After The Auditions

The 3 winners of the TEDxSMU Auditions were very solid choices. Belinda Baldwin, Jasmin Brand, and Will Clarke each demonstrated a well crafted comfort with the stage, and presented topics that were intriguing. Each topic could easily be expanded into longer in depth presentations.

Sarah Hodge has posted a complete recap of the evenings presentations. Thanks Sarah for doing that. I mentally missed half of the presenters while trying to calm down from my turn under the spot light.

Here is my totally self absorbed, center of the universe recap of the evening:

From the beginning I did this for the fun, and because it was my way of showing support for TEDxSMU. I have seen how sending out a Call To Artists can result in lack luster returns in both quality and quantity. Happily in this case, TEDxSMU did end up with over 50 applicants. Dallas does have a lot of engaging topics and dynamic people.

Each of the 13 presenters approached the microphone differently. Some had that envious natural ease, some followed learned presentation techniques, some approached it as a short performance, 3 minutes on the dot. And some, well 3 minutes can be a long time.

Personally, I followed the school of practice, practice, practice. I practiced until all my cats ran out of the house. Then I went down to the railroad bridge not to through myself off, but to practiced some more.

Reflecting back on my performance, I can see where the text lacked clarity, and where I verbally stumbled due to technical issues. Sense part of me seems to enjoy this form of punishment, maybe I should seriously educate myself in the art of public annunciation.