Professional Speaking

This weekend, I attended an event for the Ottawa chapter of CAPS, The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. A few weeks ago, I had been looking online for any local resources for speaking, found CAPS's website, and contacted them for information. The person I was speaking to recommended coming to this event as a guest, so I eagerly registered. I figured it would be a good networking opportunity at the very least.

I ended up getting there early, and was quite nervous. While the CAPS members who were there set things up, stood off to the side, trying my hardest just to find somewhere I could hide and read for a bit. The members must have sensed my apprehension because they immediately got me involved and put me to work setting up a book table.

As more people arrived, the networking began in earnest. Everyone there came up to me, asking me what I did and what brought me to the event. They were all exceedingly friendly, and seemed genuinely interested in hearing about my speaking, writing, and even Joubert syndrome in general! I may have even made some good disability-related connections.

The first speaker of the day was the organization's national president, who gave a rousing presentation about personal and community values, and how they could relate to each individual's speaking careers.

After some group work (it felt like I was back in school!), was the pizza lunch! Since it was CAPS's 20th anniversary, as well as Canada's 150th, they threw a birthday of sorts, with cake, singing, and even a manikin challenge (which was odd, but kind of fun).

After that was the event's second presenter, a woman who spoke about business development and how to delegate tasks in order to avoid stress. Now, this one made me seem a little out of place at first, seeing as how I don't have an actual business yet, but the speaker did a good job of tailoring some points of her presentation to things I could do later on. As an exercise, I even committed to joining a professional organization, CAPS or something else, by the end of the summer.

The final presentation of the day was given by a psychotherapist/life coach, who talked about how to cope with various issues that may arise in our lives, and how to deal with those around us when they have similar issues. This actually proved to be rather helpful, for reasons I won't get into.

When the day was done, I exchanged cards with people and they encouraged me to attend future events.

I've still got a long way to go, but this event definitely gave me the clearest view that, one day sooner than later, I will be professional with my disability awareness.

Cheers!