Tampa Bay .NET Code Camp - My first talk ever
This past Saturday (July 15, 2006) I had the chance of speaking in public for the first time in my life. I gave a presentation at the Tampa Bay .NET Code Camp. My session was entitled "Network Programming with .NET 2.0" and lasted one full hour - actually, a little over the hour 
I never thought I'd enjoy every minute and second of that hour as much as I did.
Although I've been wanting to try it for quite some time, public speaking has always been intimidating for me. Considering the fact that English is my second language, that makes it even MORE intimidating. I never thought that I could present a technical subject in English to a group of strangers for any given length of time. That's a BIG accomplishment for me and I'm very grateful for the opportunity Tampa Code Camp has given me.
Now, since I'm a firm believer that everything that you accomplish in life is not only the result of your own effort but also the effort and/or influence of other people as well, I want to thank the following people that, whether they know it or not, helped me overcome my fear and allow my public speaking dream become a reality:
- My wife - for constantly remind me that "I can do it".
- My good friend Steve Gero - being my friend for 10+ years is not easy task, I know.
- Joe Healy (Microsoft Developer Evangelist for Florida) - for harassing me for two years asking me to speak and for giving me the final push.
- Ingo Rammer (MVP Solutions Architect) - you and I have exchanged a few emails in the past and you wrote me this once: "After one of my first conference talks I've told a friend that the only difference between the speaker and the audience is the fact that the speaker dared to walk up to the front and get on stage. And I still think this way ... no difference. Anyone could do it." and your words have been very motivating during this whole experience.
- Jeff Prosise (MVP C#) - hey, you're Jeff Prosise what else can I say. If I ever meet you, you need to sign my old copy of your MFC book.
- My co-workers at Fiserv Vision (Andy, Allen, Barbara, and Curt) - I can only have words of respect and admiration for you guys.
- Daniel Seara (MVP VB.NET) & Eugenio Serrano (MVP ASP.NET) - everything you guys do for the latam developer community is truly an inspiration.
- David McNamee - I love your energetic speaking style !!! keep on doing it !!! thanks for helping me setting up my stuff too.
- Héctor Minaya (MVP VB.NET) - watching your series of webcasts I convinced myself that it can be done.
- Haaron Gonzalez (MVP ASP.NET) - same with you Haaron.
- The folks from IDesign (Juval Lowy, Michelle Leroux Bustamante, Brian Noyes) - Everything you guys do is like, uhm.. what's the word I'm looking for? ah, PERFECT !!!
- Don Box - I just don't know where to start.
- Julie Lerman (MVP VB.NET) - There is nothing better for a speaker wanna be than reading your blog.
- Scott Hanselman - your Scott Hanselman’s Tips for a Successful MSFT Presentation : PRICELESS!!! If I ever meet you a hug is in order, but I won't let you do a TechEd video out of it.
- Cliff Atkinson - your blog Beyond Bullets is simply one the best resources in the subject.
As you can see my dear reader, I owe it to a lot of people. Hopefully I will continue speaking and who knows I might even inspire you to do the same one day.
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world
remains and is immortal."
-Albert Pine