Room to Grow: Presenting to authors in your bibliography
In February I had the most amazing and simultaneously nerve wrecking experience. I opened an email from my supervisor which asked me if I would be happy to present at the Experts in Burden of Treatment Seminar he was organizing. Who me? At this point I didn't know who all was attending and I thought it would be scary but a great experience to practice presenting my PhD. So I said yes.
When full details was released and I saw that I was presenting alongside other PhD's which was comforting. However, it also became clear that I would also be presenting to some of the top authors in my field. The 'who's who' of my reference list. GULP.
Thankfully I have great support in Kate . We met and talked through our presentations as well as how to present to experts. Up to this point my presentations have had to to explain the concept of Burden of Treatment. This is a new concept and not all audiences are familiar with what it is. However this audience would include people who wrote the initial papers that helped to define and describe it! So a different approach was needed. This presented a new challenge as it meant I would have to more clearly describe how my ideas fit into the knowledge base as well as my plans to explore and test the ideas. Hence, the intimidation. I am new to this field and I have no data yet to support any of my ideas. So the tone of how I presented my ideas was important, as they are just that ideas. However, I knew my supervisors believed my ideas had merit or they wouldn't have asked me to present. So I framed my thoughts as "initial ideas/thoughts" and made it clear that data would follow, but this is where I was starting from. This presentation was an introduction of me and my ideas on burden of treatment in heart failure to the experts in this field.
I'd practiced presenting before so I had good strategies to help me with my nerves. Also I had the companionship of another PhD student from Norway who was in a similar situation. We supported and encouraged each other. On the morning of the presentation, no nerves. But from the moment the first presenter started speaking the butterflies in my stomach woke. I tried to be attentive to her presentation, with mixed success. Soon it was my turn and I put all of my nervous energy into passion for my subject and found friendly faces in the audience to focus on. The 20 minutes flew by. The question period was challenging, but I made it through. I was so pleased as I had some very insightful questions that challenged me and gave me the opportunity to explain my ideas more. Excitingly during the tea breaks other attendees (people who's paper's I've read and admired) spoke to me about how interesting my ideas were and how they would be looking forward to seeing how my project and ideas progress. It was humbling, yet helped me feel that my ideas were valid. This experience has helped me to see my PhD project in a new light.
What a great experience. I feel so fortunate to be in this field. I feel like the experts in this area are supportive of 'newcomers' like me. Despite being surrounded by experts I feel like they are supporting and pushing me and my ideas forward, giving me room to grow. I'm grateful for this experience and look forward to doing it again.
Tweets from this seminar see #BIGBOT18
