On Public Speaking 📝 #2

At the end of November, I did my second speaking gig after being approached by Andy Tattersall on Twitter who organises seminars around research in the 21st Century. I agreed as I’ve been keen on improving my public speaking skills over the year.

Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to throughout my placement and a few months ago at Sheffield User Ruby Group. I still feel like there are areas for improvement and as the saying goes, practice makes perfect!

A Bite-Size Guide to Research in the 21st Century Part IV – Communication for Impact

Summary:
Academics are increasingly taking to traditional and social media to communicate their research. Talking about your research to specialist and lay audiences is a great way to develop your communication skills and can help increase the impact of your research. This symposium will hear from esteemed academics who actively share their work with wide audiences. We also explore what it is like to blog as a student and the benefits and challenges of doing so. The opportunities for science communication are ripe; this session will help you get out and pick them.

More information can be found here.

I got increasingly nervous while listening to the talks before mine. Compared to speakers who went on before me who were much more experienced and delivered so well (with years of built up confidence), I felt out of place and “not good enough”. But after some positive self-talk and reminders along with sending streams of “I am freaking out” texts to Matt, I managed to find calm. I reminded myself how proud I am of myself for:

1. facing my fear
2. taking on a challenge for self-improvement

Above the noise: Building an online voice

You can watch/listen to my talk below and access the slides here.

Unfortunately, my slides didn’t show up well on the computer, so story-telling using emojis wasn’t great 😭 But it’s a lesson for next time – to always plug in my laptop 😆

Feedback

Reflection

Things I will improve:

• 🏃🏻‍♀️ Speed and time – I felt like I spoke a little too fast at some points because of time. I want to get to a point where I don’t run over time or feel rushed to finish because I end up messing up the next parts.
• 🎤 Delivery – I want to be comfortable enough to walk around, to be a bit more dynamic than standing still. I’ve improved a lot already though – I don’t hide behind a computer anymore!
• 💻Presentation itself – Instead of me just talking and going through slides; I want to make it more interactive somehow. 🤔

Things I did well, and I am so proud of:

• 🌟 I turned up on the day. I got up from the chair when I was next up and just did it even though it was the scariest thing ever and was one of my biggest fears.
• ✏ I talked about a topic (this blog) to an audience of 50~ people. I used to keep my blog a secret with the fear of judgement, but I took the opportunity to share to help others.
• 🤗 I handled the Q&A section well (usually the worse part for me.) I was surprised by the number of questions directed to me; it made me feel good because to me it means that people were listening!

Overall, it was such a great experience. I’m glad that I said yes to the opportunity rather than hide away and stay in my comfort zone. 😊 I’m now looking forward to my future talk! I didn’t think I’d ever say this but I am currently on the 👀 out for any more local speaking opportunities! If you’re looking for a speaker for an event or meetups, let me know 🌟

I hope this post inspires you to push your boundaries, the first step is scary but after that, it’s a lot of fun and incredibly rewarding. You can do it!💪🏼