As some of you will have noticed, I’m scheduled to give a talk at the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in just under two weeks. This morning, I finished (kind of) working out that talk.
A few things worth noting:
- This is not a completely drafted speech or anything like that. It’s a talk, and one that’s meant to set up a discussion among conference participants. However, given that it covers terrain I think about quite regularly, I have a very good sense of what I’m going to say.
- Indeed, the real labor here wasn’t in hammering out the logical structure of my remarks, but in putting together the PowerPoint slides. No, I’m not a big fan of PowerPoint myself, seeing as how it has convinced too many people whose paths I seem to cross that anything worth communicating can be boiled down to three bullet points. But the talk is for an anticipated audience of about 150 (already 138 people have registered), and I figure I need to have some visuals to help focus attention.
- Speaking of visuals, the part of the talk-construction that was the most fun (if time consuming) was browsing my favorite blogs to take screenshots of posts that illustrate my points.
- There’s a good chance I’ll keep tweaking the slides between now and the end of next week. It’s a great way to put off doing other things that need doing!
- Since I’ll probably be tweaking it anyway … the subject of my talk is officially “how to be a blogging scientist”. Any advice you’d like to share on that one? It’s perfectly acceptable to frame it in terms of how not to be a blogging scientist — whether the “don’t” you’d like to flag is primarily a detriment on the science end of things or the blogging end of things.
- There’s a near certainty that I’ll come armed with actual overhead transparencies for the talk just in case the computer/projection system fails. I love technology, but I don’t always trust it.
I’m excited that some of you will actually be there for the conference, and I’ll file a virtual report here for those of you playing along at home.
You’re done two weeks ahead of time???
Perhaps you should add a point about how not to be a procrastinator! I’m in awe of your time-management skills.
Looking forward to meeting you and learning from you.
Looking forward to your talk — and to meeting you in person! See you in two weeks!
Just remember to back up everything three or four times on different media, then you won’t need powerpoint slides! Technology is simple 😉
Looking forward to the talk as well as meeting you!
strike “powerpoint slides” in my last comment and replace with “overhead sheets”, and it suddenly makes sense! I saw it at the exact moment I hit post.
You’re done two weeks ahead of time???
This is part of why she always irritated her sibblings.
I’m not quite sure what the proper terminology should be for this, but something that every blogger should consider is their overall “attitude,” “tone” or “feel.” One thing that struck me when I first began visiting you here was that, no matter the subject or level of controversy, I’ve always felt very comfortable and “at home” here.
Second Abel — screw the talk on blogging, I wanna know how you manage your time!!
Awesome. Looking forward to your talk and discussion leading.