Leading the Discussion

On the topic:

The story of the telegraph was surprisingly interesting to me. Part of that came from the unexpected similarities between what happened with the telegraph and what is currently happening with the internet. I am a big fan of Old West history and I think the telegraph had more of an impact on changing the development of the West than it had on the already more developed Eastern United States. It is difficult to think about what it must have been like to have instant communication with people thousands of miles away, which is maybe why it is fun for me to think about something that I have never experienced… not having instant communication.

On the PowerPoint:

I really loved how my PowerPoint turned out. I felt that it captured the story and the importance of the telegraph in just a few slides. I am not totally sure why I chose to do the entire PowerPoint in black and white, but it just felt like the right way to present the story. While the slides are simple in design, it took me quite a while to find the right images I wanted to use. I started with 3×5 index cards to organize my slides, I already knew the quotes I wanted to use to bookend the presentation, but I sat there with three empty cards. I didn’t want to use numbers because I wasn’t sure I could make them emotional, so I went with photos. I think the difficult thing to do with PowerPoints is to take the freedom of creativity into a more structured environment of a business.

On the discussion:

People really seemed to get the importance of the telegraph as well as the uncertainty of the time and technology. The audience was engaged and asked interesting questions and added some insightful commentary. I was really pleased with how the discussion went and I tried to throw in some interesting anecdotes to reinforce the concept of uncertainty with technology. I hope my next presentation will be just as exciting to me and my audience.