Public Speaking
Whether the purpose is to inform, to inspire, or to persuade, I am well-versed in crafting and delivering context-appropriate messages that reach people where they are. My record of public speaking engagements is presented here chronologically.
2016
My first of many speaking engagements with my local chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) was in February of 2016. I co-presented alongside another chapter member at an event hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF) benefiting technical communication students. Event attendance was free.
The program concept was a series of rotational discussions that allowed attendees to choose the topic tables that most interested them within the allotted time slots. Each table was themed after a gemstone color; ours was emerald. We also used subtle video game theming (in the style of the popular game Minecraft) for our handout, which we offered to everyone who visited our table. The title of our presentation was Mining for Knowledge: First Year on the Job.
Our presentation leveraged personal experience to describe what to expect and how to thrive during the first year working as a technical communication professional.
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2017
UCF hosted the same general event concept from 2016 again in April of 2017. It remained free to attend so that students would be encouraged to join. With another year of career experience under our belts, we decided to revise our presentation and offer it one more time. This time, our presentation title was Leveling Up: First Years on the Job.
We used more overt video/tabletop game theming for this leveled-up version of the presentation, pulling inspiration from multiple role-playing games. Our assigned color was gold this time. This was in honor of UCF’s official colors: black and gold.
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In October of 2017, we also spoke in front of a classroom full of technical communication and information technology students about experiences in our industries (mine being Department of Defense work at the time). Following our formal presentation, we participated in a robust question and answer session with the room.
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2018
In May of 2018, STC Florida had the honor of being the host chapter for the 2018 Technical Communication Summit, an international gathering a technical communicators held annually. This provided me (alongside three other core members of our chapter) with the unique opportunity to present not once, but twice during the event.
The first of these presentations was for “Leadership Day” at the beginning of the conference, in which chapter leaders from across the organization gathered to share best practices. We provided the feature presentation for the gathering.
This video includes the majority of my section of the leadership presentation.
I also led two breakout sessions following our leadership presentation.
The following day, we delivered our second presentation as a technical session in the regular summit schedule.
We conveyed our technical session presentation panel-style and answered a series of audience questions after completing our topics.
Both of these presentations (alongside other duties as the host chapter of the Summit) were the culmination of several months of planning and collaboration.
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It was around this time that the STC Florida chapter actually became a statewide chapter. With this in mind as I took the mantle of chapter Vice-President, I set out to modernize our monthly meetings to be more virtual-friendly.
I organized and served as the primary moderator our first-ever mixed-media panel (held October 2018) featuring four in-person panelists and two online panelists. The meeting topic was How to Make Subject Matter Experts Your Tech Comm Allies. This became the first of many meetings hosted with a strong online presence.
The timing could not have been better, as this preparation made it much easier to pivot to a full virtual model when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Without the capability to do so, there is no guarantee that the chapter would have survived that catastrophe.
2019
Another of my objectives as STC Florida Vice-President was to hold a half-day workshop for new technical communicators so that they could get hands-on experience as part of their STC media diet. With this in mind, I organized and co-hosted a Saturday workshop titled Visualizing Your Career in Tech Comm, which we hosted in April of 2019 for both virtual attendees and for those who could attend in-person at UCF.
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To quote myself in a later chapter newsletter article:
On the morning and afternoon of Saturday, April 27th, we had another chapter first: a half-day workshop that encouraged both in-person and virtual attendees. Bethany Aguad and I hosted the event from the new technical writing lab at the University of Central Florida, which also enabled several students to attend in addition to mid-career and late-career practitioners. Attendees filled out a career interest survey, which enabled us to create personalized reports that matched each person’s interests with key words from real tech comm job opportunities in various career tracks that were open across Florida. We discussed some of these tracks, as well as job search and placement strategies, before splitting off into pairs for a resumè peer review. In-person attendees were invited to continue discussions with us at a restaurant after we departed the lab, which led to some additional lively professional topics.
I also briefly served as the chapter’s Acting President. In this capacity, my most notable responsibility was to lead our annual awards ceremony, which marks the end of each chapter year. I rebranded this ceremony to The Spotlight Awards, during which I introduced a new award, signed award certificates for several chapter members, and delivered a speech to the crowd celebrating a remarkable chapter year. This was also our first awards ceremony to support online attendance.
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2020
I participated in our chapter's first Open Forum on Tech Comm event. This was an all-virtual event held in April of 2020 during a new era of American history: the Covid-19 era.
Our chapter's all-virtual lineup continued throughout the height of the pandemic and beyond. In October of 2020, I co-presented a topic titled Podcasting: Tech Comm for the Digital Age based on personal podcasting experience.
2022
After a brief sabbatical from giving presentations in 2021, I returned to the world of public speaking in May of 2022 as a co-presenter for a topic very personal to me. The title was Tech Comm and Mental Health: Caring for Yourself and Your Documentation. This presentation was in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.
Our chapter held another panel-style event in November of 2022. But this time, I was a panelist instead of the moderator. This was STC Florida's Introverted Leadership Panel.
2023
In 2023, I became a co-chair for the Advocacy Committee of DeLand Pride.
Many of us in DeLand Pride attended the Volusia County School Board (VCSO) meeting held on October 10th to advocate for inclusive education and against the banning of books in Volusia County schools.
I spoke before the VCSO during the public comment portion of the meeting, representing myself rather than my organization. This was my first time speaking in front of a political body.
Click or tap here to open the full Youtube video that this clip was taken from.
2024
In 2024, I accepted a second position with my local pride organization. In addition to being an Advocacy Co-Chair for DeLand Pride, I also became an Advocacy Co-Director on the Board of Directors for Volusia Pride—the parent organization of DeLand Pride.
I joined two other volunteers from our organization to represent both DeLand Pride and Volusia Pride as part of an annual statewide advocacy program held during the legislative sessions in the Florida Capitol. This program is Equality Florida's Pride at the Capitol. We directly lobbied legislators in Tallahassee to support inclusive bills and to oppose discriminatory bills.
This effort also included speeches in front of the "Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law, & Government Operations Subcommittee" of Florida's House of Representatives on January 17th. I spoke in opposition of House Bill 901, "Display of Flags by Governmental Entities." Many referred to this bill as the "Pride Flag Ban" bill or the "Don't Display Gay" bill. The bill died two months later in the Senate Affairs Committee. Public comment times were reduced partway through the meeting and before I spoke, which meant that I had to improvise to deliver my message in a shorter time than expected. I believe that I was successful in doing so.
Deltona is a city neighboring DeLand in Volusia County, Florida. I spoke on behalf of DeLand Pride and Volusia Pride at the Deltona City Commission meeting held on June 3rd. My speech was in favor of the City of Deltona's first-ever LGBTQ+ Pride Month proclamation, which was formally presented during the same meeting.
Click or tap here to open the full YouTube video that this clip was taken from.
I was also present for our acceptance of the City of DeLand’s 2024 Pride Month proclamation.