Tomorrow (Wednesday 10th May 2017) is Day #1 of the CIPD Learning and Development Show at Olympia in London, one of the premier L&D events in my annual calendar, alongside the LPI's LearningLive in September and the L&SG's Learning Technologies Conference in February and June. These are my three 'go-to' events, sometimes as a speaker or session chair, and sometimes just as an attendee.
Each show has its different high points and at this year's CIPD L&D Show, mine is going to be being one of the speakers in the Ignite Lab at 16:45 in the Digital Learning area of the Exhibition. In numerical terms, there are 9 speakers, each with 5 minutes to talk, supported by 20 slides, auto-timed for 15 seconds each. As if that is not a challenge in itself, to make things just a little more challenging, I'm first up!
This will be only my third ever Ignite presentation, having delivered my first at the CIPD Annual Conference in Manchester some three years ago. I was on stage with some big hitters - Andy Lancaster, Perry Timms and Paul Taylor - and anyone who was there may remember my 'paper blizzard' as I referred to my prompt notes and discarded them willy-nilly on the floor after each slide. In truth, that represented my under-rehearsed approach and an element of panic on my part. But at least it gave my fellow presenters and others in the room a good laugh. I think the topic was well received as well, if slightly overshadowed by flying postcards.
I recently delivered another ignite session at the Sussex CIPD Branch meeting in March, and had taken the time to rehearse and tweak (and repeat several times) beforehand. I blogged about that, and what I learned, here.
Yesterday, there was a flurry of tweets and conversation on Twitter amongst some of my fellow Ignite Presenters for tomorrow's session, when the list - and running order - was shared with us. The main theme was nervousness about the format and our individual concerns around being able to keep up with the auto-timed slides (there is no 'Pause' button once you've started!). The fear of it not quite working out in front of an audience. I share that nervousness, and it got me thinking about the pressure that we put ourselves under when we accept and undertake things like this.
Public speaking remains one of the biggest fears for many people, irrespective of their professional domain. We beat ourselves up thinking such thoughts as "Who wants to listen to what I've got to say anyway?", "The others will be so much better than me", "What if I dry up?", and, especially in the case of doing an Ignite session, "What do I do if I can't fit it all in and I run out of time?". I suspect there may be a restless night ahead for some of my colleagues, and indeed, myself.
However, in this Mental Health Awareness Week, it strikes me that this is as nothing to what many with mental health problems must experience daily, as 'panic attacks' or self-loathing 'voices' which disturb or disable their everyday functioning.
We will deliver our sessions and feel great that we've done it. We will (hopefully) receive some positive feedback and we will no doubt indulge in some self-congratulation and mutual back-slapping. But then, we are a little community, we have shared our anxieties, our fears, our feelings in advance, during and after our sessions. We will have been witnessed. No-one will die and we will all get on with our lives.
Those with Mental Health issues may not have those luxuries, that community, those shared discussions, that recognition. They may well not be presenting any outward signs of distress, may even be seen as high-functioning, particularly in a professional or work-related context. Remember that everyone is fighting their own battles that you know nothing about. Be kind.
And that applies to yourself as much as you should apply it to others. And not just tomorrow either.
Enjoy the show!
