ULS Presentation

Apologies for not mentioning this yesterday but the whole ScottishBlogs/BritBlog thing got in the road a little (and will continue to do so for a wee while whilst we respond to all your questions).

The presentation went very well, thanks again to everyone who commented and made suggestions and, if she’s reading, thanks to Gillian and everyone at ULS for making me feel very relaxed and very welcomed.

To be honest the presentation was a bit of a blur, I know I missed some of the things I wanted to mention, and that I mentioned a few things I hadn’t planned on, but as I said before I was confident enough in my ability to waffle. In saying that, I did have a mild flutter when I realised that I was almost at the end of the presentation and I still had 15 minutes to fill. This was a bit perplexing as I’d done a couple of rehearsals and both times I’d taken just over 50 minutes but, as it turned out, I had no reason to worry as I finished almost dead on the alloted 45 minutes. Perfect judgement indeed, and not a hint of luck about it… honest.

The audience were very receptive which whilst understandable as they chose to be there was still encouraging. The Q&A session, held after a short lunch break, was fairly lively and engaging and I certainly learned a few things from it, but then it’s always interesting hearing other points of view (it’s one of the reasons I blog).

I also learned a new method for taking notes. Jennifer approached me afterwards to show me her unique way of creating both a set of notes, and a visual reminder of the presentation.

ULS-notes

Excellent, isn’t it. Thanks for that Jennifer.

I’m also happy to report that everything I read or was told about presenting in public came true; nerves disappeared after the first few minutes, if you are knowledgeable about the material you are presenting you’ll NEVER be stuck for something to say, pausing every now and then helps “punctuate” things, and if you want people to raise their hands in response to a question raise your own first.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself yesterday, and I hope the people who attended learned a bit more about blogging and took away some ideas of their own. Would I do it again? Yes, I most certainly would.