Video Clip: Why Story?

This is brief post to share with you a short video clip I just published, based on my latest talk: “Crafting Outstanding Presentations”. Other clips will follow. I’m developing decent video editing skills, so I hope you’ll like my “cinematic” intro. Why story? Well, if you read my previous posts, the answer is pretty obvious. [...]

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Goldfish

“What do you do?” I’m asked. “I am a Lean and Agile software development consultant.” My reply is patently inadequate. It is my first conference since I officially started my freelancing adventure a couple of months ago – and it shows. The small business entrepreneur in front of me has no idea of what I just said. [...]

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Crafting Outstanding Presentations

A new dream is taking shape. It all started three weeks ago, while presenting in front of a group of entrepreneurs. On the surface, the slides below illustrate pretty pictures and practical storytelling techniques. Look beyond the means, however, and you’ll discover how a single presentation can powerfully influence people and, maybe, even change someone’s [...]

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Great Presentations: A good story idea

In my previous post I revealed that, to craft a great (technical) presentation, I deliberately use storytelling techniques borrowed from contemporary screenwriting. I leverage the power of story to stimulate an emotional response, even a new behavior, in the audience. This approach comes from the realization that, although important, rational thinking has its limits. Even [...]

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Duoblog: What is the secret of a great presentation?

A few days ago, Chris Hedgate asked me to join him in a little experiment that he called duoblog. A duoblog is about writing on a shared subject in “parallel” with another blogger. Since the agreed subject is broad and we don’t see each other’s work until we both publish it (@16:00 UTC), we should [...]

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ALT.NET Dublin is born!

With unconcealed trepidation, I’m counting the days until Thursday, when the first official gathering of the newborn ALT.NET Dublin group will take place (go here for details). How does it feel to take part in a local user group right at its launch? New people come together for the first time, full of curiosity, enthusiasm [...]

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Agile Tales video from Øredev 2008!

The organizers of my beloved Swedish conference have released the full video of my Agile Tales presentation. The audience appears to be really quiet, but it is purely because the audio comes from my “Britney Spears”-style microphone only. In other words, people laughed at my silly jokes, honest! Last week, I also presented at the [...]

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Øredev? The best conference ever.

Øredev, the largest technical conference in Sweden, has left a profound impression on me. I’ve never felt such a sense of community and purpose in an event of these proportions before. The constant exchange of ideas and points of view was incredible. I loved seeing attendees and exhibitors taking as much of an active role [...]

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MisBehave 0.1: Oslo’s MGrammar for BDD Executable Specifications

While people are still debating about the reasons behind Oslo, the forthcoming modeling platform officially disclosed at PDC a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be useful to share with you how, this weekend, I used MGrammar to parse plain text stories and scenarios using the Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) language originally devised by [...]

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Microsoft Oslo: Is it the end of XML?

I’m just back from the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. I feel so jet-lagged that I don’t even know what time it is anymore. It’s dark and surely I should sleep, but my fingers keep typing on the keyboard as if they were taking on a life of their own. Thanks to “Oslo“, [...]

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