I want to hold your hand

Feb 17, 2012

Last night, I was a speaker at IgniteRaleigh 3, given 5 minutes, 20 slides and about 600 listeners. “Enlighten us, but make it quick,” were my instructions.

I’d proposed to tell why “I want to hold your hand,” with tips on how handshakes can be used for community building. I didn’t get a lot of votes, but IgniteRaleigh organizer Ryan Boyles invited me to take one of the extra slots on the program. I agreed to go last, prepared my slides, rehearsed intensely, and showed up with a lot of excitement, then greeted my friends Karyn and Mark and Dawn and Brian.

The other speakers were really good — a proliferation of breweries in North Carolina, lessons about teenagers and a tribute to millennials, memorable experiences from a train car, and more — and the emcees, Page and Jake, funny together.

Then it was my turn, and I stepped onstage. I vaguely recall how the next minutes went: strong start, sometimes trouble with speaking into the mic, then rickrolled on my 18th or 19th slide. But I finished, and got my message out there, with maybe a few people in the crowd turning to another to shake hands.

Video of the talks will be posted online, and I’ll point to it when available, hoping I was somewhat coherent in my delivery. [UPDATE: video embedded below.] But I also want to make sure my message gets out (especially so I can show my dad, whom I centered my talk on), so I sat down with my Zoom H1 Handy Recorder today, recited my script, and used Soundslides to make this narrated slideshow (note I’ve adjusted the length of individual slides for better timing):

Anton Zuiker ☄