I got some good news earlier this week- I've been given a spot to speak at the National Conference of my especial sub-field. This is a meeting I went to a couple years ago (remember Dr. BigBucks?), and actually speaking about my research is a HUGE deal for me. Hands down the biggest thing I've done for my career- sharing my work with the experts in my field in a public forum.
And it makes me feel quite sick. I have 12 minutes to describe the last three years of work - not hard per say, unless you want it to be interesting or convincing. Actually, all that work boils down to just a couple of figures. Ugh. And Dr. Boss won't be there- so if there is a showdown, um, well- it's all me.
Dr. Boss has been very supportive, we've talked through what should go in to the talk (what SHOULDn't go in to the talk), how to frame it, and I'll probably talk to him about it again today, again Monday, and Wednesday I'll give a practice talk. I'm still very nervous, but the best way to deal with that is make it a very polished talk.
3 comments:
Gosh, I can't imagine why that would be intimidating.
I know that public speaking has a terrible reputation but I have such a bizarre personality, that I usually enjoy it . . so I'm not sure I can offer any helpful advice (but that won't stop me from trying. Go figure)
The circumstances here are indeed daunting and I can certainly understand why this would be nervous making. Some thoughts: practice a few times in front of a mirror. Your goal is to *see* the audience, which you can't do if your eyes are glued to your notes.
Depending on the geography of the space you're speaking in, try to pick out one person on each side of the room and mentally address part of the speech directly to that person for a moment. (it helps if you can find a friendly face.) then maybe pick out another one for a bit.
Forget about that nonsense about imagining your audience naked. Just know that at least some of the people in that room will *want* you to succeed .. they're giving you their attention, so you should be able to find safety in giving them a bit of your attention (and your ideas etc.) in return. This is a chance to be brave and generous, and let the chips fall where they may.
Does this make sense? Or am I too recently influenced by the Seth Godin, down with the Lizard Brain book?
If this doesn't help, just ignore my thoughts and go with your instincts about what will make you most comfortable. I'm confident you'll do fine, either way.
Thanks for your thoughts Bart. I usually don't mind public speaking, but in this case I feel like the stakes are high and while I usually would channel my nervous energy into preparing I've got a mound of other things to deal with first. And I hate to feel unprepared. Fortunately, it hasn't taken too long to snap the slides together (Did you know they used to do this with LITERAL slides? How would that ever work??), so I am hoping to have time to get to feeling prepared.
I am also going with some friends from Dr. Rockstar's lab, so I will feel like I brought my own cheer squad. That should help a lot.
Slides? Yes, it's true, once upon a time, there were whole departments of people who would produce graphic and text 35mm slides for people who would go on the road with Kodak Carousel projectors to give talks, speeches etc.
I'm trying to remember how this was done . . what tools etc. but memory is failing me because this was the pre-PC era and "software" isn't the right answer.
The hardest part of presentations in those days was putting all the slides in the tray, in the right order, upside down and backwards.
In any case, for a while after that, people used big stacks of transparencies and overhead projectors, but that usually only worked for smaller groups.
Count your blessings, eh?
PS: when IS your event in Madison?
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