Being the worry wart that I am, I couldn't sleep the night before my presentation. This meant that I arose before my alarm had a chance to do its job. I donned my suit, grabbed breakfast, and headed to the conference. Interestingly, of the 29 other wind energy presentations, there was only one that even remotely related to my work. It just so happened to be during the earliest time slot as well. The conference was set up such that for each 20 minute slot, there would be about 5 simultaneous presentations occurring in different rooms. They were separated into categories such as Wind Energy, Hydrogen, Solar, Biomass, ect. The first presentation really set the tone for the rest of the symposium...
The main point I want to get across from this (unnecessarily) long rant is this: Now, more than ever, I understand the need for individuals in technical field to take some form of public speaking classes. Many times there were no questions during the Q&A session because nobody understood what had been happening for the past 15 minutes. However, on the bright side, this did have two positive consequences.
One good thing about this plethora of poor presentations was that the diamonds in the rough gleamed ever brighter. This made me especially excited to sit in on a rare lecturer who was articulate. Namely, the fellas from Hann-Ocean Technologies and their two presentations on Hexifloat and Drakoo. The company has a great idea for a renewable power generating station that incorporates wind, solar, tidal, and wave energy into one system. You can check it out by clicking here. Throughout the conference, we got to know the two representatives quite well (more on that on the new post).
The other pleasant outcome from these presentations was a lack of pressure for mine to be perfect. It was like in school when I would always try to follow the kid who I knew had the worst presentation. I would look good in comparison. Its a time-tested formula that can be seen in high schools everywhere (i.e. attractive girls surrounding themselves with ugly girls).
This contributed to my presentation being, in a word, easy. Aside from one or two technical difficulties, my lecture went off without a hitch. The questions that were asked (a sign of comprehension) were answerable so I didn't look like a bumbling idiot in front of everybody.
Following my presentation I went upstairs to drop off my computer and unwind before the dinner banquet.
When they announced that we had to sit through a 20 minute magic show before we could eat, I got angry. Rather, I was getting 'hangry' (hungry-angry) as my brother would say. However, I found myself content with the entertainment once it started. I especially loved that "Inspecter Gadget" was one of their songs.
Matt and I found ourselves seated next to several Japanese people, which felt oddly comforting. We were able to have great conversations as business cards flew around the table. The food was absolutely delicious and once we were properly stuffed, went back to our room to relax.
At this point I relished in the peace that comes after completing something you have worked so hard on. Now I could kick back, truly relax, and help Matt with his presentation the following morning. He worked on it for the rest of the night while we watch the Asian games (like The Olyimpics, but only Asian countries could participate).
If you are curious about the actual content of my presentation, let me know. I will try to figure out the best way to send it to you (i.e. PowerPoint with notes, video, ect).
-Seth
Ummm...permission to speak freely...? Thank you.
To put it simply, I was disappointed with the presentations most of the time. Perhaps I'm too much of a presentation snob by letting these things eat at my soul. Maybe my expectations were too high going into this professional, international gathering of scientists and engineers. Then again, public speaking isn't the forte' of scientists and engineers. You know what is though, math. And you can bet they let everybody know with their huge equations that they put up on the screen.
"Hey man, thanks for putting those huge double integral equations on the screen that it took you months to solve. Now just give me a couple seconds to decipher the variables and understand their implications...Great, thanks!"
NO! In case you didn't pick up on the sarcasm, that is not an effective way to present this stuff! All of those minuet details are what your technical paper is for. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I seriously doubt very many people can process these equations in a matter of seconds. Not only was there a lot of this big equation business, but almost every other golden rule of public speaking was broken. So...I cringed as I sat through presentation after presentation of habitual screen reading (back to audience), laser-pointer abuse, and PowerPoint slides that were nothing more than a huge block of text.
This was from a plenary speech. And yes, he read that entire block of text for about 2 minutes. At least he read the English paragraph, not the Chinese.
One good thing about this plethora of poor presentations was that the diamonds in the rough gleamed ever brighter. This made me especially excited to sit in on a rare lecturer who was articulate. Namely, the fellas from Hann-Ocean Technologies and their two presentations on Hexifloat and Drakoo. The company has a great idea for a renewable power generating station that incorporates wind, solar, tidal, and wave energy into one system. You can check it out by clicking here. Throughout the conference, we got to know the two representatives quite well (more on that on the new post).
The other pleasant outcome from these presentations was a lack of pressure for mine to be perfect. It was like in school when I would always try to follow the kid who I knew had the worst presentation. I would look good in comparison. Its a time-tested formula that can be seen in high schools everywhere (i.e. attractive girls surrounding themselves with ugly girls).
This contributed to my presentation being, in a word, easy. Aside from one or two technical difficulties, my lecture went off without a hitch. The questions that were asked (a sign of comprehension) were answerable so I didn't look like a bumbling idiot in front of everybody.
Standing in front of the oral presentation schedule for the Wind Energy room.
Following my presentation I went upstairs to drop off my computer and unwind before the dinner banquet.
Big ice sculpture behind desserts.
Waaaaaaay more people showed up to the banquet than I had seen all day. In fact, I'm pretty sure that dinner was the only thing some people attended.
Before we could rush to the buffet line (thats how they do banquets in Korea), we watched a 20 minute magic show.
When they announced that we had to sit through a 20 minute magic show before we could eat, I got angry. Rather, I was getting 'hangry' (hungry-angry) as my brother would say. However, I found myself content with the entertainment once it started. I especially loved that "Inspecter Gadget" was one of their songs.
Matt and I found ourselves seated next to several Japanese people, which felt oddly comforting. We were able to have great conversations as business cards flew around the table. The food was absolutely delicious and once we were properly stuffed, went back to our room to relax.
At this point I relished in the peace that comes after completing something you have worked so hard on. Now I could kick back, truly relax, and help Matt with his presentation the following morning. He worked on it for the rest of the night while we watch the Asian games (like The Olyimpics, but only Asian countries could participate).
If you are curious about the actual content of my presentation, let me know. I will try to figure out the best way to send it to you (i.e. PowerPoint with notes, video, ect).
-Seth
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