For our first project, I gave a speech that assessed the credibility of Jay Walder, CEO of Motivate bike share which recently partnered with Ford to produce the Ford Gobike initiative. In all honesty, I pretty much botched my presentation. I went into class feeling confident because when I recorded my three rehearsals they were consistently timed (4:50, 4:44, 4:54) and I was able to clearly articulate everything I wanted to say. One thing I think I was able to do particularly well in my rehearsals was that I was able to elaborate on bullet points and touch on everything I wanted to say while at the same time avoiding reading my script word for word. During my presentation though, I got nervous and lost my train of thought so I relied more on the script that I had written. A personal goal that I have for the semester is to be able to give my speeches the same way I rehearse.
Another problem that arose for me was my lack of interest in my subject. It’s not that I found Jay Walder and the Gobike initiative completely boring, I just didn’t have a particular sense of drive or inspiration when I gave my speech. Before I chose the Gobike video, I was looking for videos that pertained to my major (Design) but all I could find were videos about the actual designing of bikes. While this is interesting in itself, I focus more on the graphics side of design rather than the architecture/industrial design side of design. If I had found a video that somehow meshed graphic design and biking, I think I would be able to give a more consistent and engaged presentation than the one I actually gave. Finding speech topics that I’m truly interested in is another thing that I’d like to work on for my next speech.
As for things that I think I did well, I think I was able to structure my speech fairly well and I think that my body language/ eye contact was good as well.