WOW! Is all I have to say. The Digital Summit Seattle was an amazing experience. I have to admit, when I arrived in Washington the day prior, my energy was very low. There was just something off that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Even when I went to rehearse my presentation the morning of, I didn't feel like I was on my 'A' game. I knew I had to get out of whatever funk that I was in and out of my head so that I could FOCUS on what it was that I went to Seattle to accomplish.
Like I normally do, I arrived at McCaw Hall about two hours before my presentation. I prefer to get to venues ahead of time so that I have an opportunity to check out the room I'm going to be presenting in and see a few of the other speakers. Upon checking in at the conference, I was told I would be presenting on Stage 1, "the stage that the keynote is currently being given on." Even though I'd been to two Digital Summit conferences in two different cities, my initial thought to being on Stage 1 was,
🤔 The stage at this venue must be smaller than the others...
However, when I walked in the room. Scratch that. When I walked in the auditorium I was shocked at the capacity it held and how big the stage was! See, for those that aren't familiar, the stage that the keynote is delivered on is typically the largest stage and is often labeled as "Stage 1." However, for some reason, it never occurred to me that I'd be assigned the largest stage to give my presentation on. But I was. In none of my visualization rehearsals in my head did I picture myself on a stage THAT huge. 😂
As I sat through the keynote, all I could think about was how in the world was I going to work a stage that large. IN HEELS. 😶 I've never, in all my years of speaking spoke on a stage that big.
But I did it. I spoke on the biggest stage of my life. No notes. No memorized speech. A straight up meaningful discussion with digital marketers hungry to learn how to elevate their video strategy on social media. Hungry to learn from me. And I was NOT about to disappoint them!
I got up on that stage and worked it. 💥 I mean I worked that stage from stage left to stage right, and every area in between. Because I was on such a big stage, I felt I had to move even bigger during my presentation so the people in the back of the room could not only see, but experience what I was saying.
While I was confident in my speaking and presentation skills before meeting this stage, I truly believe the size added more. The size of the stage added more opportunity for me to perform as a speaker. The size added more space for me to engage with my audience. Size added value to conference attendees ultimately leaving them full with knowledge after coming into the room hungry.