2 posts tagged “public speaking”

Last night, I did the first of two speaking events I'm doing this month. This one was the "bigger one" in that I was the only speaker for the event (a professional society meeting) and it was on a topic that hadn't spoken on previously (a method of task analysis I developed for our consulting work). I was very curious about how it would all go, and the types of questions people would ask.

It turned out to be a great forum for my "first time out" with this topic. I encouraged people at the start of the presentation to ask questions along the way and they did. Then there was a good Q&A session afterwards. As a result, I've got some good ideas on additional elements to include in the presentation.

Next week will be easier since it's a shorter presentation and there are two other speakers. So I feel like I'm over a hump.

At the microphone

OK, technically the program started at 7:45, but I had to be there for setup by 7:30. I normally rise early (to train) so the hour isn't the issue, it's marshaling all the resources first thing in the day to pull off a good conference presentation. All went well, people asked good questions, and nobody fell asleep!  I actually love public speaking. I guess it's the challenge of putting everything together: the message, the slides, the handouts. It's like a little theater production where I am the script writer, director, actor, and set designer.