In October the team I’m on at Microsoft - Windows Mobile - had a group meeting at a nice golf course. We didn’t get golf, but we did get a lot of free food. I presented and, unlike my other recent presentations where there was free food, this one didn’t end up tanking. (Compare with here and here.) It was a beautiful, sunny day and we were at the top of a really high hill (a mountain back in Ohio) with a great view of the city and the surrounding mountains.

There were a number of demonstrations of things our group is doing. The other presenters video taped their demos under controlled circumstances and just played it, so I was the only one doing a live demo - with all the risk that entails. My presentation was a VOIP phone that lets you make video calls. This was the same demo I had given the week before to a much smaller group.

My demo went well. I said a few words about the project, thanked my coworkers, and then made the video call. I got nervous typing in the other phone’s IP address, to the point my hand shook a little (though only I noticed). It was weird. I don’t know the last time I was this nervous, but I also don’t know the last time I was in front of three chains of management and most of my peers demoing something that could break. John and the phone pulled through fine. Toastmasters was really helpful in getting the butterflies in my stomach to fly in formation.

The next four posts will be around things I learned from the day. As I’ve said other places, I’m brutal evaluating other people so I have to be brutal evaluating myself. Two lessons will be from “things done right” and two will be “things done boneheaded,” keeping with my constant split between being an optimist and a pessimist.