Eat Your Heart Out Ted Talks!

So if you didn’t know, last week I attended the Learning & Skills/Learning Technologies event in London. This wasn’t my first exhibition but it was definitely the most exciting one (so far).

I got my own hotel room with a bathroom and everything!

BfNhOlhIUAA7EPuThis was extremely new to me, being away from home and suddenly taken into the middle of the big capital for 2 days.

As you all may already know, I had the opportunity to do my first public speaking gig at the event. Some said that because it was an Ignite talk (21 slides, 15 seconds each slide), it was as though I was conquering the difficult first, but I thought I was conquering the most exciting!

The first day of the exhibition was nerve-wrecking; the talk was the only thing on my mind. I had to concentrate on helping out with the visitors we had at our stand and this was my first time interacting with customers and talking about DPG’s products so I was a bit nervous. I felt as if even though I’ve worked at DPG for 9 months, I hadn’t a clue what I was talking about.

Well, I did really but I didn’t feel very confident in going in to depth with answering all these different questions thrown at me! I decided to start listening in on conversations between the visitors and the DPG team at the stand – this actually worked! I gained a bit more knowledge and felt more confident talking about DPG.BfOe2wmIUAEiky2

In that situation, my motto was “It’s not about knowing what you’re talking about, it’s about sounding like you know what you’re talking about”, which kind of worked for me.

So 3pm finally struck and it was time to begin making my way to Theatre 10. There was already a few people sitting and waiting for the Ignite talks to begin and most of the other people talking were there too. At this point, I already felt a bit nervous but wasn’t going to let it get to me too much. In the space of 10 minutes I managed to remember most of the advice I was given and then finally hit the stage.

I was third in the line-up of doom…

I walked up there feeling like an amateur with my que cards in my hand and began introducing myself, admitting to the audience that I was a bit nervous and that it was my first talk.

Mark the date; Little Fig’s very first talk – eat your heart out TED talks!

All throughout my talk, I tried my best to look out at the audience just like I was advised to. When I finished, I received a great round of applause and made my way back to my seat.

feedbackAfter that, a few people showed up at the stand to congratulate me on my first talk and to give me feedback. All the feedback I received at the stand and on social media was positive!

It’s definitely made me more confident for future talks and I’m glad I went through with it – feel pretty stupid for over reacting at first…

But I would definitely do it again!

It was an amazing experience and definitely not my last one.

Video to come soon…

But for now, I’ll leave you with my presentation.

Stay tuned Bravehearts…

 

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Comments

  • Thanks Ady!

    This IS a good year for me, I can see great things happening...

    Watch this space :-)

  • Well done Deborah.  Really enjoyed your success story on your first presentation.  Reading through your presentation, I really enjoyed even more the story of your overall Apprenticeship success and can see why your presentation must have gone so incredibly well with awesome feedback.  Congratulations.  This is a good year for you!

  • Thanks everyone, I'm so glad you all enjoyed it! :-)

    Steve, I totally agree! Karma is the way to go...

    Thanks for all the great feedback guys, really appreciate it! :-)

  • Well done Deborah. Your presentation looks fantastic! And thank you for volunteering for my presentation!

  • Well done @little_figs a great blog and well done on the Ignite presentation too. The first of many ventures into blending the digital and analogue worlds, keep it going ;-)
  • Fantastic blog Debora!  You are now a public speaker! What way to make a start in delivering presentations - really pleased for you that you took on the challenge, embraced it and nailed it!  You should be justifiably very proud of your achievement.

    I think it only fair that you now reciprocate and find a suitable challenge for the person who put you forward for this of course.... ;-)   Skydiving perhaps? 

  • Thank you Sarah!

    I appreciate the support and I'm glad you enjoyed my story :-) I think that in the future when I've had more experience in public speaking, I'll still be nervous before each gig! Nerves can be good sometimes :-)

  • Brilliant Debora! Despite many years experience of presenting at conferences, I still found doing an Ignite presentation very challenging - so well done you and what a great story you have! I wish you every success in the future.

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