Today I made my first presentation at a PASS conference. The whole process took months to come together. I started back in the Spring putting together my abstract and was fortunate to be accepted. After it was accepted, I went to work putting it all together. I prepared my talk and presented to a couple of user groups, which was very helpful. Not only did I get to practice my speech, but I also discovered that my laptop had some issues connecting to a projector. I managed to get everything straightened out and set my sights on Denver.
About a week before the conference, I started to lose some sleep. Most likely it was just my nerves but nothing I tried would help me get my needed rest. I headed to Denver slightly tired, and hoped to get caught up on some sleep while in flight. During the week in Denver I continued to struggle with sleeping, no matter how much I tried (or wanted) to rest. The night before my talk I got roughly four hours of rest.
The day before my talk I tested my laptop in the ready room, making certain it would work with the projector. It did, and I was a happy boy. I then printed out presentation, so I would have my notes with me, and continued to rehearse sections at a time. As the big day wore on I got more and more anxious and when the time for my talk arrived I was nervous, but I did feel that I was as prepared as possible.
Boy, was I wrong.
For starters, the room was huge. Such a large room makes for a different dynamic when it comes to interacting with the attendees. The user groups I presented at had smaller rooms, as well as smaller audiences, and allowed for me to feel more comfortable. It took me over 45 minutes to get comfortable during my talk. Some friends said afterwards that they could tell that I got more comfortable as the talk went on.
So, lesson learned, when putting together a presentation, keep in mind that the presentation could be for a large venue. It is easier to think big and work small than it is to think small and be forced to work big. I know that the session was recorded, so theoretically I could listen to myself present again and look for areas of improvement. I simply cannot bear to do that, as I would pick it apart and probably feel worse about it the talk than I already do. But, I know that it was not the worse PASS talk ever, and I plan on putting together a talk for next year. I want to write more and present more over the course of the next 14 months, so that I can get some name recognition heading into the next conference.
Maybe what I really need are more photo opportunities. I am not certain I had enough pictures taken during this years conference.