I recently gave my first talk at a conference. This was only a couple of weeks after I had attended my first conference and presented my first poster. Yet somehow here I was, giving a half-hour talk to a room full of neurologists on “AI in Neurology”.
It wasn’t quite as intimidating as it might sound. My supervisor and I were both due to give the talk, so we had prepared it together. About a week before the conference he was invited to an important interview on the same day. He checked that I would be alright flying solo, and the conference organiser assured me that it would be a relatively small and friendly audience.
Nevertheless, I was naturally nervous! My husband took the day off work and kindly drove us down to Cornwall, where the conference was being held. The venue was a hotel right on the cliffs, with beautiful views of the sea. Nicholas headed down to the beach, while I made my way to the conference centre…
Thankfully the presentation went very smoothly, and the audience were indeed friendly! I was asked a lot of great questions in the Q&A after the presentation, and people came up to me during lunch to continue conversations and ask more questions. Several people complimented my presenting style, which was particularly nice as I get terrifically anxious about these things! (I only cope by practising them over and over and over and over…) Everyone had clearly found the topic very interesting, which was gratifying, and generated some great discussions. I left the event with a lot of new ideas to consider for my research, as well as a nice bottle of Cornish sparkling wine as thanks.
I reconvened with Nicholas, who had had a lovely little time on the beach. We drove on to Padstow, where we celebrated the success of my talk with ice cream, a paddle, and some Rick Stein fish and chips (which we didn’t feel were as good as our local chippy’s). All in all, an excellent day, and another positive conference experience!
Cryptic Meg 