Four months in the making, the curtains are finally drawn on my first ever public speech which was, by all measures, a big success!

Of course, when we’re talking success here, we’re talking relative one taking in consideration this being kind of my first public one and the fact that it’s the first time I’m presenting this widely popular phenomenon, known as Web 2.0.

That being said, the speech wasn’t without fair share of flaws. I received some valuable feedback from the audience and the organizers. However, the general feedback was that this presentation was so awesome it’s a shame many people couldn’t make it. Well my friend, that is a good enough testament, for me, for now!

Let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ratings.

The Good

  • My passion for the subject was apparent and people appreciated that.
  • I kept the audience attentive due to:
    • Proper use of visual aids
    • Constant change of voice pitch
    • Body movement
    • Some jokes here and there :)
  • I got the message home and I was able to explain some very complex ideas of Web 2.0 to people who never heard the name before!

The Bad (learned lessons)

  • I stumbled quite a bit in the beginning and said some nonsense stuff before I picked up pace and went into the flow.
  • I think I was talking too fast even though my main goal with this one was to practice slower speech and more pauses. This may be understandable given the fact that the topic is quite big and complex and it had to be delivered in less than two hours.
  • I also failed to achieve my second goal which is good straight-up posture.
  • I’ve been told that I overdressed. A simple casual style would have done better job because I wasn’t in the position to talk to investors or pitch a product. I was merely volunteering to explain something to (mostly) university students.
  • When most people put in the "umm", mine was the "ok?" which followed pretty much every statement and was a bit irritating and noticeable in the footage taken.
  • In an attempt to create a connection with the audience, I inadvertently blurted out couple of words which I later discovered were unnecessary way of describing certain popular e-mail service that I’m not too fond of ;)

Ratings

The following graphs are for 4 key indicators as rated by the audience:

Speech_Quality_Rating

Visual_Aid_Rating

Topic_Clarity_Rating

Overall_Rating

Conclusion

The whole experience was amazing!

It was the first one of a kind for me. For the first time, I got to present something I’m really passionate about. At the same time, all that reading I’ve been doing in presentation skills (kinda) paid off and I did something the audience have probably never seen before.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! I’m already getting invitations to do the same thing in some other universities and places. Also, since I got the general overview out of the way, now I’d like to dig deep into real-world applications of Web 2.0, probably starting with incorporating Web 2.0 services and technologies in the education system.

Thanks for all my friends who supported me in this one. I really appreciate your efforts. Also, big thanks for my blog readers who provided some much needed moral support. I owe it to you guys.