sacha chua living an awesome life

I missed the weekly review last week, so this covers April 13 to April 27. Here’s what happened:

• My weekends were mostly spent catching up on laundry, spending time with my partner, and working on personal projects.
• From April 14 to April 17, I helped organize the IBM Web 2.0 Summit at the T.J. Watson Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. The Twitter-based backchannel I started on hashtags#web20summit helped people connect and chat about sessions. I was responsible for facilitating and recording sessions, so I didn’t really get to pay attention to them, but the sessions were well-received.
• On April 18, Friday, I spent most of the day preparing for an upcoming keynote presentation. I took a short break to prepare and give a remote presentation on the Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools Every IBMer Should Try at the Web 2.0 Summit Toronto event, based on a list I’d previously blogged.
• I spent April 20 (Sunday) to 22 ( preparing for or attending the IBM blue horizon 2008 conference for consultants. I gave a short presentation on the demographic revolution as part of the conference keynote, and I also presented a highly interactive session on the top 10 Web 2.0 tools every IBM consultant should try. I learned a lot!
• On April 23, Wednesday, I caught up with mail and other things I’d set aside while I was away at conferences. I successfully emptied my inbox. Hooray!
• On April 24, Thursday, I gave another short presentation on Web 2.0 and Retail, filling in for Bernie Michalik and Frank Noto, who couldn’t make it.
• On April 25, Friday, I wrote up my conference notes and posted them to my blog. I also helped Ethan McCarty in IBM Communications with some research into how people can tell stories about the company.
• On April 26, Saturday, I wrote another six pages for my Wicked Cool Emacs book, reaching my chapter target. Hooray! I also did some gardening, and I helped W- change his winter times to summer tires.

Packed packed packed! Here are some of the things I’ve learned:

• I enjoy public speaking, and I’m getting better and better at it. The way I present now is different from the way I used to present several years ago. I’m looking forward to learning even more.
• I need a physical checklist to make sure I don’t forget anything while setting up for presentations. I forgot to record my presentations because I was thinking about other things.
• No one likes giving presentations on short notice, but sometimes they need to be done. I need a wide range of experiences so that I can relate to different audiences quickly.
• Professional writing is all about rewriting. It’s embarrassing to see how many mistakes you made the first time around, but at least I have the opportunity to revise!
• I want to come up with a better way to follow up after conversations. Even keywords written down in a notebook may not be able to trigger rich memory associations. Slowing down during conferences is one way to make more out of those conversation opportunities.

My plans for next week are:

• Work: Return to billable work and make sure my internal and external clients are happy.
• Network: Follow up with people I met at conferences, sending links to my conference notes.
• Book: Revise chapter 7 based on my technical reviewer’s feedback
• Life: Make progress on my application for permanent residency by applying for Toronto police clearance and Japanese police clearance
• Others: Have a yard sale on Sunday with W- and J-

Another week of conferences passed by in a blur. There were so many good stories; I hope I can reconstruct them from my chicken-scratches! I haven’t even gotten back in touch with people from the two conferences I went to over the last two weeks. I plan to summarize the general conversations I’ve been having, and then get in touch with everyone and have the followup conversations over e-mail. Anyway, here’s how my week went:

• I spent Sunday to Wednesday at the IBM Technical Leadership Exchange in Orlando, Florida. Here are some of the highlights:

• Networking workshop: Looks like I’ve got the basic networking stuff down pat. Well, maybe I could find a better way to do follow-up – a quicker way to do data entry and mass e-mail? Hmm. Also, it might be a good idea to try teaching social networking sometime…
• Presentation secrets from comedians: Some great tips in there, such as establishing the space at the beginning of the presentation and getting the hang of walking backwards.
• Animal Kingdom – It’s really quite a different experience, chatting about tech while going up a rollercoaster… =)
• Keynote speeches – Loved the energy! Someday I’m going to be able to do something like that…

Thought for the week: I like this, but I’m also looking forward to slowing down and catching my breath. =)

One week on the ground–that’s all I have in between flights. We got back from a two-week vacation in the Philippines. I was glad to see that I’d tied everything up neatly before I left and things had gone on in my absence. Between catching up and getting ready for my next set of flights, my week was just packed (but in a very good way). Here’s what happened:

• I made my first photobook. Well, I didn’t bother with captions or anything… Just dumped all the pictures into Picasa, did a little photo correction, uploaded them to Shutterfly, and organized them into roughly logical groups. We’ll see how well that worked when the photobooks arrive.
• The jetlag-assisted early start was terrific for my productivity. Unfortunately, it didn’t last all week. A few late evenings set me back to my pre-trip schedule. At least I’ve tasted the productivity of an early-morning schedule. If I can get away with following that schedule during the next few weeks’ conferences, I think that would be awesome. If late-night networking means I can’t get up at 3:30 or 4:00 without zombie-ing out during the conferences sessions, I’ll stick with the usual day schedule, and I’ll try going back to an early schedule after this month of conferences.
• Most of my week was spent doing internal work for my team, preparing for the various conferences that are coming up. I managed to do a little client work, too. I feel reasonably happy with my preparation for the next few conferences.
• I finished my article on personal finance with Ledger and Gnuplot for the Linux Journal. Hooray!

Next week, I’m flying to IBM Palisades in New York for the Best Practices Conference, and then to Florida for the Technical Leadership Exchange. If I can survive both conferences with plenty of networking opportunities and without falling flat on my face during my presentations, I think I’ll count that as a win.