So this blog is about my very first public speaking next week. If you haven’t heard yet, I’ve been one of a few people selected to do a presentation at the Learning Technology/Learning & Skills event on the 29th and 30th January.
IGNITE is a fun event where the goal is to enlighten your audience with twenty slides, fifteen seconds a slide, timed to progress.
I first heard about the talk on the DPG Community when Sam Burrough created a discussion and Mike encouraged me to take a look at it. I never thought I’d be speaking in public so early in my career.
My IGNITE presentation will be on my life as a digital apprentice and I’ll be touching on the topics of apprenticeships, generations, technology and social media.
I’m actually really nervous because I can imagine my audience being built mostly of HR professionals – or am I just being stereotypical? Do they really want to be listening to a 17 year old apprentice jabber on about my experience?
When Mike had suggested I do the presentation, I completely panicked and straight away refused to do it. After a few comforting words, I finally agreed to do it – what have I got myself into?
So selecting the topic wasn’t much of an issue. I chose to talk about my experience as an apprentice and of course what I know best about…
…social media!
So I began working on my story mid-December. I noted down key topics I would discuss, four main titles I would talk about and how I was going to portray them. After that, I received my Ignite template from Dan Roddy and started picking out images that I would use in my presentation.
The content was all Mike and I. We both shared our own input on the topics and made it what it is now. I didn’t really face many challenges with making this presentation because it’s all about my story, I’ve experienced it so I knew what I was writing about; although I did find keeping the speech in time with the presentation quite difficult.
Right now, I’m at the stages of just practicing my speech and memorising the topics (and also getting rid of the fear of public speaking!)
I’m really nervous about the presentation because it’s unpredictable whether the audience will find my perspective on these topics interesting. I’m also excited to have one more thing ticked off my list…
So my presentation will be at Learning Technology on the 29th January, Theatre 10, 3.15 -3.45pm. I’m also going to be at DPG plc’s stand 410 you can visit me there and ask me any questions before or after.
Follow the hashtag #LAS14 and #LTUK14 – I’ll look forward to seeing you there…
But for now, stay tuned public speakers…
Comments
You smashed it, come on don't be modest :-)
Jill is absolutely right, nerves help you perform at your best and I love the adrenaline you feel before speaking in public. I think the key to speaking in public is preparation.
Fail to Prepare and Prepare to Fail!
You put in the practice and it showed....well done !!
Hi Jillian,
Thanks for the support I really appreciate it :-)
The talk went really well and I received some great feedback! It was a really good experience, I really enjoyed it :-)
There should be a video shortly...
Debs
Good luck Deb, I'm sure you'll smash it :)
Even if the audience is made up of mainly HR Professionals i reckon they'll be interested in what you have to say. Apprenticeships are hot on the agenda & social media is so prominent in every day life now it's hard to get away from! So it sounds like a winning combination.
In terms of your nerves, it's good to be nervous! It shows you care. There's usually a few friendly faces in the audience that are smiling or nodding encouragingly so take comfort from them and if you are nervous you can always make a joke of it. I'm sure you'll relax once you're in the swing of it & you obviously know your topic so no worries there.
Jill