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March 27, 2006
My First Travel Presentation - "The
Sights and Sounds of Cuba": Butterflies in my Stomach and a
Wonderful Audience
Every life project has its milestones, and this past Friday was
a real milestone for me: I gave my first travel presentation in
front of a real-life non-paid audience.
Okay, so I have showed my travel DVDs to my friends before in my
own home, but they were somewhat coerced into watching them by the
potential guilt they would have felt if they had offended the hostess....;)
A few weeks ago I sat down with Javier and Victoria who run the
Spanish Centre,
Canada's largest Spanish language school and we did some brainstorming.
Being a real lover of the Spanish language, I take courses there
on a regular basis and in addition to Spanish courses at every level,
the Spanish Centre also offers dance classes (salsa, tango, flamenco)
and they hold several cultural events every month. We figured that
my Spanish language learning experiences in Cuba might be of interest
to the students of the Spanish Centre. So we scheduled my first
travel presentation for March 24, 2006.
I have to admit, I prepared quite heavily for this event: I put
together 2 DVDs, one short 12-minute feature, visually explaining
the evolution of Travel and Transitions, and another 19-minute DVD
encapsulating the sights, sounds and stories of Cuba that I experienced
last year. In addition to that, I read quite a bit about Cuba, its
geography, history, economy, architecture and culture.
I really tried to understand the historical context of why this
country is so unique and was a bit torn as to how much detail I
should provide in the presentation. I did conclude, however, that
Cuba is such a unique country because of its communist political
system, its unusual economic policies and the ongoing conflict with
the US and the embargo. For me there was no way I could talk about
Cuba without shedding some light on this interesting and unique
context.
Che immortalized on the Plaza de la Revolucion
You wouldn't believe how nervous I was.......
Yes, I've been working on this website for about 17 months by now,
I write a lot and I've done a few interviews with media. But talking
in front of a live crowd is a different story altogether, especially
when you are not a regular public speaker like me. The past few
days before the presentation I had worked quite hard, trying to
read up on my topic and understand the last little bits and then
tried to condense that information into a small manageable time
frame. My husband listened to a trial version of the presentation
and gave me some feedback to cut back a bit on the historical side,
and I took his advice seriously and condensed the official knowledge
portion.
Havana - Capitolio Nacional
Finally, Friday was here and I had worked hard on compressing the
presentation and at 5:45 I left to go to the Spanish Centre. Fortunately
my team mate Khurram was with me which kept me nicely distracted
on the drive to the Spanish Centre. The room was set up for our
presentation, the TV was ready and finally by 6:45 pm people started
trickling in.
I started talking with the crowd as to whether anyone had already
been to Cuba (one of the most popular travel destination of Canadians...),
and we got a good discussion going before the presentation even
got underway. Punctually at 7 pm, Juan, one of the Spanish Centre's
senior teachers, introduced me to the capacity crowd - about 40
people that completely filled the room we were assigned, and off
I went.
Havana - Plaza de Armas
Interestingly the minute I started talking with people from the
audience, my nervousness completely disappeared and I briefly introduced
myself and showed the visual summary of Travel and Transitions.
Then I touched on Cuba's history, its economy, political system
and then moved on to lighter topics such as life in Cuba and my
own personal experiences in this unique country.
I talked about my trip to the rural province of Pinar del Rio and
the quaint country town of Vinales. The highlight of this 2-day
/ 1-night trip were my encounters with my B&B hostess, our hike
through the "mogote" (we walked through a cave that went
all the way through one of the limestone haystack hills that Vinales
is famous for) and our encounter with a poor hardworking local peasant.
Church in Vinales
Student life at the University of Havana was also one of the topics
as well as my local explorations in this beautiful city over a period
of two weeks where I saw virtually every major sight that Havana
has to offer. My encounters with locals and insights about Cuban
culture and lifestyles were added along the way.
After this verbal introduction I showed the second DVD which presented
the photogenic people and places of Cuba and my own travel experiences.
Then I opened the floor up to questions and we finished the evening
off with a draw that was sponsored by some of my Travel
Story Contest Sponsors: Canada's adventure travel leader G.A.P
Adventures had graciously donated a beautiful fleece sweater,
the Mountain Equipment
Coop had provided a travel mug and a large quantity of lip balm
and carabiners, I had picked up magazines of some of our other contest
sponsors: Outpost
Magazine ("Travel for Real"), Verge
Magazine ("Travel with Purpose") and Plenty
Magazine ("It's Easy Being Green"), all of which were
well received by the crowd.
Defending Socialism
The whole evening actually finished at 8:45 pm, 15 minutes earlier
than the time that was allocated and from what I could tell, the
audience had a pretty good time. Several people came up to me afterwards
and said they enjoyed the presentation and found it very informative.
Some of my friends and I headed to a pub afterwards and I got a
couple of compliments from people I would have never expected. I
received a few wonderful emails from participants after the event
and these may be the beginning to long-term friendships among like-minded
people.
March 24, 2006 was definitely a milestone for me: I came out of
the closet, so to speak, and gave my first travel presentation.
I moved from publishing anonymously on the web to interacting with
a real-life audience. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience,
and I look forward to more to come in the future. (My next presentation
will be about my language study and cultural immersion trip to Mexico
City, which I will explore together with my team mate Vanessa, who
is actually from there. Then I will spend 2 weeks studying Spanish
and discovering Cuernavaca - the City of Eternal Spring. I am getting
pretty excited since I will be leaving to go on this trip in only
3 days.....).
Thanks to the Spanish Centre for providing the venue, to my Contest
Sponsors for providing some great door prizes, and a big thank you
also to a wonderful audience that made this a special evening!
Interesting and useful books about Cuba:
Related Articles:
A severe case of Hispanophilia - Why
I love Spanish language & culture"
"Cuba is Calling - Why
I selected Cuba as my language study destination"
Hello from
Cuba (1) - First Impressions"
"Hello from Cuba
(2) - Rain in Vinales"
"Hello from Cuba
(3) - Hiking Vinales and Exploring Nature"
"Hello from Cuba
(4) - Bureaucracy Galore - The University of Havana"
"Hello from Cuba
(5) - Another Mind-Twisting Experience"
"Hello from Cuba
(6) - The Student Experience and Political Insights"
"Hello from Cuba
(7) - Fun and Recreation"
"Hello from Cuba
(8) - Bicycle Rides, Camellos and Cannon Shots"
"Hello from Cuba
(9) - Havana Neighbourhoods"
"Hello from Cuba
(10) - A Country Excursion"
"Hello from Cuba
(11) - Inside a Cuban Home"
"Hello from Cuba
(12) - Contrasts and Contradictions"
"Hello from Cuba
(13) - Exploring Downtown Havana"
"Hello from Cuba
(14) - Field Trips and Interviews"
"Hello from Cuba
(15) - Getting ready to say 'Goodbye, Havana'..."
"Hello from Cuba
(16) - The final day"
"My Post-Cuba
Reflections: Appreciation and Balance"
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