Presenting at UCLA

Image courtesy of pixabay.com

This is a follow up to the Call to Action is sent along last week. I posted a request for speakers from a contact at UCLA. Hopefully you were either able to take advantage of the opportunity or pass it along to someone who could. To model what I ask of you, I also followed up on the Gig.

I was fortunate enough to be signed on to do a presentation on the history of Panama and Colombia. Although Latin American history is slightly outside my area of expertise, I do have foundational knowledge to build on and I was able to create a solid presentation. Granted there was a bit of prep, but nothing I am not used to doing as a faculty member. The final presentation was a success and the honorarium was of $700. Not bad for a two-hour presentation.

I share this story as proof of concept: Gigs such as these can and do pay. A college education provides the foundational knowledge in addition to the experience and confidence to speak and present when an opportunity such as this presents itself.

Being Collegiate Gigsters prepares us to go after these types of opportunities. We have the transferable skills to know how to create a great presentation on a topic that we are familiar with. We have invested in ourselves through our education and our commitment to lifelong learning. We are professionals with a wealth of knowledge to approach almost any speaking opportunity with confidence.

We know it is often difficult to find these opportunities and that email lists aren't the best way to communicate or share these opportunities widely. This is why we are working so hard on Colégas and also our first project, Public Academic, to provide that crucial information so that all of you can plan ahead and pursue the Gigs that are available out there.