The perfect memento for a speaker

I enjoy giving speeches (who doesn’t!) – every talk, motivates me to learn something new or forces me to learn the subject much better – technical talks are the best, as I risk making a fool of myself if I don’t practise the demos well. In my experience, for every good talk you give, you need to have prepared (and/or recursed) for five to ten times the duration of your speech.

The part I don’t look forward to is the ritual that follows after the talk, where the organisers give you a gift or speaker memento. Most often, the gifts are a coffee mug or a pen set or a photo frame or a generic painting. Several rows of shelves in my room are full with these and I have no idea what to do with them! Yet that’s what you get after every speaking engagement.

Breaking away from this dull routine, after my talk yesterday at a panel discussion on Future of IT Industry and Road Ahead, TiE Chennai gave me a certificate, showing the donation they have made on my name towards a tribal girl child’s education. Innovative thought and a fine gesture. More than the audience applause (which are always appreciated), this made the event meaningful for me!