Public Speaking, from experience
When I was originally approached to give a talk over a year ago I’ll admit to being somewhat apprehensive. My experience of public speaking at that point was limited to presenting to a project team or providing training to a handful of people. I had never stood-up in front of a large room full of people. The prospect, I’ll admit, was way out of my comfort zone.
I gave it some thought and decided that I would give it a go. The hope was that it would at least help me get over my fear of public speaking. That was the plan, but when the pandemic hit speaking engagements moved online. However I still went ahead and despite initial nerves it went well and the response was positive. This first talk was for the Suffolk chapter of OWASP.
As someone that analyses everything looking for ways to improve, I had scribbled down the following notes following my first virtual talk:
Keep chilled water on hand to prevent dry mouth!
Keep a clock/timing device nearby to track time in order to keep to schedule
Enable webcam at start of meeting and for Q&A but not during slides/talk
The first two notes need no explanation. The third was due to my presentation style. I like pacing back and forth while gesturing, to no one in particular in this case as I had relocated myself and laptop to an unoccupied room in my home (with a chair against the door to prevent the little ones from entering) and I didn’t want to keep wandering out of shot and looking silly over the webcam.
So when I was asked to give another talk, this time for Suffolk Developers, I said okay. It would give me the opportunity to further practice my (virtual) public speaking. Armed with my notes from my first talk, I had a chilled glass of water nearby, plus two monitors, one showing the slide being presented and the other displaying my notes acting as a kind of autocue if I lost my flow, along with a timer so that I could monitor progress and stay to schedule.
I was on webcam at the start of the meeting and switched that off when I started presenting so that I could pace back and forth in front of my computer using my hands to emphasise points to the empty air around me.
All seemed to go well until my computer froze. Not completely as I could still hear people and they could hear me. However my presentation software was no longer responding and the hard drive light was lit-up solid. Not good. Luckily no one could see me as I panicked trying to kill the intruding process.
Realising that I’d lost my place I started reading from the slide currently frozen on screen, considered a no-no in presenting, but I was trying to buy time till I wrestled control of my computer back. It finally responded after what seemed like an eternity but was actually only a minute. I managed to recompose myself and continued the talk.
One of the advantages of my setup when presenting was that I could not see the meeting software so I couldn’t see attendee numbers or chat log. I had assumed the worse following the temporary glitch but continued anyway and was pleasantly surprised when reaching Q&A that everyone was still there. There were many questions and the feedback was all positive.
Following my talk further questions arrived via email along with LinkedIn connection requests. Feedback included the words “inspiring”, “informative” and “insightful”. I was genuinely humbled by the response.
I have been asked if I will give future talks and the answer is yes. I have not yet mastered public speaking. I still get nervous and practice will hopefully make perfect. Maybe I’ll even give a talk to a large room full of people in person one day soon!
I’ve written this post to show to others that the benefits of giving a talk far outweigh any negatives. With each talk you give the nervousness diminishes and when you get into the flow you’ll actually start to enjoy it. The audience is very supportive and understanding. They are here to hear you speak and fully understand that giving a talk is not easy and that unexpected problems can occur. You may even make new contacts in the process.
I’m still receiving positive feedback from attendees along with meeting requests. The response has been really amazing and I have no regrets for doing the talk. In fact I am already working on my next talk. Why not give it a try yourself?
I’ve also added a fourth note to my existing presentation notes:
4. Make sure Windows is fully updated and nothing is scheduled to run before the talk!
