I Survived: A First Professional Presentation Experience

Before I get into the topic of this post, I want to say thank you to everyone who stopped by and read my advocacy post. It seems that there are those of you out there in the same boat, or at least feeling some of my same frustrations. If nothing else, it's nice to know that I'm not alone. Librarians - press on! We are making a difference to some, and that's where our focus should be.

Now then - on to today's post: I survived!

This past Friday I presented my first library presentation to a room full of colleagues and peers as part of the Allen County Public Library Library Camp. It wasn't just an ordinary presentation though...it was a pecha kucha. If you don't know what that is, picture a series of speed presentations - all 6 minutes and 40 seconds long. It's harder than it looks, especially since I'm used to hour long classroom presentations where I'm able to explain in depth a certain topic or concept. For a pecha kucha though, there's simply not enough time to go too far in-depth.

Before I share my presentation slides with you, I wanted to commemorate the fact that I was pretty calm. I was fully expecting to be nervous as heck (after all, I changed career paths from piano performance due to nerves...), but the day before, the night before, the morning of, and right before the presentation I was cool, calm, and collected! All I can figure is that my over preparation payed off. Because of the time limit, I had written a script and practically memorized it so as to stay within the 20 second per slide time factor. This helped tremendously! I was also quite happy that my micro DVI to VGA adapter for my macbook worked like a charm (thanks to hubby for tracking one down for me). By using my mac, I was able to have presenter tools displayed which further helped me to feel more in control.

After the presentation, several people came up and said what a great prez it was, and many said they gained a few new ideas. Mission accomplished!

So with that, here are my slidedecks. Feel free to leave comments with how you've used QR Codes and Poll Everywhere with your libraries!

Tech Tools That Engage the Library Population - Pecha Kucha ACPL Library Camp 2011

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