Tomorrow Gene and I are making a refreshingly short trek down to Tacoma, to speak to a group of military librarians. So speaking is on my mind.

I was a shy kid. But at some point in my late twenties something snapped in me. My lifetime fear of public speaking was replaced with an absolute passion for it. I took every opportunity I could get, eventually incorporating it into my professional life in the software industry (in fact my last job before I took on Unshelved was as a corporate speechwriter). About a year after we started Unshelved we began getting requests to speak at library conferences. Let me tell you, for me getting paid to get up and talk in front of a crowd is like getting paid twice. Three times if you include the book signing afterwards :-)

Anyway, these days we do between eight and ten talks a year. In addition to our main talk A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Library lately we've been workshopping a second talk called Surviving The Public, most recently at BEA 2008. I'm now very interested in what makes talks interesting, useful, and, most importantly, entertaining. Fortunately the Internet is full of good examples, and so I think once in a while I'll post a particularly good one here.

Today's is "Don't Talk to the Police" by Professor James Duane. It is interesting, useful, and, most importantly, entertaining. I love how fast he talks and how funny he is (without making "jokes"). Think of how dry and boring this talk could be. Instead it positively dances.

Me: My MacBook screen looks weird.
Apple Genius: That's because the LCD is cracked.
Me: I in no way just dropped my laptop bag at LAX last week, so it's covered by warranty, right?
Apple Genius: $775 to replace your screen.
Me: (stops breathing)
Apple Genius: But you can just buy one on eBay and do it yourself for much, much less. [Editor's note: For about $150, it later turns out. My new LCD is ordered and on the way.]
Me: Okay. Well my iPhone, which is still in warranty for a few more days, has one almost completely unnoticeable dead pixel.
Apple Genius: Here's your brand new iPhone.
Me: Sweet.

Summary: To say that I remain completely impressed by Apple and its customer service is to grossly understate the situation. They earn and re-earn my business with every interaction.

Bonus story: iTunes automatically backs up the data from the iPhone every time it syncs. When I plugged the new phone into my laptop, iTunes just asked for my phone number, activated the phone, and restored from the latest backup. The only thing I had to do was retype a few passwords.