18 January 2006
A couple of days ago I mentioned that I am speaking at a Client conference in a couple of weeks time. Up until I got the phone call on Monday I had not thought a lot about it... as I've mentioned my Semantic horizon has been pretty short-range over the last couple of weeks... not exactly fire-fighting but certainly nothing you could call planning.But the call rocked me a little. I am unprepared.
I am not a great public speaker by any standard, but I have been pretty successful in the past... usually as a combination of passion & preparation. I am pretty good at the former but lousy at the latter.
Given out commitments between then and now I honestly don't have much time for preparation... but fortunately my mind has started coming to the rescue. Since Monday's 'wake-up' call ideas for the presentation have been dropping fully-formed into my head. Without any real effort I now have the shape of my talk mapped, a couple of good gags, and the close. Of course to make it really good I will still need to work as hard as possible getting it just right... but at this stage it is great to think that the hard part of any presentation... the story... is done.
Thanks to whichever part of my sub-conscious is doing the work at the moment... keep at it. I'd hate to have to rely on my brain at this stage.
Posted by Nick Warren at 6:12 AM
