Trip to Banff: Day 5 (or, finally my presentation)

Finally, the day of my presentation! I'd finished it last night and spent two breaks today rehearsing in my room. I felt ready.

And indeed I did fine. I was scheduled to go at the end of the most dense day of talks, with seven scheduled before mine. And I think my talk was appropriate for this slot. It wasn't conceptually new or deep but rather just a new application of some theories and some neat observations of what occurs in this context. Nothing complicated or hard to follow but still (hopefully) relatively interesting enough that people wouldn't be bored.

I got a few minor compliments on the talk. One person even said I used "just the right amount of animation," which I took as quite a compliment given how easy it is to underuse it in talks and how ugly powerpoint gets when it is overused.

The only part that bothered me about my talk is that I was antsy and picked up a can of coke to drink at the beginning of the talk and forgot to put it down! I held it during the whole talk! That's a little odd. I guess I could claim that mathematicians are now being sponsored by Coca-Cola?

Other than the presentation, I didn't do much. I didn't have the inclination to go anywhere and decided I should relax, partially to save up energy for my long day of exploring (after the conference ends) the following day. I called my parents and also planned my activities (running around the Canadian rockies) for the next day.

Of course, this blog entry would not be complete without a mention of food: lunch included carrot cake, breaded pork, mac and cheese; dinner included coq a vin, lasagna, and baked rice with tomato and cheese. All up to the buffet's usual reasonably good standards.