My first WTF Talk

It’s done.

Some of you may know, others may not, but just last week I formed part of an incredible speaking panel at this year’s WTF Media Conference, which was held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology down in Cape Town.

Firstly, I cannot begin to explain to you the nerves that truly took over when doing last minute preparation behind the scenes. Fortunately or unfortunately I was first up, that right…literally the first speaker to talk after the Dean of the Information Department at CPUT, which kind of made me feel like I was back at school – speaking directly after a member of faculty and all – regardless of which, it truly did nothing for my nerves.

The Talk was MC’ed on the day by the wonderfully elegant, Heidi Schneigansz or better known as SnowgooseSA on Twitter. She truly commanded the stage and was more than brilliant as she introduced each speaker before they came up. This year the WTF Media Conference was run in much the same style as a TED-Talk which basically means you had little to no time to speak. Apparently I got the memo about this – which I did – but subsequently ignored the different coloured lights from the back of the auditorium and barreled my way through my “Questions Time”. I know…my bad.

So, I set the pace and I’ll be honest with you, the feeling of being up there and speaking about something you feel this passionately about it fairly addictive. I regret not being able to shorten my talk to 10-12mins, being able to answer questions would have been a better wrap up to my speech than stmbling through my last 5 or 6 points, but as they say in France; “C’est la vie”. Maybe they’ll have me back next year to finish off the other half of my speech…*crosses fingers and other crossable appendages*

I promised I’d send those who were interested in seeing my Prezi a link, but instead managed to work a little magic and embedded my Prezi into my blog – oh yes – the man has a little basic HTML skills to. Check it out below…(you’re welcome to pan freely – simply click on the arrow button to “play” and click forward or backwards depending on your orientation.)

Just for good measure, I decided to take a couple of screenshot of the tweets I received while talking on stage. What? I’m sentimental, okay? Gimme a break. Thank you to all those who tweeted up a storm…feels good to know at least some people were listening.

Last but not least, thank you to the team from the WTF Media Conference for their professionalism and encouragement. I truly appreciate it. Also, a massive thank you to all my fellow speakers from the Conference, I am humbled to be in the presence of such experience, knowledge and talent.