some advice input please!

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Don't start undervaluing yourself. You are a unique arb with a great outlook on trees and ecology and you have been invited for that reason. If it is not all as solid as a rock then tell it as it is. You are part of the evolution of the industry. A true working arb that has learnt to respect trees and their ecology through being with them.

Mind you, I would say a prayer before doing it.

 

thanks, thats what I mean though, in a few more years I might have the minerals to do what i do in public, which is face down ALL my critiques, small groups i can ahndle but a big group and with all their focus on me, I would feel very weak!

 

I have total conviction and faith, but I need more proof, and more ground covered before entering the pit:biggrin:

[Treecreeper1961]

thanks, thats what I mean though, in a few more years I might have the minerals to do what i do in public, which is face down ALL my critiques, small groups i can ahndle but a big group and with all their focus on me, I would feel very weak!

 

I have total conviction and faith, but I need more proof, and more ground covered before entering the pit:biggrin:

 

I can empathize with that, totally, but you are on a journey of learning that will never end, you know what you know , which is not to be underestimated, but I reckon you will never be satisfied you know enough. The world of trees has enough secrets to occupy scholars their entire lives. What you need to do is convey your enthusiasm and thirst for understanding in a way that will encourage others to see more than a large bit of wood that needs cutting.

Jesus, you don't know everything, we can all see that.

Fcuk the critics. There will always be those.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I can empathize with that, totally, but you are on a journey of learning that will never end, you know what you know , which is not to be underestimated, but I reckon you will never be satisfied you know enough. The world of trees has enough secrets to occupy scholars their entire lives. What you need to do is convey your enthusiasm and thirst for understanding in a way that will encourage others to see more than a large bit of wood that needs cutting.

Jesus, you don't know everything, we can all see that.

Fcuk the critics. There will always be those.

 

 

 

 

dont think im cut out for it, way too unsure of myself, it sucks and I hate it!

[log dog]

how about making a top ten of decay ! you could present it like a chart countdown fun way of presenting maybe ?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

i gotta be honest this threads thrown me, I was expecting different views to those here and its made me wonder whether I should be doing this at all. Makes my face go all hot just thinking about making a total cock of myself!

 

I think I will go to the bar for a few shots before hand!

[Treecreeper1961]

i gotta be honest this threads thrown me, I was expecting different views to those here and its made me wonder whether I should be doing this at all. Makes my face go all hot just thinking about making a total cock of myself!

 

I think I will go to the bar for a few shots before hand!

 

Questioning yourself is a strength not a weakness.

 

What were you planning on doing that makes you feel so unsure?

 

I am a hypocrite, i'd feel the same, but these things are seldom as bad as we expect them to be.

There is often a lot to be gained from following the advice of Nike, Just Do It!

[agg221]

Some suggestions, to follow or ignore as you see fit:

 

Find out how long you've got first. There's a very big difference between 20mins, half an hour and a whole hour. Also find out what the usual format is - talk in one section, break for refreshments, then more talk, or straight through in one go. How long should you allow for questions? You can then work out how much information you are trying to put over, whether it should be divided into sections of particular length, and how much content you need.

 

Find out how you're presenting. If you have it, I would suggest putting everything onto Powerpoint (if they have a projector!). Don't use any animations, or anything fancy, just pictures and simple bullet pointed text at most. Anything else just goes wrong. The advantage of Powerpoint is that the bullet points give you a cue as to what it was you wanted to say - it helps you tell the story and you're not shuffling notes as they're on the screen. If you are just using pictures, have a text set of bulleted notes, say 2 or 3 with each picture. Powerpoint also allows you to flick back easily if you get questions later about a particular picture.

 

Plan on one slide/picture per minute. You will tend to rush the first few, then as you get into your stride the later ones will take longer. It will work out on average.

 

I would pick a subject where you 'know' rather than are 'developing theories'. I wouldn't worry if it's not that academic, you're speaking from experience rather than presenting a research paper and you've never pretended you're an academic, so your audience is expecting to hear from you, not something you're pretending to be. Practical observation over a long period, coupled with enthusiasm, will be interesting to anyone - your audience will relate to it whatever their level. If you want to see a good example, try going along to your local gardening club (seriously) and you're likely to see what a good speaker can do with a subject that you didn't think would be that interesting, unless of course you get a bad speaker turn up...

 

I would start by working out what your message is. Then work out what you have that shows this - what evidence do you have? So, for example, if it's reductions and your message is that, done right, you can hit trees a lot harder than most people would dare to do, you could show evidence of a couple of sets of 'before', 'just after' and 'doing nicely' shots.

 

I'd then consider the advantages of doing this, so again for reductions this might be retention for amenity or habitat value. The subject also relates quite well to pollards, which are the ultimate in hitting trees hard - including beeches (Burnham) and willow, tied to some historic evidence of the practice. With permission from the owner (and courtesy crediting on the picture), you could supplement your own pictures from others posted on the relevant threads, or put out an appeal thread for what you need.

 

A bit of expansion on how - comparison and selection of methods such as drop crotch, moving on to the experimental use of axe notches to initiate epicormic growth etc. When would you use each method? You've posted on this quite recently, so it's the same message just expanded a bit and illustrated with pictures. There may also be something here about timing and response.

 

If you want to bring the whole thing together, a couple of 'case studies' can help. Trees that you know well, have recorded over a period of years, and show a number of the points you've made above.

 

When you've said what you want to say, come back to the message again, summarise it, state how what you've presented illustrates it, thankyou and any questions!

 

Once you've written it, stand and deliver it at home on your own. It will be really bad - don't worry about this! You will keep thinking of things you wish you'd said, or hadn't said. Note them down and move on. It will also be the wrong length and you may well find that some of the slides are in the wrong order, so afterwards it's time to tweak it around as necessary. The whole point is that, when you repeat the exercise the next day, it will be better. Do it again a few more times and you're done, but remember it won't ever go as well on your own as it will on the day - you can't fake the right atmosphere, so the time to stop running through it is when you know what message goes with each slide - you're not learning lines in a play so you don't have to memorise a speech, just have a good idea what the slide is doing there.

 

When you come to do it on the day, if you realise you missed something out that you were going to say, or said it too early, don't dwell on it and don't try to go back or fit it in, just move on. The audience doesn't know that you ever planned it differently! Just take a sip of water, read the next bullet point on the notes and pick up from there.

 

The time will fly by!

 

Alec

 

ps. Note that the above three things I suggested to cover are taken, literally in order, from the Rudyard Kipling poem - I Keep Six Honest Serving Men - take the six questions, 'what', 'why', 'when', 'how', 'where', 'who'. Work out which are relevant to what you want to say and give them in that order - dot-to-dot presentation writing.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

thats great advice agg, very big thank you

[agg221]

You're most welcome.

 

Alec