Presentations and such

I took a class today at school as part of a two-year, leadership program I am doing through the University's Training & Development department. Today's class was called Presenting Effectively; it actually met today from 8:30 to noon and then meets again next Thursday same time. Guess why there is a week between the classes? Yep, we have to do a presentation!

So next Thursday I have to do a 20 minute presentation on the topic of my choice. The teacher is very much against having scripts, notes, or even detailed outlines. So I need a topic that I don't need any kind of notes in front of me for. I'm thinking of doing something on the clarinet. I know that in only 20 minutes I can cover a brief amount of history, a bit about the construction, and then show how it sounds, etc. I want something that is also interesting to the people in the class. I'm also open to suggestions. If you have any, I'm all ears.

Presentations are apparently everywhere this semester. There's my class of course, which is like doing a two and a half hour presentation once a week.

Today I agreed to present and facilitate a two-hour session at a state-wide meeting in December. I'm going to spend a little less than an hour giving an overview of the big cataloging issues and changes in the present US and international environment. Then we'll take a quick break after which we'll open the floor for discussion and questions. I just have to be sure to inform the audience that I am not the expert, but will be guiding the conversation. About 90 people usually attend this meeting and there are three breakout sessions, so probably about 30 people will be at this session. Though the organizer told me today what the other two sessions are which sound very interesting, so maybe my group will be small.

Then there is the young adult retreat in November. I'll be organizing one session during that weekend too. I have chosen Mary as my topic and I think I am going to organize it more as a discussion than a presentation. I think I might focus on the Marian dogmas and read the Biblical passages that support the doctrines and discuss them. That's the current idea, but we'll see. We still need to discuss all the retreat topics and get some kind of common theme between them all.

Any suggestions for presentation topics for next week?