jonas said on June 19, 2006 7:56 AM

Don’t worry Andy, I attended your session on bughunting and I thought you did very well. I think probably one of the problems are that for a session like bughunting you could go two ways.

Either you speak about the manner of which you yourself approach problems and what you have come to learn through experience. Or you go about and having a discussion which will end up more like a workshop rather than having a speaker.

Two thumbs up! Good job mate.

Andy Budd said on June 19, 2006 8:29 AM

I believe all the sessions were podcast, and will be released over the coming months. I don’t have a schedule yet, but will let you know as soon as my talk is online.

Marc McHale said on June 19, 2006 8:47 AM

Andy,

The session was well delivered and even as a bit of an old timer, I still managed to get a new perspective on finding those pesky bugs.

The success of a good conference depends on having the right mixture of inspiring and educational content. I think @media was about right this time around.

I for one thoroughly enjoyed myself and have come away with a head full of new ideas and new questions.

Thanks for adding to the @media experience.

Cheers!

alessandro_TSW said on June 19, 2006 9:19 AM

Hi there!

Andy, your panel was fantastic!

cheers

Marcus Björke said on June 19, 2006 12:30 PM

I vote your presentation among the top 4. Your idea to speak about practical things gave the whole event the perfect mix between inspiration and practice. And even if your presentation was practical, it still was inspiring, at least for me.

Your presentation was also the best looking, with all the cute pictures of bugs.

Atle Salte said on June 19, 2006 12:55 PM

Andy

I was attending your presentation, and just want to say that it was useful for me! It was great since you talked about how you was approaching problems when they show up. As they always does :)

Henrik Ladefoged said on June 19, 2006 1:21 PM

I attended the presentation but i must admit feeling a certain degree of dissapointment.
I honestly expected cases and specific examples but was left with a feeling of having meet a person who’s work i admire but not having learnt anything new.
This feeling was repeated at several of the other presentations.
In my opinion you should have extended the last third of your presentation to last the entire time. That’s where the goodies were.

Olly said on June 19, 2006 1:33 PM

I liked it, even if only because it validated my way of working :)

Miles said on June 19, 2006 3:12 PM

I liked your presentation Andy but I can see why others may not have heard what they expecting.

Must be hard trying to please everyone considering the wildly differing levels of technical expertise that attended.

Marko Samastur said on June 19, 2006 4:24 PM

It was great to see you again and as others before me I too liked your presentation and learned a thing or two.

Stephen Hay said on June 19, 2006 7:20 PM

Andy, my compliments on your presentation. Your talk was, in my opinion, one of the best of the conference. You are very clear and personable on stage, and your points are well-developed. I enjoyed. You’ve proven that can be inspirational as well.

Rosie Sherry said on June 19, 2006 8:21 PM

I wasn’t at @media2006, slides look nice though it doesn’t give me enough info to provide proper feedback. However from experience, (being in QA/Testing - I get ignored all the time!)…in most scenarios it always seems to be a bit of a hard sell.

Linnie said on June 20, 2006 11:07 AM

Hey Andy,

For me, a worthwhile conference balances inspiration with practical guidance. While the inspirational stuff tends to get a “woo yeah!” response at the time, in the practical sessions people are so busy writing notes that maybe there isn’t the same buzz. But getting advice/guidance from the real experts is what’s really valuable.

Last year, I remember being really inspired at the time by Doug Bowman, but it was the stuff from your presentation, and Molly’s too, which I took back and used in my work. This year, I’m anticipating that the info culled from your session will again be the stuff I actually use.

(That said, I’d have given almost anything to see you and Andy doing the Superhero session at SXSW…)

Brandon said on June 21, 2006 1:35 AM

Andy,

Saw you at SXSW and wish I could have been at @media… your presentation slides looked great. What program(s) do you use to give your presentations those cool zooming effects?

Daniel Wilkes said on June 21, 2006 9:01 AM

Andy, your presentation was fantastic, and I really found it helpful.

Don’t think my attention wonderered once, you’ve got a easy to listen to public speaking style.

Content wise, there were many points I’ll use and apply.
You gave everyone the time of day who spoke to you as well, including myself, thanks a lot.

Paul said on June 21, 2006 10:10 AM

Damn! This sounds like another wrong choice I made on the presentation front (I’m really glad the podcasts are coming, if only to confrim that I consistently took the wrong track thoughout the conference).

If you read my thoughts about @media 2006 you will see that I wanted to come away feeling I learnt something (I didn’t), and that I thougt the WCAG 2.0 panel was a wasted opportunity (badly structured and confusing - more confusing than it needed to be anyway).

Seems like I should have been in the other room once again!

Ho hum.

Sue Srawley said on June 21, 2006 10:13 AM

Hi Andy,

Why all the gloom?
Don’t you realise that, like it or not, everyone attending recognises you as one of the great and the good of the web world. What you were listening to wasn’t indifference but the respect due to an acknowledged expert.
Your presentation was great!
Also, it really cheered me up to hear someone like you saying that you often couldn’t remember certain procedures and searching for help on Google you’d find the answer on your own website!

Thanks again

Andy Budd said on June 21, 2006 6:30 PM

Thanks for all the kind words. It’s always hard to tell if a presentation has been well received, so I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Cheers

Darrell said on June 30, 2006 6:42 PM

yes,don’t be so hard on yourself;i enjoyed the presentation immensely and thought you were a consummate professional.