[If you attended please leave a comment below, good or bad. Tell me what you thought of it, what you liked or disliked about it or just a thumbs up or down]

I gave a presentation on Information Architecture earlier this week at the Apple Store in Shinsaibashi. It was the first time in ages I had presented to a large group. Here are my thoughts.

I enjoyed it, but the first 10-15 minutes I was more than a bit nervous. At one point my mind went totally blank! Garr had mentioned that it would be a strange feeling at first since the presenter is facing the audience and the bright backdrop of the store.

My greatest problem was remembering what slide came next. This meant that a couple of times I revealed the next slide too soon. On one occasion it meant that I had to skip a question to the audience because I had revealed the answer slide, and so I lost a small chunk of the presentation. This threw me off completely and was the reason my mind went blank a little later on.

There were a lot positives, at first it seemed that an hour would be hard to fill but I actually ran over and had to rush through the end part to squeeze the example sites and points in. I also enjoyed answering the intelligent questions at the end. The best thing wasn’t anything in my presentation but meeting the audience later and chatting with them at the store and nijikai. One of the audience members had actually met Joshua Bell and had a private lesson with him.

Things I would improve on the presentation are; the ending (it was a bit tame), connecting the dots on the whole process, and trying to remember which slide came next.

I was so nervous I forgot to thank everyone who helped. So big thank-yous to Garr and Stu for their help and advice, Rie for her patience the whole week before, Rie’s mum and dad for babysitting, and the staff at the Apple Store. The video of the presentation will be online sometime in the next couple of weeks. I’ll post a link here when it is. In the meantime, here are some links to things and sites I mentioned in the presentation:

Facebook (if you want to add me, my address is ianc [at] starconcepts.co.uk)

Oboeyasui.com (http://oboeyasui.com/ian is a list of all the online places you can find me)

WashingtonPost story: Pearls Before Breakfast (the full story about the not so ordinary busker)

Miss Teen South Carolina (with subtitles)

Zombo.com (if you have time, wait till the end and yes there is an end!)

Luminous Landscape

Osaka Public Transport Timetables

NeilKeegan.com

The Simple Dollar

Posted on September 23rd, 2007 by Ian Cheung
Filed under: Web Dev/IA