My Bumps in the Road

One of my favorite new books is Learning from the Bumps in the Road in which some of my colleagues talk about how they have learned and moved on from their missteps.  This has made me reflect on my career as a public speaker.  In 35 years I have given hundreds of presentations: some great, some okay, and some with significant bumps, such as:

• A few clothing bumps:  In my first big gig, where I was to address 2,500 attendees at the annual Ohio AEYC conference, I was getting dressed and discovered to my horror that I had mistakenly packed my wedding suit (which I had matured out of in a major way).  On another occasion, I discovered I had packed two left shoes.  Then there was the time that my luggage got lost and I had to address the annual conference of the New Zealand Early Childhood Council wearing an Aussie rugby shirt.

• An hour before I was scheduled to give a presentation at NAEYC I decided I hated my speech and hurriedly composed a new one.  About 10 minutes into the hour presentation, I realized that I was starting my last point.  I stretched it out as best I could, but ended up having the shortest (15 minute) presentation in NAEYC history.

• My presentation at an R&R conference in northern California happened to coincide with the seventh game of the World Series between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants.  Half of the audience was listening to the game with earpieces — resulting in periodic bursts of wild applause when one team or the other scored.

• Fifteen minutes into an all-day presentation on parent relations, after I had just made what I thought was a brilliant comment, an audience member got up and announced, “That is the worst idea I have ever heard in my entire life!”  Oddly enough, my comment was on the importance of stimulating complaints.

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