TechEd-Developer Speaker Idol '07 Contestant

I've just received notice that I've been chosen as one of the finalists for Speaker Idol '07 at TechEd-Developers Barcelona. So what's Speaker Idol? Well, as you can probably deduce from the title, it's a speakers contest.

First round participants were required to submit a 3 minute video of themselves which demonstrated their ability to deliver a technical presentation on a Microsoft product or technology using PPT, demo, or both. I submitted a video on how choosing the wrong RAID configuration for SQL Server could adversely affect application performance. Some of it was tongue-in-cheek as it played upon the usual finger pointing that goes on between developers and DBA's when applications start to perform badly; but the underlying message was that you can't use the same hardware and RAID configuration for SQL Server as you do for a File Server (something I've seen way to often) and that different RAID configurations suit different types of applications. Obviously it hit the spot!

Round two consist of 3 waves - each consisting of 3-4 participants who will present a short 5 minutes presentation (in the Speaker Idol Theatre) on any subject, as long as it references a Microsoft product or technology. At the end of each wave, a panel of judges will select a wave winner who will go through to the final wave. The 3 wave winners will then redeliver their presentation to the judges (can be the same presentation), at which stage one overall winner and one runner-up will be selected.

So what do we win? A Speaker ticket to TechEd-Developers 2008 where we will get to present a 75min technical session and 1 meter of MS Press books. Coolies!!!!

Not sure which wave I'm in yet, but hope it's Wave 1:

Date	Time	Wave
Mon 05 Nov 07	19:00 - 20:00	Wave 1: Welcome Reception
Tues 06 Nov 07	12:30 - 13:30	Wave 2: Lunch Break
Wed 07 Nov 07	12:30 - 13:30	Wave 3: Lunch Break
Thur 08 Nov 07	14:45 - 15:45	Final Wave: Break