Speaking at baychi is one of the best speaking gigs – they take you out to a friendly dinner, they give you a t-shirt, and everyone you meet who volunteers is friendly, funny and cool to work with. I spoke at baychi once before, back in 2002 (thanks to Richard Anderson) and had a great time, and was looking forward to coming back.

I did a different lecture at baychi – Sun’s talk was about schedules and lies, baychi was about projects that go wrong. Had a good crowd – I’m guessing about 100 people. Somehow in my memory, the pARC auditorium was larger, more like one of the old Microsoft lecture rooms – but I’m glad it was the size it was, since it felt full (Nothing worse than being in a stadium sized hall that’s filled with 3 people: you, the janitor, and your host).

I gave out about 15 books to folks that asked questions – which i learned was the smart way to use the promotional copies I had (a tip for any future book tour planners out there) – it got people to stay, and it got them to participate, and gave the vibe of everyone being interested in what I had to say.

As it turns out, the Q&A part is the most fun part of the whole thing for me – I know my material.. I know my slides, so it’s only so interesting to me (Especially on a tour where I get to hear myself do the same thing again, and again and again – how do rock bands do this?). But questions force me to really work and communicate, and it’s the most enjoyable and challenging part of the whole experience. If I could do shorter talks with longer Q&A sessions, I would, but few audience these days have the attention spans to sit through long Q&A sessions.

I thought it was interesting how social and human the questions were – lots of thoughts on power, working with people who don’t see disasters happening and how to deal with them, comparisons to the film industry and how it deals with similiar problems (Hi Ari), and other questions about situations folks were in. The Q&A period was fun – I don’t remember that many of the specifics, I was up there for close to two hours, but I do remember a lot of laughing, and feeling good, both in me and from the crowd. A good experience all around.