My First Gigs As Social Networking Presenter!

Last week I had my first "official speaking engagement" at Sun about Social Media -- kind of an overview, and probably too basic for a technical audience, but I wanted my first presentation as a social media consultant to be amongst friends. Thanks to my Sun connections, I was able to arrange this and it was great experience! I'm speaking at the Denver Chamber of Commerce on August 26, so I want to get as much practice as I can. I learned from two years at Toastmasters (not to mention many years of management) that the more you speak about a particular topic in front of an audience, the more prepared and confident you feel. I've come a long way since the early days of stage fright, and now I find myself actually looking forward to getting in front of an audience. Who would have thought?

After the Sun presentation, one of my friends, Deb Sedbrook, from Women at Sun invited me to join her at a PMP Career Camp that was being held that evening in Aurora. She suggested that I give an adhoc little presentation there, too! I wasn't prepared with slides, but welcomed the opportunity! Deb was trying to take a photo, but it looks like she got me on video for a few seconds as I was starting to talk about networking.

At the meeting, I listened to Art Weeast and Valerie Ness who presented about using LinkedIn for the Job Search. They had a lot of great tips and advice that I'll be able to pass on to my BoulderNet group. Art also told me about a Lafayette networking group that I'll be going to on Monday.

As I was saying in this little video clip, I'm having lots of fun with networking! I'm not sure why some people talk about it as though it's distasteful, but I think it's incredible to be meeting so many people! Everyone is happy to share their knowledge and help in any way they can. It's really a wonderful feeling of community. Most of the people I'm connecting with are not people that will be able to help me directly with my job search. Many are laid off themselves. But I'm not meeting them with the sole intention of getting a job. I'm meeting with them to learn from them and to maybe pass along some tips and tricks myself. I've learned so much about social media in this past couple of months, and there is almost always something that I can pass along. And I finally have the time to have lunch every day! I want to take advantage of this time and meet as many smart people as I can! My ultimate goal is to find a job, but I'm almost hoping it will take awhile. I'm just having too much fun with the search process!