On September 14th, last Saturday, I presented at the Alliance Francaise, Bangalore. The session was scheduled during a conversation I had with the cultural coordinator at the AFB around the 4th week of August. My personal inclination to speak on my choice of topics - in general, things that could not be classified as "capability building" - did not make much progress & we settled on "public speaking"
The twist in the entire thing was that I had to get a minimum number of registered audience members to hold a meaningful session. I was never going to do any publicity from my side. It is a strange thing, this fear of speaking in public. I wanted to do this & some part of me kept hoping it would not happen.
However, eventually on the 13th I was informed that we have about 19 registrations & with my last hope of somehow escaping from the ordeal thoroughly lynched, I showed up in a fairly diverse mix of audience members. They all came in a bunch - so though I had the time to shake their hands, my idea of getting to know some of them never saw the light of day. Bad start.
To make things worse, the seating was like a metro coach- columns of students facing each other with me at one end & the bright PowerPoint at the other. Regardless, I got started & managed, I think, to get a few smiles on my first attempts at being somewhat funny. In general, I got good eye-contact & was interrupted many times with questions. The general engagement of the audience was a big plus.
Of course, after I ended, I had to be thrown out. This, if you know me, was probably expected. Questions kept pouring in & I answered what I was asked & sometimes what I should have have been asked or might have been asked or I'd have asked if I were an audience member. The AFB person had to get up & interrupt at some point.
The whole thing was very tiring. And after a good night's sleep - very encouraging. A quick topical deconstruction of what I covered is here.
The twist in the entire thing was that I had to get a minimum number of registered audience members to hold a meaningful session. I was never going to do any publicity from my side. It is a strange thing, this fear of speaking in public. I wanted to do this & some part of me kept hoping it would not happen.
However, eventually on the 13th I was informed that we have about 19 registrations & with my last hope of somehow escaping from the ordeal thoroughly lynched, I showed up in a fairly diverse mix of audience members. They all came in a bunch - so though I had the time to shake their hands, my idea of getting to know some of them never saw the light of day. Bad start.
To make things worse, the seating was like a metro coach- columns of students facing each other with me at one end & the bright PowerPoint at the other. Regardless, I got started & managed, I think, to get a few smiles on my first attempts at being somewhat funny. In general, I got good eye-contact & was interrupted many times with questions. The general engagement of the audience was a big plus.
Of course, after I ended, I had to be thrown out. This, if you know me, was probably expected. Questions kept pouring in & I answered what I was asked & sometimes what I should have have been asked or might have been asked or I'd have asked if I were an audience member. The AFB person had to get up & interrupt at some point.
The whole thing was very tiring. And after a good night's sleep - very encouraging. A quick topical deconstruction of what I covered is here.
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