I survived giving my presentation today – in spite of the fact that I showed up to the wrong hotel, in the wrong part of the city. I blame my boss. I mentioned that the talk was at the Sheraton Imperial (although I hadn’t looked to see where that was yet) and he said, oh yeah, the one down on Campus Walk road. Get to the hotel on Campus Walk – oops, that’s the Millenium. Call my administrative assistant, she looks up the location and it’s 15 miles away.
I still made it on time. Had a room of 25 people or so. I asked, no one wanted to do the more interesting version of the talk (the one with volunteers, paper airplanes and silly hats). I’m not sure why. Maybe because I didn’t have any silly hats on me.
There was a reception at the end of the day (about a half hour from when I finished). As usual, I didn’t stay. It’s funny – this is the real difference between introverts and extroverts. I am fairly introverted, but at the spur of the moment can still give a dynamic, well received talk to a room full of people. I’m not self conscious about being goofy or making jokes. What makes me introverted is that after that, I’m done. I’m just out. I want to go home, have a drink, relax. If I had gone to the reception, I would have sat in the corner with my drink ignoring everyone. Introversion and extroversion have nothing to do with presentation anxiety. The difference is that extroverts get energized and are ready for more. For introverts, not so much.