TechNet Speaker Talent

Reading Time: 2 minutes

As I mentioned earlier both Jorge and I participated in the TechNet Live Speaker Talent competition, organized by Microsoft Netherlands yesterday at the Amsterdam RAI. The competition proved to be a DirTeam party! Jorge ended up second and I actually won, which means I’m Microsoft Netherlands’ 2007 no1 Speaker Talent.

 

How I became 2007 Speaker Talent

Two weeks ago Speaker Talent was announced through the TechNet mailing list. People who were interested in becoming a Microsoft speaker could send an e-mail to participate. Daniel and Tony invited participants to Microsoft Netherlands Tuesday last week. The speakers all did short presentations. (apart from each other) The goal was to eliminate all but five speakers.

The five remaining speakers all got ‘five minutes of fame’ during the KeyNote of the TechNet Live event yesterday at the Amsterdam RAI. We sat around a Office RoundTable device which was a convenient way of introducing ourselves and motivating people to attend the Speaker Talent Finale. For me it was the first time I experienced this device and I think it’s cool!

The Speaker Talent Finale itself took place during the second break (15:00 – 15:30) at the TechNet Live event. The finale was presented by Taco Oosterkamp and was situated in a hallway amidst sponsor booths. This wasn’t an optimal situation, but we all managed. After each presentation Taco and his lovely assistant (Cindy, pet named Leontien) measured the reaction from the audience with a portable decibel meter. After all the presentations Taco looked at the decibel values and Tony and Daniel looked at the presentation skills.

My decibel values were the highest, Tony and Daniel didn’t have any negative feedback and all the other speakers thought my presentation was the best. I guess it wasn’t a surprise I won the competition and became Microsoft Netherlands’ Technet Live No1 Speaker Talent. Jorge had the third highest decibel values, but Tony and Daniel valued his presentation skills higher than Rogier Dittner’s. Jorge finished second.

 

What I won

My prize consists of a trophy, a meter high stack of Microsoft Press books and a guaranteed session at Microsoft Netherlands’ next major TechNet event. The most important thing of course is the title! 😉

2 Responses to TechNet Speaker Talent

  1.  

    Gratz 🙂

  2.  

    Dude, as i expected: you rocked!
    Congrats! A well earned win.

leave your comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.