After the conference

Since Tuesday evening, I have been at a conference. It's been a busy couple of days, and I still have a lot to do before work tomorrow, so this will be just a quick post!

I did a short presentation at the conference along with a coworker. I have to admit that during all the week that we were planning this talk, I was not enthusiastic. I wasn't thrilled about the subject, and I felt like we didn't have anything worthwhile to say. But we made a couple of tweaks to the slideshow in the hour before our talk, and by the time it came to present, I was almost excited.

The talk went fine. A couple of times, I even made the crowd laugh — and not just by being clueless. Of course, if I hadn't been excited about presenting the talk, I sure was excited when it was over! After we were done, I was in a better mood than I've been in all week.

A couple of people came up to me later to say how much they'd appreciated our talk—one even said I – me, not the talk – was "motivating."

Wow, I was so happy to hear those words! They gave me a whole different perspective.

Usually when I attend a presentation, I slip out the door as soon as it's over, and that's it. No matter how much I might have learned, or how much I enjoyed the talk, it would never occur to me to go up to the speaker and tell them that! Why, that would be social interaction! Self-initiated social interaction, no less!

But being on the other end of the projector has made me realize how nice it is to get some positive feedback on your work. I think I will make a concerted effort in the future to personally thank the people who work hard to make things happen.