So a bunch of people have been posting the results of the surveys from their 360|Flex sessions. I’ve wavered on this a tiny bit, I’m just a little embarrassed, both because of the positive feedback (*blushes*), but also because I offended some people in the session. So off the bat I want to say to anyone who was actually offended by anything said in my session: I’m sorry. I gave the session the way I talk in normal life, and in normal life I guess I have a dirty mouth.
Here are the full survey results from my session.
If you weren’t at 360Flex, check out the stuff I presented.
The good stuff
Overall the comments were very positive. There were 45 responses, with an overall average rating of 4.5 (which I’m hoping is out of 5, not 10 :P). 80% of people said that the session was what they expected, 80% said the slides were useful and 80% said the session was informative. So here are some of the positive responses (aww, shucks…).
The speaker had a good outline and followed it well, while also allowing community/group input.
Doug was AWESOME and funny. Loved it!
In typical fashion, Doug had a great presentation with a lot of good information. Doug is an inspiration to the whole community.
Doug brought to light components that we all can make use of in our apps – and some that are just fun. Very helpful.
The bad(ish) stuff
These are the only negative comments I received. The first one is about the discussion near the end feeling unorganized. I understand that sentiment, I felt rushed near the end when I was running out of time a bit. I love having good discussions with the audience, but I probably should have left more time devoted to that, and maybe even planned for that in my outline to make sure I had plenty of time to wrap up in a more organized way. The other three comments here are about my language. The last one’s not really that negative a comment, but the middle two sound like the writers were fairly offended.
The presentation could have been a bit more structured, as it felt like the discussion veered away from original intentions near the end of the presentation.
It caught me off guard how much the speaker cursed.
I don’t know what to say. It’s probably not a good idea to try to see how the sign language interpreters do cursed signs. That would make the deaf person uncomfortable.
This session was great for information and mentality about developing in the flex world. Doug is a little 🙂 unprofessional as a developer it doesn’t bother me that much and I would definitely hear him present again because I respect his knowledge and talents but the language is a little distracting.
The funny comments
And then a lot of the comments were pretty funny. I’ve cherry picked a few choice ones here for your amusement.
I appreciate his frank, unexcessively vulgar language
jiggly moving fun
Always a great time. Never seen so many curse words done in sign, damn funny.
Fucking-A
Okay, I am just chiming in that I really wanted to go to Doug McCune’s seminar but knowing that I lack experience with OOP and want to develop that further I went to that one instead. Can’t we put Doug McCune against sucky, uninteresting topics instead. *lol*
It’s “fucking” Doug McCune
The language issue
So let’s get this out in the open: I say fuck and shit a lot. Sometimes this comes through on my blog, but even more so when I actually speak. Given the session feedback I think a lot of people find my use of language refreshing and funny (what am I? a clown?). I like to think my presentations are informal, we all just get to hang out and talk about cool stuff, so since it’s just like chilling with friends I don’t censor my language. A lot of the comments in the feedback referenced my use of language in a positive way and said how “fun” and “hilarious” the session was. I like to think we had a good time and it wasn’t dry or boring.
That said, there were obviously a few people at least who were offended and uncomfortable. So in the future I may tone it down a bit, I certainly don’t want people walking out of my presentations upset. I’m sincere when I say I apologize if you were offended.
Maybe next time I’ll start by showing a clip of Goodfellas or Casino at the beginning, then whatever I say will be tame in comparison. Or maybe I should wear one of these on my chest:
At my next session I’ll be checking IDs at the door. If you’re under 17 you have to be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
So thanks to everyone who came to my session! And super double thanks to the 45 of you who gave feedback, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (well, most of it anyway).
P.S. To Andrew: yeah, your comment got to me 🙂 Sorry I posted the survey results with your name still in there, if you got a problem with that send me an email (or better yet send Tom and John and email).