Well, I did it. I gave a talk to over 1000 people at Pecha Kucha Vancouver this weekend. Never did figure out a good name for the talk, ended up with ‘Typography is Cool’, I think it might have worked after all.
When I was sitting in the front row with the other speakers, I was overcome with an inordinate amount of fear, fear that I had never experienced before I gave a talk in the past. It was paralyzing. The charming frenchman next to me, Serge, whispered to me ‘I don’t know why I said yes to this – I hate the way it makes me feel – I hate this!’ I totally agreed with him! Thank goodness I was 3rd on the list so I got it over with. People laughed at the right time (my cakewrecks joke always gets ’em) and I think they got what I was trying to communicate: that typography is older than computers, it’s a pretty diverse and interesting field, and that we all do it, but whether we do it well is another story.
Once I sat down and Serge went, I started to unwind a bit. By the end of his talk, I was breathing and laughing and back to normal and was actually having fun! When he sat back down, I whispered to him that Pecha Kucha was much more fun AFTER one speaks!
It was inspiring and informative, and I met two women that I instantly admired and want to make them my new best friends (Caroline MacGillivray & Lizzy Karp), two people that I’d love to work with (Jay Grandin & Leah Nelson : call me soon, Leah!) and was admiring the artistry of Dani Tatarin’s work and eager to read everything by the utterly brilliant Trevor Brody.
A good night was had by all. It made my heart warm a bit to rainy ol’ Vancouver, too.