QotD: Is This Thing On?

When was the last time you had to speak in front of a group?  How did you feel?

I wish there was a way to answer QOTDs from the past. I can't be on Vox everyday and forcing me to only answer today's question doesn't force me to come back daily, it just makes me go "oh, I don't like this question," and not post (or hopefully, post something else). I'm still wrestling with when I post something to kevnull.com anyways.

I went to the effort of going back in time to answer this QOTD because it was actually asked the day after I just did a presentation for UXWeek. I had some morning jitters, more so than I normally do. Prior to the presentation, my stomach felt queasy and my nose was sniffling. I tried having some juice and muffin to help stabilize. As I was getting some food, I sniffed lightly and the woman next to me said, "bless you," which freaked me out because I suddenly felt this sniffling was going to be a bigger deal especially since it was mic'd.

The audience was about 100-150 which is a pretty good size but not overwhelming as I felt like I could still interact with them. A little bit of a twist in this time's presentation was that before I had everyone draw each other, I got them to sing happy birthday to an attendee. That was memorable, I hope.

From the feedback I've heard, everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation thoroughly and the butterflies left as soon as I started (though immediately after, the stomach acted up again). If anyone reading this was at the presentation, thanks!