Keeping calm

I was expecting a seminar room of 20 students.

When I saw the towering lecture theatre filled with 200, my heart skipped several beats…

Some years ago, on a cold winter’s day, I went to deliver a workshop on crafting the elevator pitch.

Designed for students to interact in small groups, and present their pitch at the end.

And yes, designed for 20.

Here’s what happened:

⏱️ The previous class ran over by half an hour.
👀 No time to set up beforehand, so I prepared my slide deck with 200 pairs of eyes on me.
🎙️ There was a mic - necessary in a room that size - but no one could get it to work.

By the time I was set up, and looked skywards at the top-most row of students, miles away, my mouth had gone dry.

Silence in that massive room, as they waited for me to start…
*
And start, I did.

Having pondered, while sipping lots of water, which part of my material I was going to cut.

My first slide was an image. It was an anchor that gave me space to frame the session, and get into my groove.

The exercises were noisy but I managed, without the mic, to bring everyone back for a general discussion.

And by the end, some students were ready to share.

That January day was a reminder to plan and prepare, and also to be agile with our presentations:

✅ Confirm, and re-confirm the number of people we’re speaking to, and the room set-up. Somewhere, wires had got crossed.
✅ Have someone there who knows the local tech set-up, on hand to help.
✅ Be ready to adapt our material, and cut if necessary.

But most importantly to remember that, however many people are in the room, they are… people.

There for a reason. Eager to learn. On our side.

So, let’s sip some water, find our calm… and carry right on.

Photo by Rivage on Unsplash