My first large speaking engagement
This past weekend I had the special opportunity to speak for 15 minutes at a sizeable conference in Edmonton. The conference was entitled Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sites in Arctic and Cold Climates (ARCSACC). I presented some findings from my undergraduate research in-front of approximately two hundred attendees, most of which had a background in either engineering, public service or Aboriginal issues. I'm definitely not a person who loves the public stage and not to overuse the phase, but it was a 'learning experience'. I felt decent with my presentation, but there were some areas for improvement that I'll work on for the next time. I found public speaking in-front of that many people difficult because you can't sense the audiences personal responses to elements of the presentation. Someone once told me that you should choose one or two people in the audience and speak to them, which is wise advice from my experience. Public speaking is definitely an art and I'm glad that I had the privilege to gain some valuable experience presenting to a large audience. So just like many other things in life, either you're born with it or you have to work at it - so I'll keep learning and doing my best and who knows what's possible! I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has a story about speaking in public.