Drupal Goddess
I just finished my very first presentation at a Drupal event. It went really well. Notes to myself: Stop saying um, stop giggling nervously, stop wiggling your mouse around so much, and stop playing with the microphone. Also, use the heavy-duty antiperspirant when doing public speaking.
If you want to watch, learn, and laugh at me, then click here. Feedback, advice, etc, would actually be appreciated.
Much Love,
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The "um" can be a pest, and to be honest I've heard it from so many people during presentations it's become a comfortable thing for me to hear from others, probably kind of odd, but I digress.. If being in school has taught me anything, it's practice, practice, practice your speech's to help instill confidence and you'll knock you're audience on the floor with your presentation.
I want to speak at Drupalcon Chicago but that will have an audience of 100s, maybe even 1000! That's why I jumped on the Drupalcamp opportunity, wanted to get a few 50-person presentations in before I throw myself in the shark tank. Hopefully I get like 5 more practices in before the big one! I practiced this one for my boyfriend who doesn't know anything about Drupal so it wasn't very confidence inspiring, but thank god I did that at least because without it I'm sure I would have been stumbling up there.
thats a good start, the other thing I thought of was to prepare note or index cards on everything you want to say, that way not only will you have something to look at and reference to, it will keep your hands on something so your not hitting the mic with them or anything. 5 more practice rounds sounds good as long as you're happy with the way you're presenting and feeling comfortable and confident about the big presentation
I didn't watch the whole thing, because no coder am I and it would be Greek to me. But I skipped through it to hear your presentation style, and I think you did very well. You sound a lot less nervous than you probably think you did. Deep breathing from your belly will calm you, therefore reducing the ums, and help you sound less out of breath (I end up nearly gasping during some public speaking if I don't do this, just feel like i can never catch my breath properly.)
Way to go!
You're a charmer. You gave yourself good advice, but at least you didn't sound like a powerpoint -bot. ;) congrats!
Thank you. :) It was my first powerpoint ever. I'm not sure what I will do different next time with that. I'm thinking maybe some videos or screencasts of actually doing some of the things.
Congratulations on making your first Drupal presentation. :).
Thanks. I told everyone at the beginning to cut me some slack because it was my first Drupal presentation ever and they cheered for me. :) I wish I'd recorded that part, it was such a nice welcome.
You are such a rock star. Public speaking becomes easier with experience. The nerves will always be a part of that. Fortunately, you will develop skills to use that nervous energy towards a great presentation. I am proud of you love, you are an inspiration.
Thanks for the feedback. I don't really mind the nerves, even though at one point my stomach basically wanted to jump up out of my throat, it felt kinda like being a druggie. Like I was chasing an adrenaline rush. :) Maybe someday I won't smoke or drink at all and I'll just do productive businessy things to get high.
Also, since your hands were practically next to the microphone it sounded as if you were banging on the podium or desk where you're presenting from.
Yeah I totally didn't notice that during the presentation, I'm not sure exactly what I was doing to make that banging sound. I want to try doing one where I wear a headset and carry one of those secret slideshow remote controls so I can pace back and forth in front of the audience, gesticulating. That's the hardcore shit.
Really liked the presentation. At first things seemed too hazy to me, like you didn't know where you were going, but as you started to find your footing the presentation opened into a nice, exponential curve (that is, complexity and comprehension grew at a gradual, linked pace). My biggest criticism is probably one you're already kicking yourself over - those "ums." Removing them would make your vocal presentation tighter and more focused, but you probably already knew that. :P
Kudos.
Thanks for the feedback. I realized the "um" problem immediately after listening to it and that's totally the worst part. It was kind of shocking to me because I don't think I have an um problem normally, so it must be a public speaking thing. I'm going to try to tackle it next time, hopefully it's not permanent. :)
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Also, grats on the abuse of a comic book font.
The font is called "Evil Genius". I chose it purely based on its name.
Why am I not surprised. And yes, I'm watching. I just got past the part where you said you couldn't make Warner into a coding firm. To which I'm sorry you can't. :P
Should have talked about the armgasm.
Firstly, i'm not getting into the whole mac vs pc war, but, you have a mac, use keynote to build your presentations. it's better presentation software. not only will your presentation look better but they will be better. if you need keynote or need to learn how to use it, i'm right here. second, a large block of text on a screen can be overwhelming to an audience member. if you use a simple animation to present bullet points on a body of text it can slow the presentation slightly making it easier for the audience to absorb. also, you don't have to worry about the audience reading ahead instead of listening to what you have to say. as humans if we see a huge block of text we want to read it which takes away from the awesome speech you have prepared. this might help you with the ums also. instead of saying um, just move on to the next bullet point. this takes practice, though. i still say uuuuummmm constantly. i even end sentences with it which i think is worse. if you want i can show you some awesome presentation remotes. i may have one still. lastly, although i thought the images you used were cute/funny, try to stick to content that is relevant to what you're talking about or don't use images at all. for instance, near the beginning of the speech where you're talking about the first/second/third try on building all these sites you had pictures of cars. i found myself trying to figure out why you picked each car. i sort of figured it out. but it was hardly relevant to your speech. instead of listening to you speak i was thinking about why you picked a 40's pontiac to go next to your headline.
that's really the only advice i have. other than the above i thought you did great. to be honest, the subject matter doesn't interest me too much. but getting a better idea of what you do is always a little fun. i was thinking of sending this video to a friend of mine who may get much more out of it.
OH, the microphone thing... if you can't drum your fingers on a podium then what can you do? that wasn't a problem at all. only in post was it an issue. i say drum your fingers as much as you want. you do, after all, work for warner music. but try not to seem nervous.