First Time Experience as a Public Speaker at a Physical Event

I’m seated in the green room of one of the conference halls Zone Tech Park waiting to be called up for my session, and as a way of calming myself down, I decided to occupy myself by writing about my experience.

By the way, this should have been a video content and not written, but then, I prefer to write. Probably because I enjoy writing, creating and editing videos seem to be a lot for me at the moment, I find writing my preferred documenting option so here you have it.

Alongside talking about my experience, I’d also be sharing tips to look out for as a public speaker either virtual or physical, first time or not.

It rained on this particular day, due to the nature of my environment, I couldn’t get an uber to pick me up from my house, so I had to find my way to the closest location for the uber to pick me up. It had not started raining when I left the house, I was on a bike when I noticed that the cloud had moved and it was ready to descend upon all men.

I rushed into an eatery at the bus stop while trying to book a ride that would take me down to my destination. I was becoming anxious and worried about getting there in time, all of a sudden, I felt this peace in my heart.

I told myself, that if I missed my session, I would sit back and enjoy other speakers' sessions.

Months ago, I came to an agreement, not to fret or be anxious on matters I have no control over. The truth is that I could have left my house earlier than I did, but then I did not, the deed had already been done, no point beating myself up, the next thing is to find an alternative solution, which i did.

After minutes of booking a ride and having to cancel because the selected rider was far away from my location, I successfully found one that was coming to drop off a passenger at the place where i was waiting, God indeed answers prayer.

My booked ride showed up, and we started the journey. Guess what, because of the rain, I was one of the first set of people who showed up, although, I was 20 minutes later than the specified start time. I got in, touched up my look, and proceeded to settle in as the event had not started. I went through my slides again to be sure I'm ready to do this. Did I forget to add that I met someone I admire online Aniedi Udo-Obong, I even got to take pictures with him.

I was invited into the green room to relax and do anything, and I got the chance to meet amazing individuals who were there as speakers as well, and we had a long talk about so many things ranging from the possibilities of starting and growing a tech career in Nigeria. Feels great being in a room with these amazing people doing amazing things in their respective fields.

During our conversation, I realized we had a thing for Nigeria and although we might eventually live within it’d borders or not, it still doesn’t change the fact that we’d still build and contribute our quota to the growth and development of the society.

I have to leave now as the event is about to start and the organizers requested all speakers to be on seat.

Heyyy! I’m back. I had a swell time, from the opening remarks by Maryanne to the keynote speech from Oreoluwa, then down to my session, and the panel sessions.

I was nervous and was actually shaking before i was called to speak, and it didn’t help that my slides couldn’t come up ahead of time, I got there and delivered. Days ago, I was skeptical about being able to deliver accurately, took my time to research and study more about the topic as this would be my first time talking about the topic.

Like Maryam said, I actually learnt so much and also shared so much from my knowledge and experience.

Adaeze of Nguvu Health, Myself and Maryam

At some point during the session, I was stocked up at my brilliance and intelligence, gosh, I’m such a smart and intenlligent young woman and I love this fact about me. I noticed attendees listening to me with rapt attention, pen and notepads doing their job. snapshots of my slide, and all i can say is, cheers to many more speaking engagements. I’m definitely not keepong back my knowledge and experience.

Remember I promised to talk about pointers to avoid whnever you have a speaking engagement physical or virtual, this is it::

1. If you had the privilege of choosing your preferred topic, pick something you are familiar with.
2. Familiar or not, do your research, remember whatever you will speaking on has the chances of transforming lives or not.
3. Know your audience. This will help in your preparation ahead of the event, from your slides if you’re using one to what you will be saying to your outfit, you want to be able to connect with yoru audience.
4. Go with an open mind to learn as much as you are willing to share. Pick from other speakers, pick from the attenddes who ask questions or contribute.
5. Enjoy yourself and have a great time.

In two months, I’ve spoken at 2 Google events and I can feel and I know my confidence rate is increasing and in years to come, I’d definietely look back to this post and be able to measure how far I have come. Yes, part of my dreams was to become a public speaker, and I’m glad it’s becoming my reality. Google’s theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Progress not perfection, looking forward to making progress as I journey on and becoming excellence at what I do.

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