About a million years ago, the husband of one of my co-workers, who happens to be a training coordinator at another government department, asked me if I’d be interested in doing a “Lunch and Learn†presentation about blogging.
I said yes, but I was really nervous. I don’t mind speaking in public – I actually made it to the city-wide finals for public speaking when I was in Grade 7 – but I’m way out of practice, and I was anxious about whether I had enough to say about blogging to last an entire hour. (Stop laughing.)
And then I found out that Dave, the guy organizing the event, had also asked another local blogger to be part of the presentation. I knew her a little bit, had been to her blog a few times, but was now even more nervous about coordinating this with someone I didn’t know very well.
(I couldn’t resist – as I was typing this, I started to flip back through my calendar to see exactly when we all first met for coffee to discuss this idea: it was November 22, almost exactly six months ago. Wow, a lot can happen in six months! Hey look, quelle surprise, I even blogged about that coffee meeting.)
Of course, the “other blogger†was Andrea. I like to think that even if Dave didn’t shove us together that day for coffee, we’d’ve probably become friends eventually anyway. Because everybody needs more friends like Andrea in their lives.
And I’m not just saying that because it was Andrea who got the gig to talk about blogging on CJOH! Somehow, talking to a room with a couple of (or even a couple dozen) civil servants doesn’t seem nearly so intimidating once you’ve talked to 40,000 or so about it on the news. Twice.
I feel rather important today, going off to give a seminar to my fellow public servants. This is the kind of thing I thought I might like to do professionally some day – getting into training and learning. And aside from getting up in front of people and showing them slides of my adorable boys, I can’t imagine a topic I’m more comfortable discussing.
The hour-long format, which at first sounded like an endless expanse of time, now seems like a relief after trying to cram everything I know and think about blogging into a four minute sound-bite for the news – while still letting the other people get a word in edgewise. A captive audience, an hour to talk, a buddy to share the experience, and I actually know what I’m talking about – it’s my dream job!
Would you enjoy something like this if it were offered to you? What would you say?
Dani, Best of luck to you and Andrea today. I am sure it will go great and that you won’t run out of anything to say at all 😉
I used to do “Lunch and Learn” sessions when I worked at Nortel. I loved it. Somewhere in my past, I think I missed my calling to be a teacher, I love teaching things that I know. Someday perhaps I will teach again, and not a toddler.
Yeah, I would love it. I’m a people person. And if you get me rattling on things I love (like writing, blogging, my kid)… I can talk forever. So, yeah. It would work for me.
Although I regularly participate in community dinner theatre, put in front of a group to speak and I go red and hot and almost blow up! I am sure that I could heat a small room in no time. Put me in a costume in front of those people and I’ll really have some fun!
Yes I would be interested, not in speaking but in listening.
I think it sounds fun!
Making a friend in the process is just a bonus.
I would eat my right arm to do something like this!
Good luck to you today! I would love to have an opportunity like that – you are so lucky!
How’d it go, how’d it go? *baited breath*
Read that it went great at Andrea’s blog.
Go, Dani!
I’d rather shoot myself in the face (the whole public speaking phobia . .) but if you’re good at it, go for it!
I would LOVE to go to a lunch and learn where you were the speaker 🙂
Although it makes me ultra-nervous, normal really, I’ve dappled in public speaking roles over the years. Teaching in front of a class mostly. Oh and then there was that time when I agreed to do a little speech in front of a graduation class not realizing that there would be over a thousand people in the room at the Congress Centre. Knee shaking experience!
So you and Andrea are a couple now?
Hope it went well, Dani. Will you post a bit about what you said?
Congratulations, my friend! I heard it went brilliantly – no surprise there. I’m only sorry I missed it! And, for the record, we’re not REALLY silly servants! 😉