Like many people, public
speaking makes me very uncomfortable. Fifteen
years ago, I was co-presenting a training class to 100+ people and my voice
quivered for the first 30 minutes of the session. Eight years ago, a different organization
sent me across the country to present our product roadmap at a variety of user
groups. I was presenting on things I didn’t
even understand (mainframey things).
What that year did for me was get me more and more comfortable speaking in
front of people until I was almost sorta good at it.
I speak annually at our
user conference and have spoken over the course of the year to smaller
audiences (<25) as a regular part of
my job. I’ve come so far that I don’t
want to lose that level of comfort (comfort is a relative term). To keep that edge, I elected to present at
our local PechaKucha gathering. Yep you
read that right – “I elected to” and “PechaKucha”.
I’m presenting this Sunday at Octane. It’s been an
interesting process because its 20 slides/images, 20 seconds a slide. Seems so simple – 6 minutes and 40
seconds. I’m known for my less is more
approach when it comes to words so this seemed relatively easy. The template I received in
powerpoint auto advances every 20 seconds.
During my first practice run the first slide advanced mid-thought. How can that be? I’m not verbose.
What I’ve learned in my limited preparation (I've got a lot of work to do Saturday) is that I better focus on getting my point across as quickly as possible, while
still being engaging & using compelling images (no bulleted powerpoints in this
format). It’s been a good exercise and
I'm almost looking forward to Sunday night.
No matter what happens, I know it will be over in 400 seconds. If you’re
interested improving your presenting skills in a safe environment look up your local PechaKucha,
they are all over the world.
