TED Talk

I really did not know what to expect when it came to Plab B scenarios. All I could do was cross by fingers and hope that I wasn't given something that would completely sabotage my presentation! Alas, I was given the dreaded "Elevator Pitch" situation and had to pitch my ideas to my audience as she walked to her car. She said she totally forgot that I was giving a presentation and she actually needed to catch her flight to Tahiti.

At first, I was really confused because I thought Julie had pointed outside the classroom so I was ready to walk out in the hallway of Hodson with her. Turns out, she meant we were headed to the window and when I finally understood what we were doing, I went into the elevator pitch mode. It took me extremely by surprise so I was a bit off in the beginning, but I definitely went into it without feeling to nervous once I knew what I was supposed to do. By the end, I knew exactly what the Plan B scenario was and I felt in the zone. I do believe I made Julie a little uncomfortable because I had no idea what I was expected to do in the first 15 seconds of my presentation. Sorry.

I really tried to give a brief synopsis of my entire speech so that the audience would know why they should care and keep in contact with me after an awesome time in Tahiti. One thing that I would take back is when I stated that I was sure they would see a lot of homeless individuals in Tahiti. A wealthy benefactor would never want to hear those words uttered as they are off to sip their margaritas on a beach. I made sure that I was cordial even though I had technically been blown off and I think that I made it known that they would be hearing from me again.

My topic actually was not about helping the homeless with funds actually. It was a discussion on discrimination against the homeless we see in the United States today. But, I went with the flow and because I only had 30 seconds to talk, I changed it so that Julie was at least hooked and would hear me out after her wonderful vacation in Tahiti. I figured someone on their way to a jet plane would not want to hear about such melancholy affairs and tried to keep my conversation as upbeat as possible.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to use my slides and it wasn't really a TED talk, but I had a great time being given something so unexpected. At least I didn't have to prolong my speech, right?

Discussion: Meatless Monday

I had a great time leading my discussion on Meatless Mondays here on our campus and vegetarianism in general. I know that some thought that the topic was a bit difficult to discuss, but I thought that the entire class had something to say about the topic because of personal choices and because it is an issue that applies to those who have a meal plan at Hopkins.

I thought that I did a nice job in facilitating the discussion by asking questions to direct the conversation to a certain path. Having people argue back and forth was great to see, but in the end, I made sure that we all came to a consensus. But, I think I made sure that I was not too overbearing and controlling of the discussion either. I was very fortunate to have an audience that was engaged and ready to take different stances on the issue. I thought it was much more interesting when there were numerous viewpoints and we had to settle through each one piece by piece. After all, a discussion is a great time to share stories and get people involved and invested in the topic. This definitely makes the message sticky and isn't that the reason why people present ideas?

In this discussion, I really wanted to show that even though we were talking about a really specific topic like vegetarianism, it is a fantastic example of the fact that it really is about how you present something to an audience. If vegetarianism and Meatless Mondays were presented in a better fashion around campus,then I'm sure those programs would have a greater influence and see more results. This also applies to creating presentations as well. The way we word our ideas and the manner we pitch our proposals means a lot. I thought that everyone in the discussion definitely got this sticky message.

"How-To" Speech

I thought that it would be a good idea to discuss how to tie a tie. After looking at the video footage, I can say that I saw lots of great things and some things that still need to be worked on. First, I was glad that I brought in a tie so that the audience could be engaged and they could attempt to follow the instructions and digrams on the screen. However, doing this made my presentation seem very reliant on the slides and I needed to keep turning to see my own slides.

Although I practiced trying to do the various knots myself, when I got up to present, I started fumbling around could not repeat the steps myself when it came to the more difficult knots. Next time, I will try to be the total expert before giving a presentation on how to do something...

Despite this minor problem though, I thought that I engaged the audience well and had the right amount of confidence to have them listen to me, without sounding obnoxious. I refrained from too many "UMs" and really made great eye contact with everyone. Hopefully, I will be able to continue being so comfortable with the audience and be able to engage them so they will leave with a clear message in their mind. Perhaps, I should make my slides more of an enhancement to my presentations rather than have them be central to my speech. That way, I can use them from time to time instead of looking up at the images and digrams the entire time I am presenting. This would definitely help with the hair-flipping and if I just focused on talking, I will also probably stop using sentence fillers like "um"!

Impromptu Speech

COULD NOT ATTEND CLASS. MAKING UP THIS SPEECH ON MAKE-UP DAY.