Pizza and sodas (free) start at 6:30, presentations start at 7 PM

First Presentation: ActiveScaffold by David Medinets

ActiveScaffold is a tool that produces on-the-fly scaffolding that looks much better than the default Rails scaffolding. It uses Ajax to create, update, and delete without page reloads. Also, the scaffold is nearly totally customizable in well-documented ways. In this presentation, David will show how to use ActiveScaffold to produce a custom user interface while still letting the tool do the hard work of generating forms.

Bio: David Medinets has been programming since 1980, starting with a TRS-80 Model 1. He still fondly remembers the days when he could cross-wire the keyboard to create funny-looking characters on the display. Since those days, he has written three books teaching the Perl, PHP, and BASH languages. David is a SCRUM Master and expert application developer specializing in Ruby and Java. He is knowledgeable about the business domains of Insurance, Supply Chain, and Airline Inventory.

Second Presentation: Stop Talking, Start Teaching: 5 Rules for Successful Communication by Jeff Casimir

Some of the most important work we do as programmers involves pitching ideas.  Whether it’s inside the team, searching for funders, or running demos for potential clients, we all need to present ideas and cultivate an audience.

The past decade has seen the rise of the presentation as an important communication medium, but few people do it well.  There are many resources on how to make good-looking slides, but we need to focus on the method, structure, and content.

We don’t need to be “speakers” – we need to be teachers.  In this session we’ll explore the five most essential rules to successful teaching and how they apply to you.

Attendees will, by the end of the session, have a framework for designing and critiquing their work and that of others.  This new understanding will make them better teammates and more successful
salespeople.

Bio: After majoring in Computer Systems Engineering Jeff joined Teach for America and began a career in education.  He taught high school Computer Science for four years before moving into school
administration.  As a Vice Principal he was responsible for evaluating and hiring new teachers, observing and coaching existing teachers, and defining much of the school’s academic process.  As part of that process, he built a “School Information System” (SIS) in Ruby that ran every aspect of the school.

Most of all, Jeff hates boring presentations.  He wants everyone to Stop Talking, and Start Teaching.