Lunch and learn
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?
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?
Said DaniGirl at 7:08 a.m. #
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