World AIDS Day talk
Dec. 2nd, 2011 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamariYesterday's "Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City" talk was strong and good. It was scheduled for 2:30-ish, so everyone was sleepy and slug-like when I got up. So I started by getting everyone up to wiggle and shake out their hands.
This is a great starter to any afternoon talk, and it works very well. You just have to know in your heart that you have the ability to make a roomful of MDs and academics get up and wiggle on command. If you have that, it works. And they loved it. They even gave me an ovation before they sat down and the talk actually started.
But Michael, who had never seen me do a talk (how has he escaped?) was horrified. He couldn't believe I would try this in an academic/professional setting and was frozen, momentarily, with the fear that nobody would get up. He was only OK when it became clear that everyone was with me.
[But this is the thing: the person at the front of the room can make the crowd do anything. That's the secret.]
He heaved a sigh of relief when it was over and I finally started talking.
I did the usual things. I incorporated Michael, my wonderful past roommate, the guy sitting closest to the podium and one hapless man who had the bad fortune to leave and return into the action. The gentle torment of the guy who left the room and returned before I finished was a high point. Again, Michael wanted to crawl under the table while I did it, but everyone else loved it, even the poor man himself, who found himself subjected to the random, public deconstruction of his embodied cultural capital.
He got a big ovation, too.
In general. everyone appeared to listen closely and follow my thoughts. It seemed to be OK, too, when I inadvertently said a bad word. Oh well, I can't control everything I do. Sometimes authentic is really somewhat awkward.
When I finished, everyone just sat there in shock for a minute and then started clapping.
Afterwards, the woman sitting next to me at my table looked at me with a glazed expression and said, "You're awesome," and the doctors at the table (who were quite awesome themselves) all shook my hand and hugged me and told me how much they loved it.
So, despite Michael's fears, it went well. Next time, though, I will warn first-time companions before I take them to a talk.
There will be a link sent out soon to videos of all the conference's WAD talks. I may put it up on LJ. There is one talk on early childhood trauma and its impact on human beings that was very, very useful. I learned so much during this talk---I really recommend it. I'll link to it later if I can.
I think I'll also be able to put the video for my talk on my book website. That will make Rebecca happy!
This is a great starter to any afternoon talk, and it works very well. You just have to know in your heart that you have the ability to make a roomful of MDs and academics get up and wiggle on command. If you have that, it works. And they loved it. They even gave me an ovation before they sat down and the talk actually started.
But Michael, who had never seen me do a talk (how has he escaped?) was horrified. He couldn't believe I would try this in an academic/professional setting and was frozen, momentarily, with the fear that nobody would get up. He was only OK when it became clear that everyone was with me.
[But this is the thing: the person at the front of the room can make the crowd do anything. That's the secret.]
He heaved a sigh of relief when it was over and I finally started talking.
I did the usual things. I incorporated Michael, my wonderful past roommate, the guy sitting closest to the podium and one hapless man who had the bad fortune to leave and return into the action. The gentle torment of the guy who left the room and returned before I finished was a high point. Again, Michael wanted to crawl under the table while I did it, but everyone else loved it, even the poor man himself, who found himself subjected to the random, public deconstruction of his embodied cultural capital.
He got a big ovation, too.
In general. everyone appeared to listen closely and follow my thoughts. It seemed to be OK, too, when I inadvertently said a bad word. Oh well, I can't control everything I do. Sometimes authentic is really somewhat awkward.
When I finished, everyone just sat there in shock for a minute and then started clapping.
Afterwards, the woman sitting next to me at my table looked at me with a glazed expression and said, "You're awesome," and the doctors at the table (who were quite awesome themselves) all shook my hand and hugged me and told me how much they loved it.
So, despite Michael's fears, it went well. Next time, though, I will warn first-time companions before I take them to a talk.
There will be a link sent out soon to videos of all the conference's WAD talks. I may put it up on LJ. There is one talk on early childhood trauma and its impact on human beings that was very, very useful. I learned so much during this talk---I really recommend it. I'll link to it later if I can.
I think I'll also be able to put the video for my talk on my book website. That will make Rebecca happy!
