I walked down the Burlington sidewalk with a view of Lake Champlain below, looking forward to escape the unusually warm weather in air conditioned comfort. But I was also looking forward to learning more about ADO.NET 2.0. That night Julie Lerman was giving a presentation titled "What's New in ADO.NET 2.0" at the Vermont .NET Users Group.
As I arrived at the building I noticed that Julie's cherished Isuzu Trooper was parked on the curb with its emergency lights flashing. What the...??? Upon arriving at the meeting room I mentioned it to Julie. I couldn't make heads-or-tails of her explanation as to why the flashers were on, but I was very happy she trusted me with her keys and that I was able to do something helpful to her as she prepared for her presentation. She has done so incredibly much for us here in Vermont, in ways she doesn't even know. We owe her so much. And anyone in the group who doesn't think so is brain dead and a dufus!
Oh, sorry. Back to the narrative.
We helped ourselves to some pizza, orange soda and got settled in. Finally the meeting was ready to start.
Ms. Lerman approached the podium. She was dressed in earthy tones, sporting a simple yet sophisticated dirt-colored T-shirt with a forest green skirt. Both were 100% cotton and loosely fitting, perfect for her Vermont rooted Nerdy Chick demeanor. Her naturally curly hair was pulled back and held in place by a clip that you can only find at finer art and crafts festivals. Tiva sandals completed her ensemble.
The announcements were taken care with Julie's usual completeness, and she got right into the presentation. At this point in transcribing the evening's events, the author of this Review experienced a major epiphany: JULIE LERMAN IS A MAJOR LEAGUE PRESENTER. I could go into the details of ADO.NET 2.0 and what Julie showed us, but I won't. I'll just say that I've been working with ADO.NET 2.0 almost every day since May, and I learned some valuable new capabilities I know I'll be using. The PPTs will be on the VtDotNet Past Meetings Page when they become available, and I highly recommend checking them out.
You see, this is the 4th presentation I saw Julie give since 2003 when she spoke at DevTeach, so I have watched her presentation skills evolve over the last two years. While I watched and listened to her on Monday night, I honestly could not believe how improved she has become as a presenter. Her technical vocabulary, the flow of her presentation, the code demos, how she handled questions and interruptions, her confidence...all major league, baby. And I should know; Julie gets some of the best presenters in the biz to speak at VTDotNet!
In conclusion, it was an excellent presentation on ADO.NET 2.0, for sure, but more important, it was exciting to see someone who has done so much for the local developer community become a top shelf presenter like Julie Lerman has. Outstanding!