Much fun and very little sleep

I've just returned from the craziness that was the Asia Pacific Blackboard User Conference. Much fun and very little sleep was had by all. It was really really great to get to meet other Blackboardians, as well as the vendors themselves. The conference was at a resort on the sunshine coast, and it had a bar. With karaoke. Not good.

It was also really great to get positive feedback on the presentation I gave, as did another person from the Griffith team. I'm generally not nervous about public speaking but my stomach was doing all sorts of crazy things on the morning of my presentation. My hands were kinda clammy, my mind was whirring, and I more or less figured I would completely suck. I have been to many conference presentations where I've kinda felt sorry for the person speaking because of either their speaking style, a really irrelevant topic, or copious amounts of waffling.

I am very very afraid of being one of these people. I have a theory about why I was nervous about this particular presentation. I have spoken to large groups of both academics and students on different topics related to flexible learning before without even a fruitfly (let alone the monstrous butterflies that were zipping around my stomach for my conference presentation) making an appearance. I've spoken in meetings with pretty senior people from other professional areas. My theory is this: I am perfectly comfortable talking to large groups on topics I know more than them about. It's when I'm talking to people who probably have more knowledge/experience/awareness of the topic that I freak. My margin for bullshit is smaller in these situations.

But, despite feeling like bolting out of the room as soon as the slide with my name came up, an amazing thing happened. I sounded like I knew what the hell I was talking about. All the words and ideas that had been cycloning around my head came out of my mouth in a way that made sense, and people were actually interested in what I had to say. They learned something new too. Yay me!

So my presentation further added to my already growing fame due to the tech day I organised earlier in the week. It's a little frightening to introduce yourself to someone you have never met and have them tell you that they know all about you already. Kinda exposing. I had a few people approach me with compliments about the session, and few people approached my director as well, including Blackboard staff. He took the compliments a little differently was a little firm in saying that they couldn't hire me away from Griffith. He's still a littl touchy over the woman who was in my position before me going to work for Blackboard. I must tell him he has nothing to worry about tho. There is no way I could keep up with the Blackboard guys. I don't think any of them went to sleep before 3am they entire conference. With jetlag from the flight from the US to Australia earlier in the week and 6am starts each day, I'm amazed they were able to function at all. So untill I am able to live on 3 hrs or sleep a night, and drink a lot more than I am currently able, I don't think I'll be going to work for Blackboard.