5 Ways to Become a Better Speaker

Okay here it is, the play by play of my wonderful trip to Calgary as the Keynote Speaker for the House of Persian Rugs, Designer Event.  Here I am at the airport in Vancouver, another gorgeous day (we’ve had a lot lately, and that is rare in May!). I sat beside Carley on the plane.  A lovely woman travelling to Saskatoon.  She looked so fabulous in her green suit, matching Coach purse, and 4” heels that I thought, please God let me look that beautiful when I’m 72 years old!! Which brings me to Tip #1 – Look the part (see my colourful outfit below :)!

Amir was the MC of this evenings event, and he was waiting for me when I arrived--okay in actual fact my plane was early and he was 5 minutes late, but I made him pose for the photo holding the paper with my name on it anyways—he was such a good sport!

Amir and Emad (the owner's son) dropped me at my hotel and picked me up one hour later for lunch, they treated me so great, opening doors for me and everything—hey the small things thrill me!  As I mentioned in yesterdays post, I stayed at the Hotel Arts.

It was a wonderful, contemporary room.  The headboard wall was covered in 12” x 12” mirrored tiles and dressed with a sheer chocolate brown drapery treatment, very chic!

I had to take a photo inside the elevator of the  Cole & Sons Woods wallpaper.

Look at this shovel with a branch growing out of it!  There it was hanging on the wall and I’ve never seen anything like it, so I thought I’d share it with you!

The lobby and the hallways of the meeting space wrapped around the pool--silly me didn’t take them up on their original offer to arrive the day before so I just looked longingly at it!

Here’s the lobby, you can see the pool through the window.

Here I am in the egg chair!

They took me to a fabulous French restaurant called La Chaumiere where we sat outside in their lovely patio.

Amir & Emad (above) both ordered the same salad and it was so pretty, I took a picture! 

After lunch we went to the Lougheed House, which is where it was being held to get set up and make sure my laptop had all the right attachments.  This grand sandstone prairie mansion was built in 1891 and enlarged in 1907; the impressive scale and the high quality of the design, materials and interior furnishings of the house reflected the wealth and prestige of the Lougheeds (Senator James Alexander Lougheed, Lady Isabella Hardisty Lougheed, their six children and staff). 

Tip #2 – If you have a MAC (bring the right cable to connect to the projecter) in addition to a remote! 

You can tell we were in oil country!  Some office buildings I snapped while walking around the grounds of the estate. Next stop was the House of Persian Rugs actual showroom where I was given the best PK (product knowledge session) by Abbas Keshmiri (the owner) of Persian rugs I’ve ever had!  They often have designers fly up with their clients from Vancouver and Edmonton because they have the largest selection of  Persian Rugs in Canada!

Wanna know what a $100,000 Persian rug looks like?  Here is one of them.  They keep them in a safe and pulled out two for me to see.  They are 100% silk and apparently silk lasts forever (which I didn’t know) while a wool rug lasts approximately 100 years.

The evening consisted of authentic Persian music. . .

and Persian cuisine. . . the food was so delicious!

Here I am (below; in my favourite colours) with Abbas Keshmiri of the House of Persian Rugs.

Tip #3 – Give the people that hired you, permission to let you know (by sending a note) if anything is missing during the presentation. For example, they have had many clients arrive looking for very specific colours that are impossible to find (unless they commission a custom carpet) because everything has been selected EXCEPT the Persian Rugs!  This is very frustrating for everyone!

This should have been one of the most important points of my talk.

The first part of the evening was my presentation and the second part was centered around the beautiful rugs showcased in the reception area where I talked about which colours I would use with each individual area rug.

Carol Ann from Camdesign Interiors (on the right, below) has been following my blog for a few months now and she was so excited when she heard I was coming to Calgary.  Carol Ann and her colleague Linda were my friendly faces in the crowd – they were so welcoming and I so enjoyed meeting them!

Tip #4 – Mingle before the presentation (if possible) and ask the attendees what they would like to get out of the evening.  It’s a great way to feel like you already have some friends in the crowd (Thanks Carol Ann :) and gives you an opportunity to address them in your talk before the question period!

Here I am flying over the Rockies on the way home!

All images by Maria Killam

It was one of the best days I’ve ever had, although afterwards, of course I was just aware of the mistakes I’d made during the talk and how it could have been even better. 

Tip #5  - One big lesson I learned was;  never have the screen beside you when speaking—I had to lean around to see where I was when I would finish making a point so my transition from one slide to the next wasn’t always very smooth! 

That’s how we learn though (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post)!  And I look forward to doing it again very soon!

Related posts:

Happiness is. . . Being Uncomfortable

A light colour will never come to life in a dark room

The right way to create flow using colour (Washington Post Blog Watch)

Insider Secrets to Testing & Selecting Paint Colours

Colour is Context