Video Presentation for Sacramento JUG

I'm in the bay area for my training course when i had a request to speak at a JUG. I was so busy with other things at the time that I didn't pay much attention to the details of the request and just responded, sure, lets do it as long as it happens reasonably close to the training facilities. The ExitCertified guys that made the request are so well organized that I never worry about details. Now in looking back at the request it was for the Sacramento JUG which isn't all that close to downtown SF. Scrambling back through email it looks as though I'm going to be giving the presentation via a video link. More over, the San Jose office of the sponsoring company will be opened up for those that may want to watch.

I've never done a presentation via a video link before. Under normal circumstances it seems like it would be the same as presenting directly to the audience. However, the talk I'm giving, "Performance Tuning with Cheap Drink and Poor Tools", is highly interactive. I prefer to let the audience drive the exercise because it's just way more fun that way. Especially in that there is a surprise ending. It's always fun to watch a group of people come to the realization that what their intuition is telling them isn't what the instrumentation is telling them. It's hard to throw away intuition especially if you've been programmed, err trained to follow it rigorously (as most developers have). However that is the whole purpose of the "Measure, don't guess" mantra. To try to get people away from doing what obvious to what evidence is telling you to do. It will be interesting to see if that effect comes through in a video presentation. 

tags: java  performance  measure