Since the Moot Pitch, I've been thinking about my personal presentation skills. It's an interesting case.
Naturally, I'm not particularly gifted when it comes to public speaking (which isn't uncommon in my line of study). Consequently, I've put a lot of effort into improving my presentation skills - which, for the most part, has paid off. I'm familiar with my own strengths and limitations, I hold a lot of extra-curricular positions that involve presentation, and I'm employed as a tutor for IFB103 where public speaking is my job for multiple hours a week.
At this point, I consider myself a very competent speaker. There is, however, an exception: I only maintain my confidence when there's a power imbalance in my favour. That is, when I'm in some position of power over my audience, I'm able to control the atmosphere of the presentation and keep myself in a comfortable state of mind.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of industry-style presentations, the power imbalance is always against me. This seems to consistently catch me off guard, and my presentation skills regress to a level of confidence I thought I surpassed years ago. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating for me!
I know I'm capable of more. I just need to figure out how to channel it!
EDIT:
Further thoughts -
My "power imbalance" theory is somewhat affirmed by my presentation in week 3 - when I was addressing the class (trying to gather teammates), rather than Laz and Alex, my presentation was much more confident and effective.
How I can use this -
Changing the angle at which I view the presentation could benefit my presentation. If I view it as "convincing industry professionals to invest in my game" rather than "presenting my game to be judged," chances are I'll do much better.
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