Take a bow

So today was the big presentation day of reckoning. Can I just say that before one presents their research I suggest the following:


1) Don't spend the night before on the phone to your ex wife for 2 hours
2) Don't sign mortgage papers in the morning
3) Avoid an hour with a student and her dad just beforehand discussing a quite serious and very complex disability related issue that has you almost in tears.


Simple advice but it might help, oh and WEAR PINK.


Today I was only giving a taster of the research. Perhaps I would have been better to give a link to the blog and then sip tea and let people read for themselves. I prepared a very brief overview of the project. As I have not collected any data yet I was conscious that although the research area is very interesting to me it may be less so to my audience and I wanted to keep people engaged. I had decided to focus on the methods, methodology, framework suggestions and an account of what has led me to this area of study.


I am not an academic member of staff and the audience was made up of academic colleagues and research students. First job is to shake the chip off your shoulder and stare through the invisible barrier and tell yourself you do deserve to be there. I hope I did that successfully and I have to say that the staff were incredibly supportive. They listened and didn't laugh and asked good questions afterwards. I was also lucky enough to get a couple of great suggestions. One of these was to do a pilot before I begin my first round of data collection. Embarrassed that I hadn't thought of this but I will definitely be testing out my questions now to ensure that I am asking the right things.


I think it went well. It is the first time I have presented my research and as someone who is never nervous of speaking in public I actually found it quite a challenge - it is different when it is your research you are opening to scrutiny. It has definitely made me want to present more. It is impossible to defend a position publicly, unless it is the right one and this is invaluable.


Afterwards a colleague popped to see me to discuss a couple of things I had mentioned and another colleague joined our 'corridor' discussion. The result was I was loaned a couple of books and had a chance to have a chat with people about their work and mine. Which leads me to conclude tonight that the best thing about today's experience was that I felt part of something and perhaps more importantly accepted as a part of it.


Thanks HLS :-)