Dr. Lucie Green, who’d just given her lively talk about her investigations of the Sun, and I, about the be announced on stage. © Max Alexander.
I had already admired the hugeness of the venue, the audience and the stage, when we plugged in the laptops to test. Which was good, as you can’t really tell when the lights are down. When I climbed up the stairs, it didn’t matter though, I just wanted to tell these people about my discovery and how cool the Zooniverse’ projects are. And have fun along the way. I already had from ‘hello’. That microphone headset-thingy was so comfortable, keeping my hair tamed, that I’m still contemplating wearing one offstage. But then I noticed my first slide shown on my laptop didn’t match the all-blue screen behind me, so I went from ‘hello’ to ‘er… help?’ Don’t know what happened, but we quickly got it working again and it wasn’t until after Robin (Rees) e-mailed me saying ‘the way you handled the masses when you could not get the computer fired up was excellent’ I thought of it again, but as a minor interruption.
Right before my talk, writing my notes bigger, so I wouldn’t miss them in the low light on stage. © Graham Bowes.
In the middle of my story. © Graham Bowes.
The view from the balcony. © Dave Rowlandson.
Here I’m showing the media attention we got, which resulted in the ASTRON team hearing about it too. © Max Alexander.
I think it went well. The tickets were sold out and I later learned that this meant 850+ people in the audience. I had told them they were my biggest class ever, and well-behaved as well. In fact, if any of you is reading this, you were lovely! You laughing about the one or two silly slides in there made the time pass even quicker. I really appreciate the fact so many of you came to say hi, ask some questions or even an autograph afterwards as well. And I did read all the mails and tweets a bit later too – I’m flattered, really. My (mostly) local friends were a big support group too; you guys are awesome! Before I joined them for lunch in the Devonshire arms though, there were still two other talks in this session. So I took one of the reserved seats in the front row and watched Pål Brekke, telling us about the Northern lights. Next up was Simon Singh, who’s talk made me understand my own talk even better.
What happened after this, I’ll show with even more pictures later. And I’m also still planning on turning my talk into a story on here. So stay tuned.
Some of my dear supporting friends, during my talk. From right to left: Tom, Graham and Todd. © Max Alexander.
The lovely audience. © Max Alexander.
Handing out autographs after my talk (with Max on the right!) © Graham Bowes.
The audience, when I was part of it, during Simon’s talk. © Max Alexander.
Simon and his gherkin. © Graham Bowes.
3 Comments
More great photos.
In another context, it would be ‘Big Sister’.
WOW!
Cheers Liz & John
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