The funny guy.
Today’s Career Day presentation was great. I truly think this was the best Career Day panel I’ve been involved with, and I think there are two reasons behind that.
First, I feel that the AAF-KC finally found the right place to put the digital creatives. In years past, I had been one part of a tripartite interactive marketing panel, the other 2/3 containing specialists in SEO, UX, account planning, etc. While this always made for a nice, diverse overview of the interactive landscape, it was tough to adequately cover that diverse landscape in such a short time period.
By having the interactive marketing panel evolve into more of the insights and avenues and then adding a digital art direction panel directly afterward to cover the creative aspect, they gave each branch of the digital landscape time to go a little deeper and engage interested students a little more.
Second, the chemistry on this panel was much better than in the past. Before, I was on panels with people that (in some cases) I was meeting ten minutes before we went in front of the crowd. This time I was actually well acquainted with at least one co-panelist and the other was quite easy to get to know. So, our sections flowed well together and became what I felt was an excellent example of the ideas we wanted to convey.
Today also marked the first time that I was billed more than once as “the funny guy.” This thrills me to no end because I had always hoped that my delivery and tone is entertaining enough to add an extra dimension to my source material which occasionally needs a little extra spice.
I hesitate to say that I approach my presentations as if I’m doing a stand-up routine, but I have to come clean and say that’s exactly what I do. A few months back I listened to a SXSWi podcast of two very smart guys talking about blogging, more specifically how to really take the craft of your blogging to the next level. In that podcast, one of the most salient (if not forehead slapping) bits of advice for me was that you should envision who you want to impress and then make sure that you write to that level.
I’ve taken that bit of advice and adapted it to my presentations. As I’m developing an idea for what I want to say, I think about who I really want to resonate with. Most of the time it’s pretty easy because I’m usually addressing college students. The way I see it, they get enough droning class lectures day in and day out. When I come in, I want to be drastically different. Yes, I want to be educational and inspirational first and foremost. Otherwise I never get asked to any more colleges. But, damn it, I want to be funny when I’m doing all that.
So, when I hear that I might actually be succeeding at being funny while delivering the goods… well, I get a little giddy.
And, of course, I see the same reader in my mind when I’m writing for this site as well. Of course, I also see Gruber and Mann in my head when I’m making things because I’d like for either one of them to see my creative output and be amused and enlightened even just a little bit by what I do. If you can’t aspire to gain the esteem of your heroes, no matter how unlikely, what can you aspire to?
Thanks again to everyone, students and organizers alike, who made today so great.