Livejournal Entry #1101791100

Originally posted on my LiveJournal

With the first day of the 2004 Internet Developments Conference now over, I thought it would be apt to pen a word or two regarding the whole affair:

The day has been full of disappointment. Most of the presentations which looked fairly interesting turned out to be, in fact, very dull. It's not really the content though; there's plenty of food for thought to be found within the papers,but it's the way they're presented.

a) When you're giving a presentation, remember to look at the audience, and not the floor directly below your feet. What's down there that's really so interesting?
b) Don't just read out what's on your slides verbatim, elaborate and express yourself. I don't need you to tell me what's on the slides; I can read for myself.
c) Listen to the questions you're asked and reply accordingly. Noone wants to hear you talk about your dead mothers favourite jumper when we asked you about potential scaling issues regarding your amazing new website.
d) Speak up for Christs sake! Just because you can hear your mumbling inner-monologue doesn't mean we can.

If you hadn't noticed, I'm troubled by the whole issue of making Computing students give presentations. I had my presentation today, and to be frank I'm totally psyched at how well it went; the lecturers all seemed genuinely interested, I was commanding attention well, and the effect which I presented (in a somewhat vague context) went okay. For those who don't know, I asked a pretty young lady in the audience to think of a number between 1 & 100 and correctly predicted it. Cue the lecturers arguing over how I did it in the coffee break. Weihong even told me that I freak him out. Score.

The fun and games continue tomorrow; there's plenty of Chairing for me to be getting on with, including the introduction of the one and only Gareth Danger Hebbron. Unless things drastically change, the conference will be uninspiringly dull.

Carpe Diem, and all that Jazz.

Craig.

Current Music: Chopin - Mazurka In B Flat Op. 7 No. 1

Current Mood: calm

• 30th November, 2004
• Livejournal.

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