TEDx progress

Yep, 3:36am, again :)

With the talk just under 6 weeks away, I kicked into high gear about 2 weeks ago. Previously I had been thinking about the talk and researching/reading/planning mostly on weekends, but starting a couple weeks ago I switched to pretty much every night.

Get home from work, make a healthy dinner, watch a few episodes of Raising Hope (I love that show) to clear my head from a busy work day, get a cup of tea, and then get energized by the work and work from 9 or 10pm straight through to 3 or 4am. Been doing that almost every night!

I'm surprised I'm not losing momentum, but the work really is self-motivating now. I am so excited about the progress and some stuff just takes a while but is so epically fun like sorting through old photos and scanning the ones you like.

Last weekend I trimmed the 2nd draft twice so now I guess I'm at the 4th draft? Anyway I had my (pretty much) final notes ready on Sunday as well as scanning a bunch of photos. Today I spent several hours working on the Keynote slides. It took a while to get started tonight, but I just did 1/2 my slides in one sitting. I'm happy with my choice of font and Keynote theme, it looks badass. Also very glad that I laboured over the decision for a week. :) The "photo" borders look really sharp and I'm VERY happy with my progress tonight. This is really shaping up.

I'm not going too heavy on the transitions and silly animations in Keynote but actually even the silly ones (sparkle, fire) are really well implemented and look great. I may use a few of them for comedic effect. The ones where the letters twist off and fall off the screen is really hilarious and I think I have a funny self-deprecating joke that matches that transition perfectly.

Once the slides are done and I've determined whether or not I'll have Presentation Mode pointing at me during the talk, I'm going to write up the "Speaker Notes" if necessary and then start practicing and possibly cutting out a few smaller pieces if the time is running too long. I want to practice enough to get the flow and timing expectations roughly planned out, but I don't want to overpractice and negatively affect the smooth, conversational, ad-lib vibe I want to have on-stage. I've done so much research, development, writing and slide prep, I don't need to overdo it on practicing. :)

Well I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard. Oh yes - and for anyone interested in coming feel free to send me an email and I can send you details about how to get tickets. It will also be simulcast during the event and YouTubed after the event. Once I know when I'll be speaking I'll post that for your interest.

Ok time for bed.
Mike :)