Last Leaf Designs | Web Designer » 10 Things I Learned After Speaking in Public

I have always done things I know will frighten me and now I stepped it up a notch. Last week (Friday, June 6 to be exact), I spoke in front of people about Blog Design.

It’s just a small crowd though, less than 20. Sure, it didn’t go as smoothly as when I was imagining it but I guess I did well (I hope). It was my first, and I’m glad that I had that kind of experience (thanks Sir Regnard!), and as such, I’ve got a lot of blunders. These are the things that I learned after the talk.

1. Know your audience

   When my officemates knew that I will be having a talk (a day before! LOL), Jason and Luis both told me that they always ask about the attendees first. Are they tech people? Businessmen? That way they could taylor their talk based on that. Unfortunately, I knew what kind of people will be attending my talk a few minutes before and that sent me to frenzy and made me decide to code a design on the spot because I stupidly expected something different. Such a moron.

2. Let the pros know right away and ask for tips

   When I was preparing the HTML for the “on-the-spot PSD-XHTML conversion”, I realized that if only Luis and the guys have known about it sooner rather than later, I could’ve gotten a lot more advice and have felt more confident that I could come out of unscathed.

3. Do come prepared, chords laptop and all

   Believe it or not, I almost left the laptop at home (iknowrite!) and thought twice whether I should bring the monitor connector with me or not. Good thing I did, I changed my presentation and thought that I should close some bugs while I was at the building LOL, otherwise, I would’ve been boring and unprepared.

4. Your practice just gives you an idea on the points you want to tackle

   I practiced the night before, it sounds so stupid and I felt stupider than usual but I got this notion that I really won’t be able to go through with the talk the next day if I didn’t practice that night. The end result was that I couldn’t sleep til 6 in the morning because O kept imagining all the bad things that might happen.

5. Expect the worst case scenario

   This is my all-time favorite tip, maybe that’s the reason with all these negativity no? Thankfully, I did not trip while talking (I can’t stay at the same place when I’m nervous), I did not pass out in the middle of the talk and there are only minor mishaps like the sliding door for the navigation bar did not work LOL.

6. It’s hard to talk while styling a website

   Either it’s because I’ve been talking nonstop for more than 2 hours already or I really, really don’t like to explain myself while doing something. I barely stopped myself from telling the attendees to just watch me and they’ll understand what each property does LOL. And, if I may add, it’s hard to talk while coding specially when your hands are getting numb because the room’s so cold.

   By the way, I just realized this that day, but coding relaxes me for some reason. I was preparing the HTML a few minutes before my actual talk. Before I did that, I was shaking, very afraid, on the verge of tears and was very close to saying that I can’t go through with it. Then I remembered to create the HTML file to save some time, then my fear lessened. Amazing, seriously!

7. Do not end your presentation with “Ayun, Tapos na, thanks!”

   Need I say more? LOL In my usual stupid self, I prepared an opening statement (which I was not able to deliver that well) but I promptly forgot what I’ll say after.

8. It feels nice to be appreciated even by the attendees even if it’s the same person who slept through your presentation

   Someone in front of me slept for a few minutes (or was that closer to an hour?) while I was talking in front of him and I wanted to laugh out loud because of the absurdity of the situation. Here we are, in a small room, I directly in front him, he in the middle of sub-20 attendees and he actually slept so openly. He did woke up while I was talking about CSS and HTML though. Also, he was the one who asked all the questions.

9. Do go and thank the person who invited you in person

   I was so happy the talk was over and done with and now I could finally rest and work normally that I went home right after. When I got home I remembered that I should’ve gone to Julbert Tornea of Fiera de Manila and thanked him in person instead of text because what I did was rude. I should’ve asked if Sir Regnard was there too.

10. You know the Nike tagline? Yes, “Just do it”

    Days before the talk, I thought that I should just back out because I’m not really suited to talk about blog design. Heck, I don’t even consider myself that good with it and if you think about it, there’s Gail, Joni, Ia and Dino who’s way better than I am. But then I thought, what I’ve always thought when considering doing something new, when will I be ready and what if this kind of opportunity never happens again?

    When it was time for me to talk already, I took a deep breath and prayed that all will go well and if, for some reason, it doesn’t, just let it go ’cause shit happens.

Well, there it goes, I do hope that by posting this I could remember them and avoid them promptly. It was fun and after the talk, I felt that I could’ve talked about a lot more things, I wanted to do it again someday but I hope that when that time comes, I’ve had enough confidence and become wittier to make the attendees not fall asleep on me. :)