About two weeks ago, I spoke at the Mises Circle in Toronto, organized by the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada. My lecture was on “Monetary Policy and the Great Recession”, but I focused on monetary equilibrium theory. I criticized any attempt to “stabilize spending” (like NGDP targeting) during deflationary spirals caused by previous fiduciary overexpansion — a similar criticism was published on Cobden Centre in late August.
The lecture was been put on video. It was my first lecture of any kind. I was nervous, and I wasn’t well enough prepared for it. I decided to write out the entire lecture and print it, but then I realized that the font was not big enough. Judge it as you will. My only request is for you to be nice!
Enough self-hate, though. I thought I’d share the video of the lecture with you all,
Monetary Policy and the Great Recession from Mises Institute of Canada on Vimeo.
{ 9 comments }
Hey, man, you did very good! Even for a first time speech you did spectacular. And your text was great, too.
P.S. I am subscribed for the newsletter of the DR but I still haven’t received anything from it. Are there any articles that you have already published and I could browse?
P.S. 2. Would you publish the text of the lecture you presented at Mises Canada?
Thank you, Ivan!
With regards to the newsletter, it’s a long story, but long story short I don’t see that actually officially circulating any time soon (or at all). I’m not sure on the status of the project (which was more than just a newsletter — I was just hired for the newsletter portion) anymore.
I can definitely put the text out. I’ll just have to figure out where. And, I’d also have to correct a few mistakes.
I was going to watch, but the negative propaganda changed my mind.
Better wait for the next lecture.
Just watching – you rock man! Great lecture.
You did very well and the future will be bright with more of your presentations.
I was sort of hoping you walked up with your signature avatar-beholding shades on.
Nice job.
Contrary to what other commenters are saying, I agree with you that your presentation was boring. I suppose that I could follow your request and be niece but that wouldn’t help you to improve.
When I give a speech I limit my notes to a general outline, which would fit on the front of a 3 x 5 card for a half-hour speech. I find that I can then speak extemporaneously on the subject and more effectively engage the audience. I also find it helpful to practice giving the speech to a digital recorder several times before the actual presentation.
Regarding visuals, I am very old-school. Before PowerPoint, few would have considered including bullet points among their visual aids. I generally spend about ten minutes discussing each slide in my presentations, so a half-hour presentation would only have about three slides after the cover slide.
What works varies by speaker. I like putting the salient points as bullet points, and ad-libbing the rest. (I may write it out once in rough first if there is time). It does take some practice to get used to how long a presentation takes, what your pacing should be, etc. Watching yourself and listing to feedback is helpful on these points.
As to your introduction to the presentation, I remember being told, and am now very grateful for the advise, never to sell a presentation short before it is heard. Don’t oversell if the presentation is dry, but if you tell people it will be boring it will be a self fulfilling prophecy.
I completely agree with DougM above. You have good content, but delivery needs work. Keep at it, practice, practice, practice, and soon you’ll be quite good at it.
You’re really coming up, man. Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito!
Comments on this entry are closed.