And.... it's done!!!!

It's done.. I have finally given the presentation I was supposed to give for, I don't know, one month.. I have trying to avoid it, plus there were a lot of more pressing tasks to be completed. The task being the completion of a project and all.

Anyways, I should tell you what the presentation was about. It was about .NET Framework 3.0/3.5.

The story behind why I was given this particular topic to present was that since I joined I had been nagging everyone to migrate to 3.5 or at least make the new applications in 3.5. They finally got me to stay quiet by saying "Why don't you give a presentation on .NET Framework 3.5? Just highlight the new technologies introduced and convince us that we should migrate."
And since then I stopped mentioning 3.5.

Not that I didn't want to go through the hassle of making the presentation slides. It had more to do with gathering up the courage to speak in front of so many people (that means 10 people at the max) who you know have more knowledge than you about the topic you are speaking on.

Anyways, this time they scheduled it for Monday (that is, today 2nd March, 2009). I didn't get time in the office to work on the presentation, and I had a quiz this Saturday (which I am failing by the way) so I spent my entire Sunday on it. Full of tension, true, but learnt a lot things and that was fun.

I liked what WPF made possible, but I never really tried my hands on XAML, and I am glad I did for the presentation. Just a few lines of code were enough to get a button rotate on an angle of 45 and the window to appear in the form of Ellipse rather than the conventional rectangular shape one. :)

I might add a few references or a bit of the stuff I used in my presentation in near future (keep a note of 'might'). But none of the things I used were mine.... of course.. working on .NET 3.5 for a day doesn't make me any expert.

Anyways, almost the entire day, today (Monday) was spent on the presentation. I was supposed to cover all technologies (WPF, WCF, WF, WCS and LINQ) but was only able to touch WPF, WCF and LINQ. So in the morning it was decided that we'll go with this and for the rest of the things we'll schedule another presentation.
Showed the slides to my boss.
Then spent the rest of the time before presentation worrying about what I'll do when they start asking questions. And some of my team members encouraging me and telling me there is nothing to worry about. And also asking people not to ask questions.. the people I could ask to do so.
And installing Visual Studio 2008 on a laptop that will be used for the presentation, and not being able to.
Trying to find out why on earth does the VS 2008 on my Home PC doesn't color code XAML. Still don't have an answer for that though, can anyone answer that??

And finally the time for presentation came. Wasn't even able to connect the laptop with the projector. Two people were involved so that the slides could be projected for everyone to see.
During the presentation it seemed like I was giving it to my top-most boss only, with a few glances to the other people in the room. Couldn't help it. Even back in the days I used to debate, I concentrated mostly on one particular portion of the audience and had to make an effort to look at the others too.
A lot of questions were asked.
None of which I was able to answer :P
People got really excited about WPF though. :) And liked the two code examples I put in. :)

All in all the presentation went okay. With my supervisor supporting me by answering all the questions that were targeted towards me. And the rest of the team chipped in nice comments about the presentation and encouragement after the presentation ended. :D And it really felt good to hear those comments. :)

The remaining day was spent thinking 'shukar hai ho gaye presentation, tension to khatam huai'.

So an entire day was spent on a presentation. :P

Disclaimer: :P

This post is more for memory then for my two or three readers.. :) I should, like everyone else, keep the tag 'Dear Diary' as I have so many posts which fits this category. :)

Presentations....

I don't know why but I have lost the little confidence that I had. In the past too, I was afraid of giving presentations, but I somehow got myself up on the stage, and uttered something. I always tried to come up with new ideas to get people intrigued by the presentation title, interested in the slide background and hooked up with words. That never seemed to happen completely, but I thought I was able to accomplish something.
Lately though, it seems I have lost the touch.

And because of the sudden loss of the ittsy bittsy confidence, I try to run away from presentations, run as far as I can.

As bachelors ended, I thought it was the end of it all. No more presentations. Bachelors ended with presentations. We had to present our Final Year Projects to our judges and secure marks. Even then I wasn't that afraid of giving presentations.

You would think, after four year of rigorous and tiring attempts at giving good presentations, I would have obtained enough confidence to speak in front of as many people as could fit in a room.

But you have got it all wrong.

I have become even more afraid I guess.

In bachelors, I always tried to use a new slide template for every presentation. I never used the ones provided by Microsoft Office Powerpoint. I created my own. And I was proud of that. But now I restrict myself to the ones I can easily get. I don't have enough time to create my own, I say. While the truth is, I am out of ideas.

I thought with bachelors ended the ordeals that I had to go through before a presentation or a debate. Ohhhh I was so wrong.

Now I am supposed to give presentations to the clients as well.
My colleagues find my nervousness amusing. (But they do support as well, and help out with a lot of things.)

And I am expected to give a presentation to my team as well. When I know all the people listening to my presentation know better than I do about the topic I am supposed to speak on. When I know that I won't know a thing about most of the questions they put forward.

And then ofcourse, there are the Masters classes. How could I think that the presentations would end with Bachelors when I was planning to start my Masters right after.

And it came as a shock, when I was told in my first class of "Advanced Operating Systems" that we were supposed to give presentations on a releveant topic. And so I did... and so everyone slept thorough the presentation,, even the teacher.. can you believe that???.. I thought no matter how boring a presentation is ,, teachers would continue listening to what their students have got to say. But her expressions said that she was finding it as boring as everyone else (and as boring as me). But well, I have given the presentation... And she (my teacher) asked a few questions, so I guess she wasn't sleeping after all.

Though, it's not something to be proud of, but I still tell anyone who agrees to listen that "I gave a presentation, and everyone in the room slept."
Guess I do have a talent... I have a mesmerizing effect on people when I speak. That's one way to put it. The other blunt way is "I am as good a sleeping pill as any text book of the world." :P

Anyways, the point is, I have lost the little confidence that I did have on myself, and the point is, there is no end to the presentation stuff. They will always be a part of life... hmmm......