Sensory overload

Have you ever experienced this: you're giving a presentation at a conference or workshop and you've been sitting in the audience for a while waiting your turn. Your stomach is full of demented butterflies and you're thinking how nice it will be when this is all over.

And then it's your turn! Someone introduces you. You make your way to the front, and suddenly you're standing there, facing back into the room where you were sitting just a short while ago. You're confronted by a sea of faces and you see the room for the first time from this, completely different, angle. There might be some people in the audience that you recognise, you may see someone that you wish wasn't there, maybe a person who is more expert on the subject than you. I think that many people, however, when confronted with a large audience in that kind of situation, don't have such an easy time distinguishing individuals. At that particular moment you're subject to serious sensory overload. Your brain is really busy taking in all the new impressions and sights which are suddenly so unfamiliar from this angle, even if you've been sitting in the room for some hours already. It looks completely different doesn't it?

So is it really surprising that many people say that the first couple of minutes are really the hardest. They have to work very hard to remember what they were going to say and quite often completely forget it. Some people write it all down word by word in order not to be struck by total paralysis. A few minutes later you're into the flow of things and much more relaxed and the start is forgotten.

Why do this to yourself? There's really no need to subject yourself to the enormous sensory input PLUS the extra nervousness and stress at the very beginning of your talk. It's hard enough to focus on saying the right thing and getting off on the right foot. So here's a very simple tip. When most of the people are in their places and the room (or lecture theatre) starts to look much the way it will when you later stand there to give your talk,  take a few moments to stand at the front facing the audience in exactly the position you will take up later. Look around the room, get used to the feeling, and just let your brain absorb all the input, the sights and sounds and the experience of standing there. It couldn't be easier! And it makes a very big difference. When you stand there later everything will be familiar and you will have much more of your cognitive capacity freed up to actually concentrate on your talk.The people sitting in the audience will probably not notice you, they're too busy settling in and looking around for people they know.