eep

[serinde]

I am informed I am supposed to give the half-hour talk about YAY US YAY COMPUTING SERVICES YAY to the incoming Spring term students, three weeks from today. /terror

(Beth said I should just be her. I think I can do that. Or, well, I can do that, sure; the question is whether I can do it under pressure.)

Comments

[missionista.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, you'll be great! They wouldn't let you get up there and talk if they didn't think you'd be a good representative of computing services.

[arkham1010.livejournal.com]

Good luck.

Don't screw up and make an ass out of yourself, ok?

:)

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

I am going to get a t-shirt emblazoned "Dave Is My #1 Cheerleader".

[arkham1010.livejournal.com]

much love to you....much love! :)

[elibalin.livejournal.com]

I am told that public speaking is made easier by imagining the audience naked, taking pictures, and blackmailing them on the internet.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Depends on the audience...some audiences you're better off imagining in even more clothing than they currently have.

[briony530.livejournal.com]

Yes, but these are college students...there's probably a few worth picturing nekkid.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Be sure to read the school's sexual harassment policy carefully first, though. Some places it's worded so vaguely and menacingly that picturing a student naked can get you in trouble.

[briony530.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

Ah, that'd be the Old Testament approach — if you think about <foo>, then you have already done <foo> in your heart, which is just as bad as doing it for real.

Or so I dimly recall from CCD about the Ten Commandments.

[briony530.livejournal.com]

What a delightful icon!

[briony530.livejournal.com]

Pooh! You'll be fine! Is this to recruit workers or merely sing the praises of the department?

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

The latter. "Here is what we do for you! Lots of things! Please stop badmouthing us to the college administration kthxbye."

It might ordinarily encompass the former, but we have a hiring freeze right now (which is a ripple effect of the giant elephant in the room of my job description).

[briony530.livejournal.com]

Well...there you go! I think you said it quite succintly right there! :D

[cobrawoman.livejournal.com]

Not to worry. You know stuff that they need to know and you know what it is they need to know. 30 minutes worth. You should find it a piece of cake (if you don't mind my saying so).

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

I don't mind you saying so at all. :)

But it's not the "what to say" part, it's the public speaking part.

[cobrawoman.livejournal.com]

Think of it as an oral newsgroup posting.

Bah, students.

[(Anonymous)]

Remember: These are STUDENTS. In the Academic pecking order, somewhat slightly below Janitors. Your job should primarily be to fill them with fear to make YOUR job easer. Think of them as the worms they are and make it quite clear just what happens to them if they run WaReZ, P0rn or other
high bandwidth servers.

[must-sew-faster.livejournal.com]

Can you give the presentation using Power Point?
I become paralyzed with fear at the thought of public speaking but was able to give a 15 minute presentation to my lab utilizing Power Point.
Also, if you PP it, you can put it on line for people to refer back to...and if nothing else, add some fill music for those moments when you just need to pause and calm down and don't necessarily want to mutter 'um, ah, um'. :) Oh, and add some really stupid graphics that you can make fun of and get them laughing. Maybe something along the lines of the old push-button Star Trek computers...

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Keynote rather than PP, probably, but yes.

...of course, now I have to learn how to use it...

[fivetonsflax.livejournal.com]

I have a small amount of experience with this sort of thing. Let me offer a few suggestions.

Practice first, and time your practice.

Speak more slowly than you could possibly imagine anyone would want. One's perception of time on stage is all screwed up, and aside from that, presentations should be spoken more slowly than conversation.

Don't be afraid to stop and collect your thoughts. I tend to get in trouble when I press on despite uncertainty as to what I'm going to say next. But audiences really don't mind pauses.

Everything your sensei has told you about breathing applies 100%.

Finally, don't worry too much; you will knock this one out of the park.