Hello from Jasper!

Hello All!

Today I'm blogging away from the Alberta Library Conference at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper National Park.

For the last two days I've been hanging about with my library peeps and checking out interesting sessions on what's new in the Alberta Library Landscape (for me, a lot of digital initiatives).

I also gave my first presentation this year, which was both terrifying and a lot of fun!

I've got many books and movies on the go right now, so regular blogging will return soon, but I wanted to take a quick moment to say hello from one of the nicest views on Earth (that I've seen, anyway).

Preparing for a presentation

Hi All, sorry it's been a little longer than usual for my post, I spent last week preparing for a lecture for a Graduate Class on Information Policy.

On Thursday I headed back to my old stomping grounds, the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta to give a talk on my current work with Open Government.

Public speaking has always been a little tricky for me - I'm happy to volunteer, and even more happy to do it once I'm in front of a group and talking, but the lead up to these things can be quite stressful.

So having done a few public speaking events over the years, here are my key tips to making it through.

1) Realize Stress is normal

Totally honest fact - ten minutes before I gave my talk I was literally thinking "I could just run - I'm sure the class will move ahead without me!"  For me, this is totally normal - I knew I wasn't actually going to run off before a presentation, but acknowledging that it is stressful helps.  Public Speaking is stressful.

2) Preparation is key

Whether you spend your time creating slides or simply mumbling your speech to yourself over and over again in the days leading up to the talk, this will help you get going once you've begun to talk

3) Ask for help!

Whether having a friend or loved one look over your talk, or even just explaining to a co-worker the key points you want to touch on, this gives the people around you a chance to help and a way to point out any obvious holes or conflicts in your logic.

So there you go - not sure how often the advice will come in handy, but at least it may give you a place to start.

An Introvert's Guide to Library Conferences

This trip to the Alberta Library Conference actually marks my fifth - two as the Librarian for a non-profit in the mid-00s, one as a student during my time at the School for Library and Information Studies and twice since then, as a conference / mini-vacation with my lovely wife.  In addition I've done four American Library Association conferences and two local day-conferences, so this marks my eleventh Library Conference overall.

In all these trip there are a few things I've learned to do to make my experience, as a bookish, introverted guy, into the best one I can have.

So here goes:

1) Relax: Library conferences actually have a pretty high number of Introverts attending, and many of them are just as nervous as you.

2) Find (and help) other nervous attendees: Look around the various rooms you are in (whether dining hall, meeting room, or exhibit hall) and find the person or persons standing by themselves - chances are these are also people a little nervous about the event and may be glad to have someone come up and chat to them - ask how they are enjoying the conference so far to begin.  Also quick tip - hit the exhibit hall early as it is marginally less crowded, but definitely make sure to swing by, these are the people who are often sponsoring the event and deserve a hello!

3) Realize you can take some time for yourself: as a guy who needs some solitude to charge up before and during large events, I make sure to get up early (where I can have some breathing room) and that I will return to my hotel room at a set time each night, as just knowing that you have an end in sight can allow you to work your way through various social events and other (potentially) stress inducing events with relative ease.

4) Do what you can to help improve other's conference experience: In my life I've gone home from excellent, fair, and terrible events, and you know what the key difference is?  At the excellent events someone took the time to help me have a better time, either saying hello over coffee, informing me of where the best desserts are, or even just asking me how my day was going.  After attending a number of these I decided to start trying to help other people leave the event thinking it was pretty excellent - doing this has increased my enjoyment of the various conferences I've attended tenfold.

5) Keep a book on you at all times: Seriously, I have know idea how this works, but if you have some reading material available, lines will move faster, people will approach you to say hello, and most importantly your day will move much smoother.  Every time I've attended with no reading material, I've ended up waiting in endless lines, often surrounded by people I don't know and desperately wishing I had something to do.  NOTE: It is very unlikely you'll ever get to read the book, so bring something lighter.