Academic Services Showcase 2025 - a presenter's experience

As part of the Library's Marketing Team, Kyle Williams (Library Assistant, PRL) gave a "Lightning Talk" at this year's Academic Services Showcase. Here he reflects on his presentation at the event:

I was invited to present at the recent Academic Showcase. I’m not entirely sure if I was the first or last choice, but I thought it was interesting, so I said yes. I also got a bag of choc for my trouble.
Pure profit.

Within CS, one of the teams I am involved in is the Social Media team, and we thought perhaps the most interesting presentation we could deliver would be about our social media strategy and how we utilise fun and engaging videos to push key library messages.

It was accepted, which was fortunate because we had no other ideas.

Our talk had to be no longer than 6 minutes, and no more than 3 PowerPoint slides. Which is fairly limiting. However, it gave us the opportunity to give a snapshot view of our social media channels. With time being precious, we thought it was best not to overload you with information but treat the presentation how we treat our social media channels. Light-hearted and hopefully engaging.

Which is why our first slide was an extremely large image of James Davies’ face. I honestly expected some push back on the idea, but I suspect people cannot be bothered to upset me, as I am prone to tantrums.

Slide 2 was about how the sausage was made (I.e. how a video comes to fruition from being an idea on our content planner). This slide is more business related and well, slides like that need actual flair to bring them to life, so Lydia delivered that. Thanks Lydia!

Finally, slide 3 were examples of our work and the stats that go along with them. Bosh, done. And all under 6 minutes.
As a result, we received a standing ovation. Which I wasn’t expecting, but gratefully accepted.

Leading up to the event, I felt confident that what we had would work, but as time to present loomed closer, my hands started to shake (not with other hands, but with nerves), which I thought was interesting, as usually my hands only shake when the stakes are high… It may simply have been the Lucozade I poured over me moments before the event, or it's because I wanted us to do well. I'm not sure. 

Overall, I enjoyed the event (I had to dash at lunch, so apologies to the talks I missed in the afternoon) and found it useful. I particularly enjoyed the poster on the Accessible Shelving Project. To think whilst I’m awake in the middle of the night tending to a very angry child, 36 thousand books were being withdrawn/relegated by the 24/7 team. Pretty crackers.

The posters proved to be a useful snapshot of the work that goes on behind the scenes that I was simply not aware of. It highlights the unsung heroes of the library and it’s lovely we can celebrate that… wth a free buffet.

I've still got a bag of prawn cocktail crisps at home, and, when I look at them, I get a bit emotional.