Getting Started at Hacked

Today we started hacking. The venue is great. Loads of folks with different skills, free food and drink, great venue and, apart from some WiFi niggles, a wonderful place to write code and build gadgets.

We set up base camp, got some hardware out and started hacking.

I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t work overnight. After around midnight I tend to fall apart. I’d make a lousy vampire.

Anyhoo, made some good progress and I’ve nearly figured out what I’m going to do.

Heading for Hacked

I’ve spend a big chunk of the last couple of days agonising over what to take to Hacked, and what to build when I get there. In the end I’ve just bought loads of toys and bits and bobs. I’ve got a sort of idea what to build, but I’ve no idea how it is going to turn out.

Which is all part of the fun.

At Doncaster I spotted this mysterious door near the platform. Any idea what a “Fully Loaded Brute” is?

GHI Game–O

Sponsoring Kickstarter projects is kind of habit forming (OK, I’ve sponsored two other ones so far). Tonight I signed up for the GHI Electronics Game-O handheld console. This is not because I’m looking for a replacement for my trusty PlayStation Vita, but because I really fancy having a handheld console that I can program using C#.

The device is powered by the .NET Micro Framework and even contains some Gadgeteer ports so that it can be interfaced to all kinds of interesting hardware. I’ve a lot of respect for the makers, GHI Electronics, they’ve made some stunning little .NET Micro Framework and Gadgeteer boards and interfaces over the years (we use a lot of their hardware in our teaching) and I’m really looking forward to having a play with the device.

The project has reached it’s funding goal, but there is still time to get in there and get hold of one of these neat devices.

Think of the Audience

Some time back I wrote a blog post about the most important thing in a project. To save you the trouble of reading it again, I concluded that the biggest risk that any project can run is that you might not  be able to make it work.

I’ve been thinking about presentations in a similar light having seen a bunch over the last week at the Imagine Cup. So, what’s the most important thing in a presentation. Is it the script? The demos? Running to time? The jokes?

Actually I reckon it’s none of these things. The most important thing in any presentation is the audience. If you don’t build your presentation with them in mind then it will not go as well as it should.

Thinking about the audience begins at the start, when you worry about whether or not what you are going to say will make sense, has the appropriate level and the like. I reckon that the thing an audience likes the best is a story, so presentations that have some kind of narrative flow are going to go well.

During the presentation you should be watching the audience to make sure that what you say is going down well, and don’t be too afraid to change tack. Asking questions to confirm that you are going in the right direction is a good idea too. It builds your confidence and establishes a rapport.

If you are now thinking “Great, now I have to worry about watching the audience as well as everything else…” then I’m sorry about that, but I think it s something to keep in mind. For me the worst presentations are where the presenter just talks at the audience. You should try and make the presentation a conversation as much as you can. With very large numbers this can seem a bit daunting, but remember that an audience of 10,000 people is actually made up of 10,000 individual people.. If you think in terms of talking to just one of them, then that will help you manage this.

For me the best presentations I saw last week were those that engaged the audience from the start. So see if you can do the same when you stand up and start talking.

Night on the town..

Well, more of an evening really. It was a Seed works outing and David was kind enough to invite me along too. We went to the Taman Ria Tropicana which was a bit hard for me to find (although Darren managed it easily enough) but the food was excellent. Really good. On the way out I took a picture of the place across the road. David wondered why.

That’s why.