Speaking

Since 2007, Tommy has been leading seminars, sessions and workshops at events and to corporate audiences throughout Ontario and the north-eastern United States. He has entertained and educated rooms from three to nearly 800 and works with material across every skill level imaginable. Now, all of his lessons are being re-packaged into new, exciting presentation formats to share with the community in Kingston and beyond. The current set of presentation topics is listed below. For more information about having Tommy speak to your group or at your event, please see the bookings page.

Lunchtime Lessons Series - This series is perfect for a small group looking to set up a get-together for a single, heavily-focused topic. These “note-free” lessons are timed to approximately 30 minutes (plus time for Q&A) and include PDF (or printed) copies of all of his talking points so that your hands can focus on the  food instead of on taking notes. Lunch included. A sample of current lessons:
  • Facebook Fan Pages
  • Facebook Privacy
  • My First Blog
  • Social Media in Five Steps [NEW!]
  • An Introduction to Twitter
  • WordPress Theme Basics

Building Blocks Series – These “stackable” presentations are short (23 minutes), fun and designed to be grouped together to create longer, more comprehensive lessons plans. Because each one can build on others, they can be mixed and matched into almost any combination. Just want one? No problem, they can each be presented alone for an in-depth look on any given topic. Optional handouts are available for these presentations, too. There are currently 36 presentations in this series and new ones are developed regularly. A few sample topics:

  • Photo Sharing: The Ins and Outs of Flickr
  • Blogging: Running a WordPress Install with WordPress.org
  • Wikis: A Look at Wikia
  • Podcasting: A Listener’s Guide
  • Social Links: Digg [Newly Revised!]
  • Microblogging: Developing With The Twitter API
  • RSS & Feeds: A Look at Feed Readers

Featured Series - Tommy’s featured presentations are crafted to tell a story and are filled with tips, advice and lessons from various projects and observations. Each of these are timed to about an hour and have optional handouts, though digital ones are highly recommended. This series is not customizable and titles are discontinued regularly to keep the content fresh. Current lineup:

  • Living On A Cloud - Since early 2007 Tommy has been eliminating desktop applications one at a time and moving towards a computer-agnostic lifestyle based on web applications and browser-based software. Learn which applications he’s using to live his virtual lifestyle and how he’s designed his business to allow him to run his ‘office’ from any web-connected computer and find out where we are (and what’s missing) in web application development.
  • Making Minutes Count - Tommy had never felt comfortable billing his web development clients for an hour when a task took 10 minutes, so in early 2009 he launched a brand of WordPress-centric services that bills for it’s services by the minute. What wasn’t apparent at the time was how much that would completely change his workflow and make him more efficient. Learn dozens of simple, easy tips to speed up your own processes and find out which single web application lets him stay on top of his business. [Retiring soon!]
  • Broken Fishbowls – Web-savvy people blog, tweet, check-in, read feeds and are said to be living in a fishbowl – disconnected from the people who don’t “get it”. There’s no fishbowl, though – and some ways there never has been. Hear the story of “Mike” – a guy who’s never been to Flickr, has only heard of Twitter on TV and couldn’t draw the RSS icon if he tried. But he’s active, socializing and living on the web every day alongside the rest of us. You might just be surprised at just how much you’ve got in common.

Custom Series – The best presentation is the one that covers exactly what you need it to. If you’re interested in having Tommy develop something specific for your organization or event, please get in touch.