I attended the Global Business Research Journal Conference in Zurich, Switzerland on July 13th, 2018. The conference attracted speakers from all over the world, with a large variety of topics, focused towards Marketing, Education, Tourism and Hospitality. My Thesis presentation was scheduled for the second block of the conference, towards the middle of the day, which gave me the chance to see some presentations before presenting.
I had the opportunity to see presentations in the field of education, including speakers from South America, Asia, and North America. Given this was an international conference, most of the education presentations were focused on teaching the Language English. Given this is our native language in the United States, learning English as a foreign language is not common or relatable. However, I was born in Brazil, and began learning English as my second language at the age of 6. Hearing other professors from various countries presenting their teaching techniques and discussion what worked and what did not work all sounded very familiar to me. I was able to relate to their presentations, feel comfort in the environment, and was very interested in their subjects.
Oddly enough, seeing presentations in a field outside of my area of study, sparked an interest in me, which completely calmed my nerves of presenting in front of a large audience. I was so involved in their topics that I did not pay attention to me being nervous about presenting. It was great to see presentations prior to presenting so that I was able to get a feel of the audience and of the conference. It was also great to have been more relaxed prior to presenting, allowing me to really enjoy the experience, and even want to do it again.