Christopher Manning

I went over time again. It’s rather difficult to give an application presentation and tutorial in under 7 minutes. I think it would have been best had I limited myself to no more than ten slides (I had 22). Unfortunately, this caused me to rush the ending and it jeopardized the comprehension of the last third of the presentation. Other than my time issues, I am happy with how I spoke and came across. I have definitely improved many aspects of my speaking so far. Overall I think this was my best speech so far and it provides me with the confidence to finish the next two speeches in spectacular fashion.

• 07/01/2010
• 2 Ah/um
• 8 minutes from a recommended 5-7 minutes

This speech was five months in the making and it focused on the features of ToastPark. The club had just procured a slide changer and it helped quite a bit even though I forgot to plug it in. My main misstep for this speech was my time. I decided, during preparation, that I had to go over the limit to adequately present the application. So, I knew I was going to go over, but I didn’t realize it would be 11 minutes. Though, the audience was transfixed and I didn’t feel too bad about it. Unfortunately, my awareness of how much I had to fit into the time limit and how late I was running caused me to rush my speaking more than I would have liked. One evaluation sheet mentioned I should smile more, and after watching the tape, I realized this was very true. I will have to be sure to integrate moments of laughter, and go with the laughter, not just wait for it to stop when it happens. At the end I started clapping for some reason, I’ll have to not do that again. I suppose I felt like I did a good job and wanted to give myself a round of applause. At 33 seconds, I saw somebody in the audience obviously holding back laughter and I almost started laughing myself. I did start stumbling over my words, but a few seconds later I was able to compose myself and remember not to look at that person.

• 12/17/2009
• 1 Ah/um
• 11 minutes from a recommended 5-7 minutes