Lightning talks are quick presentations, usually five-ten minutes long, and I really enjoy them.
But it’s not (only) about indulging short-attention-span habits. Lightning talks tend to be really dense with interesting information. The speaker is forced to say one thing and nothing else. Speakers need to make a choice between important content and not-so important content. It’s very difficult for the speaker, but it’s great for us in the audience.
It’s possible to get dense information into a hour long session, but those sessions are more prone to contain filler.
The best lightning talk I’ve ever watched is this one, Fighting Dirty In Scrabble by Mehal Shah.
He just crushes that talk. I use him as a model for a really good content-driven lightning talk.
That’s why I’m excited about attending the third annual member presentations at Toronto PASS.
Lightning Talks About SQL in Toronto
It’s basically like an open mic night. If you’re going to attend one user group meeting in Toronto, this is the one. I plan on giving a talk about my favorite nemesis, tempdb.
The Toronto PASS user group meeting is tomorrow (April 28, 2015) at 5:30 pm at the Northern District Library (near Eglinton and Yonge).
By the way, if any local friends from KW want to catch a ride to Toronto, I’ll be leaving KW in the afternoon.
