Emerging Technologies | BDPA-Dallas

On August 28, 2007 I gave my talk on emerging technologies at the Dallas chapter of the BDPA. I received positive feedback from my presentation and made many new contacts as a result of the networking portion of the event. The event was on a Tuesday night so I had to drive down after work. It was a long drive (4 hours) but I was able to get there in enough time to get everything setup and be ready to go before the networking portion of the evening began. Only about 15 of the 30 expected were in attendance, but that matters not. I am still determined to do a good job. The first problem was that I did not have an Internet connection. Most of the demonstration portion of my presentation depended on it. I did not have a backup plan since my T-Mobile EDGE card does not work with my new macBook. Now that is unfortunate. I have been seeking a technical solution to this problem since. I may have to change providers in order to get a USB based interface for my wireless internet connection. This way I am never relying on my venue to provide the connection. Also, I had intended to record my session but the batteries in my recorder were dead. Arg!!! I am learning so many lessons along the way. I now carry a pack of batteries with me to each event. My talk went very smoothly and I seemed to really have the audience engaged. There were many questions which I feel I did a good job of answering and I have already been asked to speak again in March. The only other issue was some sort of timeout screen saver issue that was very annoying as I had to keep hitting the keyboard in order for my content to show up on the screen. I have not had this problem before. My learning from this experience is that I should have actually practiced with my slides before going live. I will definitely do that next time. I purhased my microphone last week and I also auditioned for Fred Pryor. That went very well and I am supposed to attend a seminar next month sometime. On Wednesday, I attended and joined my first Toastmaster's meeting in Austin. Re-connecting with toastermastes will allow me to hone my skills right here in Austin without incurring the expense of traveing.

Warmest Regards,
Kai Dupé