CreativeMornings

whileyouweresleeping:

Gathering the Dots (Aug. 26, 2011 at the San Francisco chapter of Creative Mornings).

Earlier this month, the wonderful Erika Hall asked me if I’d like to be a speaker at Creative Mornings. I agreed because 1/ I am a masochist 2/ when given the chance, I tend to do things I’ve never done before, generally ending up in awkward situations. In this case, it was finding myself in the same forum that welcomed Milton Glaser, Debbie Millman and Christoph Niemann earlier this year. Absolutely ridiculous. At any rate, I took it on because I am mad.

The good news is, I knew exactly what I wanted it to be about. Lucky for me, my husband is a former professor who’s very comfortable with and very good at public-speaking. For three weeks, he patiently coached me. This involved encouraging me as well as mercilessly ripping apart the structure of the presentation and my performance in rehearsal. The lovely Jessie, who’s both hilarious and tech-savvy in all the ways that matter, suggested a few jokes whilst introducing me to the wonders of Keynote and Keynote Remote. They were both right on target because it all made my life a helluva lot easier.

And so, Friday morning, a hastily-swallowed mimosa having neutralized the paralyzing stage fright, I was ready to roll. I can’t remember a thing, quite frankly, so I’ll have to see the video (made by master Caleb Sexton) to cringe at myself. In the meantime, here are a few pictures by the talented Paula Chang. Above, the slides, all beautifully designed by Jason (some of which was lost in translation by slideshare.net).

Did I mention it was about how curiosity is a lot of work and how sorry you’ll be if you don’t push yourself hard to expand your horizons?

Thanks again to all involved. ‘Twas a ball.

— From SF.