Presentation Workshop

I've been to a few "how to do a presentation" lectures before in addition to my speech class (ENGCOMP) back in college but this is without a doubt the most helpful and effective one I've attended. I guess it's because this time, it wasn't a class or a brownbag, it was a workshop (which by definition, is a more detailed and interactive version of a class). Thrown in a very good lecturer and great workshopmates and I knew I was in for a good time.

What also helped is the freedom to use any topic. Five weeks ago, I was presenting the entire backend design to three new joiners, three weeks ago, I was presenting an entire release effort to a team and last week, at the workshop, I was presenting my bum knee, my hamsters, my blog, Star Wars and the NBA finals. Typical Arnold topics - absolute nonsense.

We were able to see how we did since all of the presentations were video taped. Yikes! Yes, I am still (video) camera shy and I did my best not to get nervous. I also did my best to take the presentations seriously but well... I made fun of everything as usual. The topics weren't serious anyway! Besides, this will probably be the only venue I can get away with that sort of crap.

It's funny viewing yourself in a monitor. You know how it is when you think you voice sounds ok or when you think you sing great but when you finally hear yourself you just can't believe that that was your voice? Same thing. I never realized I was moving too much on stage - typical comedian.

Oh well... but I agree with out lecturer's advice: prepare, prepare and prepare :)

There was of course free food - breakfast, lunch and merienda. The breakfast for day 1 was weird. I called it an "H and cheese sandwich". Why "H"? There was ham alright but it was sliced in such a way that there will only be ham on the edge of the sandwich. From the side, it looked like a normal sandwich but remove the top bread and you'll see only a third of it has ham. I've heard of unusual cost cutting measures but why the ham? This is the second time I've encountered food like this. Back in Angeles a few years ago, we ordered this big bilao of fried food. Ah, I saw calamares and tempura but when I started eating, the calamares were actually onion rings... and the "tempura" was just kamote (shaped like a tempura). Damn!

Side notes:
- I wrote this a few days ago but didn't publish it yet because I'm waiting for the pictures to be sent. I guess I'll just post another entry for that (told ya I'm impatient).