My SQLPASS 2015 Session Evaluations

on November 24, 2015

I recently gave a day long session at the SQLPASS Summit called “SQL Server Index Therapy Session”. 61 people attended, and let me tell you I was thrilled with that number. I’ve co-presented lots of day and week long sessions, but this was the first day long session that I’d ever done solo at a conference and 61 people was a terrific number.

I love the topic I presented on and got great questions from the audience. I felt like the session went really well from the feedback I got that day, but sometimes you learn more when session evaluations come back later.

And you know what? I did amazing. Here are my scores from 25 session responses, or 41% of attendees. 3 is a perfect score:

  • Overall Session - Did the title, abstract, and session level align to what was presented? 2.96
  • Session Content - Was the content useful and relevant? 2.92
  • Presentation - Was the speaker articulate, prepared, and knowledgeable on the subject matter? 3.0

I got a lot of great comments, but there’s one that made me so proud that I cried a little bit.

“Kendra was fantastic.  She provided a detailed explanation of how indexes work and differences between them.  There was so much that I thought I knew, and really didn’t.  She did a wonderful job presenting and kept the group engaged.”

That quote means so much to me because I love it when a speaker can show me something new inside something familiar. I’m so honored that I could pass that experience along to someone else.

I realize this isn’t a humble post. As technical people, it’s easy for us to always nit-pick ourselves and point out what wasn’t perfect. And of course I wasn’t perfect – I began the day putting sunscreen in my hair by accident, just to give you a little view into what Being Kendra is like.

It’s soooooo soooooo incredible to know that I did a great job and people learned a ton that day. It doesn’t make me feel lazy. It makes me want to work hard and try for that every. single. time.