There's value in Preparing Presentations

For the past week, I've been absolutely swamped with preparing a presentation on SAP Network Interface Security Controls. Although I find the subject quite exciting... it really isn't that exciting to other people. So that that was my challenge.... I admit, I played the Ninja role when it came down to it. Although I had approached developing the skills of managing SAProuter and developing SAP architectures with admirable Samurai prowess, developing the presentation was just a get in and get out exercise.
However, it was good for me. I started developing the presentation only last week knowing that I'd have to present in front of 100+ security professionals this past Wednesday. I was too busy with operational problems and investigations over the last 4 weeks... so the non critical things got the least priority. But with only 6 days to actually work, I pulled it off! I believe I did a good job too. I made a boring topic somewhat lively. The cool thing was that I was able to tie in the previous three presentations delivered at this security forum into my own. The audience seemed to appreciate this. Not only was the presentation well received, I hope that it will help me in my career. I hope to deliver another similar presentation at the RSA Conference in October.

Thus... all in all, developing the presentation itself was a valuable experience and delivering it was actually fun. I'll wait to see how it turns out from a career perspective though.