Power of Persuasive Speech
I am truly honored to be selected as a speaker at the CodeMash developer conference in January. Being a regional conference, CodeMash is not very large compared to something like the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC). However, it has become very popular. Most of the speakers are well-known and highly regarded in our industry. Last year, CodeMash sold out in 3 days. This year, it sold out in 20 minutes.
I have to admit, all these facts are making me a bit anxious. Obviously, I don't want to make a fool of myself. I want to do an excellent job of informing my audience. And, to represent myself, my company, and Nashville well.
Alan Stevens recently spoke at the Nashville .NET User Group on distributed version control systems (DVCS) and Mercurial. If you haven't had the pleasure of attending one of Alan's talks, you should make a point to. You see, the thing about Alan is, he doesn't just try to inform you. Neither can he settle for an attempt to persuade.
No. That's not good enough.
Alan demands that you recognize the unseen war. He points to the shackles of bondage you unknowingly have grown comfortable wearing. Alan hands you the red pill and implores you to wake up from your stupor.
By the end of the talk, not only was I convinced that Mercurial was the best DVCS solution on the planet, I was ready and willing to lay down my life for the cause of distributed version control. I was reminded...
"...they make take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!" -- William Wallace, Braveheart
That's the kind of speaker I want to be.