On Monday evening I took the plunge and made my debut speaking engagement at the 20x2 event at SXSW. Luckily it all came together at the last minute (and I mean last minute) and wasn’t too embarrassing.
For those that weren’t there, here it is:
Overall, I think I pulled it out of the bag. It turned out to be bit of a promotion for Ning and the US, and the fact that the lyrics of the song ‘…where I belong…’ coincided with the many (many) pictures of Las Vegas—a place not top of my list of favourite cities—and certainly wasn’t planned.
Had I come up with this What If… a week earlier (instead of spending an entire week trying to answer the question ‘What if the Web Was Invented 10 Years Earlier’, which turned out to be a minefield) it may have been as good as the video that followed it. Created by Glenda Bautista, it’s answer was very similar to mine, but far more polished.
Khoi Vinh’s was probably the one I enjoyed the most: What If… We Could Eat Online. Having said that, all the presentations were excellent, and I loved the variety of answers the question generated.
Finally, a big thank-you to Kevin Newsum and his team. The event was fantastically well put together, and aside from the nerves, thoroughly enjoyable.