My company has this annual exhibition thingy called the Renesas Forum, where we invite "people of the industry" (a.k.a. competitors not allowed) to share our latest developments (a.k.a hardcore marketing and shameless self plugs). This year the venue was at Sheraton Hotel Taipei, and I was asked to be a speaker for my product line, which at first I didn't think much of it cuz I have to do regular promotions to my customers as my daily job description. However, few days prior to the Forum, I realized this was not going to be a walk in the park.
In a meeting, the MARCOM team announced there are about 400 guests for the Mobile presentation, and within that around 200 were here to listen to LCD Driver IC (my topic). A collective o_O!? was raised by the LCD Driver team because we were anticipating around....like...20 to show up. But the MARCOM team insisted the numbers were right, so I thought I better do a damn good job O_O.
I had already prepared my presentation power point, which was easy cuz I do this all the time. HOWEVER, I tried to do a run through, and that's when I realized this is gonna suck. I have to explain somethings first. Although I can speak Mandarin fluently, my though process is usually in English. When I talk to myself, it's in English, such as "I gotta go poo" or "Oh maaaaaaan it's Monday". So usually I have to translate my thoughts from English to Mandarin on the fly when I'm taking to someone. It's not that bad when I'm in a conversation which I can manage pretty well. However in this presentation which is like me talking to myself out loud for 30 minutes, and my run through sucked so much I was mortified.
Now, I do many presentations like this to my customers. In a more cozy setting, I would do the presentation in a 'conversation' style when (not if) I couldn't think of what to say in Chinese. I would say "so what do you think?" to kill the dead air and pass the responsibility to the other side. Well I can't do this in a key note style presentation can I? And usually in a more formal presentation, I can get away in throwing in English 50-50. But for the Forum they wanted to have Chinese speaking presenters to present in Chinese to the public...which was going to be trouble.
The day before the presentation I still couldn't went through my materials half fluently, so as a last resort I typed out everything I wanted to say in Chinese. I planned to read it a gazillion times before the presentation... I even wrote out "Thank you for attending the Forum, My name is Randy blah blah blah" verbatim, I was this desperate. So few hours before the presentation I hid myself inside the Green Room to prepare, and guess what, other presenters were there also cramming.
Then one of the VP came saw us and started talking to himself, "So you guys are presenting! Don't worry you all will do a good job!! Oh and then head hunters will come and take you away from the company....bitches (真賤!)....well I'd present too if I had the chance.....bitches(真賤!)" and walked out of the room.
Anyways, few minutes before the presentation I still couldn't remember half of the stuff, cuz I have a crappy short term memory. There were about 150 people, and I wasn't really nervous but more worried with my Chinese speaking abilities. However I still have my crib notes and was very intended on reading it.
Then it's my term, and shit happened.
I put the script on the podium, and it kept sliding off cuz the surface was tilted at an angle and probably waxed just to spite me. I also had to hold the mic in one hand, and the laser pointer to the other. Which means I need a third hand to hold the stupid script. I was fed up, and slammed my two pieces of paper on the floor beside me and started talking whatever.
That was when, Ladies and Gentlemen, I demonstrated the unlimited potentials of the Human species. I knew exactly what to say for each presentation slide, and even cracked lame jokes (to the sound of crickets)! I flied through the 45 minutes with only minor stoppage (went over 15 minutes), and I was actually enjoying myself. I was rather amused too, at some people who yawned so blatantly when sitting in the first row... Bitches!
Well, everything wasn't that smooth...at one point my laser pointer was blocked by the mic stand, so I tried to adjust my position on the podium to avoid the blockage....and I fell off of the podium....................while speaking................. luckily afterward I asked my colleagues and they said they didn't notice the boo boo.
I was also complimented by them telling me that the 45 minutes were probably the best Mandarin they have ever heard me speak! There were also people from the audience came up to me afterward to congratulate me and shook my hand. Wow I was good enough for handshakes! So overall, the Forum was a success, Taipei venue had even more people showed up (611) than the Tokyo venue (less than 611). It was also a success for me on a personal level. Go me!
I'm ready Head Hunters, take me take me take me!
Im back from my vacation at Boracay for almost a week now, and some of you have asked why have I not write about the vacation on my blog. The reason I haven't write about the vacation was because I'm a lazy person, and I don't like vacation blogs. They are usually boring to read because it's so detailed down to each meal, and they made me very jealous.