Purple Monkey Dishwasher...

Maybe not the best blog title to describe the week but it does contain the word purple.

This was the week that really set the men from the boys. I got in college for the usual time, sat down, talked to Steve and so on. Then when 9 o'clock struck, Steve turned on the projector to reveal todays topic... Presentations. Now to me, I thought it was a bit odd why Steve had not had the projector on. He usually does on a morning so maybe he was trying to surprise us a bit?

After taking all the notes down and so on, it never occurred to me that Steves usual method of testing what we learnt is to make us do it. It was a total surprise. Especially when the topic was revealed. Purple. What can be said about purple and how can you make it last 3 minutes in a presentation? By this time though, all that was going through my mind was dread. I hated getting up in front of people and talking. I can honestly say that it's one of the only things that makes me shake in my boots.

I remember having to do them at work and at university and there's nothing worse than the deafening silence of when you forget what to say in front of a room full of quiet people, hanging on to your every word.

Being honest, I really wasn't looking forward to this task. I really couldn't be bothered with having to go through all this on a Wednesday. When I started working, my enthusiasm came through and I started to enjoy the creative side to it such as the slides and the handout. I'm glad that I got to flex my creative muscle whilst doing this, something which I feel a lot of students missed out on.

Luckily we did get to pair up to do the research. I was put with Dean, a self described mature student. I speak to Dean quite a lot in the group and find what he says to be usually quite interesting. Working with Dean was brilliant due to the fact that Dean (I hope you don't mind me saying this) is from a different generation to what I am and he comes up with ideas that I would have never dreamt of. I should imagine that I hopefully think of things that he tends not to as well.

Me and Dean decided not to use any words at all on the slides apart from the title and I would love to know what everyone thinks of this. If I would have been doing the same thing on my own I would have gone with a more text based look but it does prove that in any situation, two heads are better than one.

I think we did work together really well and I think it's something that, hopefully, Steve and Diane would have noticed.

When the preparation was done, we were all sent out of the room to practice. This was something I was a bit worried about. There wasn't really anywhere in the college where you could practice in private without anyone looking. The library was too quiet and the canteen was too noisy. We did end up in the canteen though in the end and I felt a bit nervous when having to practice in front of Dean. I thought if I get nervous when practicing in front of Dean then I'm going to be a wreck when I'm up in front of Steve and Diane. The more I practiced though the easier it became. Dean thought I was a natural although I didn't think so myself. I also had the gung ho attitude that I was going to 'wing it' to give it a more conversational approach much to Deans amusement.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I was finally given the the nod to go up and do my thing. Surprisingly I wasn't scared, or that nervous to be honest. I felt quite calm about the whole thing. Maybe it was the stimulation of the purple kicking in or something but the nervousness was still there.

Once I'd got the slides sorted, I started - much to Steve and Diane's shock. I was told that I was quite good at projecting my voice. Maybe this was a way of saying I was shouting, although I don't think it was. Once I started talking though, it became easier until when I went to click next slide on the computer and an error came up. I must say, it threw me quite a bit and made me feel quite panicky. Once I got rid of it though I was back on track. I think the next time I do a presentation, if possible, I would run through the slides on the projector before hand just to see if everything worked as it should.

When in full flow again "Stop!" was shouted. I had gone over my three minutes. This was something I didn't even think about when I started at all. I was at the very last hurdle. I was gutted to be honest because I thought that I would have to do it again. Diane did ask Steve if I continued so I did, and finished the presentation.

Much to my relief, I was told that I was fine and it was like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I feel though that I read a little too much from the cue cards and lost some all important eye contact. I wanted to go for a more conversational approach and I feel that the next time I do a presentation that I should do it with keywords instead of key sentences as I found it too distracting.

Practice, practice and practice are the only ways to improve my presentational skills. I think a full blown rehearsal stood in front of a projector would be better for the next time. Sitting in a noisy canteen with constant distractions isn't the best way to learn.

Overall, a very good task. Something I believe that we all will need in the workplace. Communicating ideas is something a lot of people forget about when signing up to a creative course, I know I certainly did, but I think that whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.