Personal Experience Report

When I first saw this course in my schedule, I was quite annoyed by it. I thought I would
learn everything that I had learned at high school all over again. I was expecting this class to
be boring with an exam about what a presentation should look like and how to
communicate properly. But once we had the class, it was fun and not a stressful class. I
learned so much that I didn’t know you could do in a proper business presentation. I
thought you should stay bland and professional, yet then I learned that being creative and
having fun with your presentation might be a better way to gain someone’s attention. It
really opened my eyes to making a better presentation, to come out of my anxious bubble
and just have fun with the presentation instead of worrying about coming of as weird or
being boring with my presentation. This course helped me realize that every presentation I
create should have a touch of creativity and staying completely myself.

When we were told we could choose any topic we wanted for our presentation I
immediately knew I wanted to make a presentation about Hamilton because this musical
had a big impact on my life and my way of thinking. The musical inspired me in many ways
and helped me continue going when I was losing my motivation. I immediately had several
ideas on what I wanted to include in my presentation and what the outline should look like.
Once I was working on the presentation, I was so much having fun and letting all my
creativity take over. With every slide I asked myself how I could make each and every slide
more interesting and more attention attracting. I wasn’t bound to my old outlines of
presentation where I picked a certain presentation style, created some bullet points and
was done with it. I put a lot of thought into every slide on how to make it uphold the
standards that the musical Hamilton itself has. I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just a lousy
presentation that was ok but could’ve been better, I wanted it to show my love and passion
for this musical. After all, a presentation is quite theatrical when you think about it. A
presentation shouldn’t just blandly state the facts and off we go, it should be something a
viewer can pay attention to. When you sit at a theater in a play you enjoy, you can pay
attention for quite a while because you’re interested, and a presentation shouldn’t be any
other way. In the end, I was quite proud of what I was going to present and was actually
quite excited to hold my presentation, which usually wasn’t the case for me. Yes, I may have
been nervous when I walked up to the front and prepared everything but at the same time
there was a thrill of presenting and basically performing something that I was passionate
about. I didn’t want to bore people, but I wanted people to feel my passion for the show
and possibly be interested in watching it one day themselves.

My presentation was what I wanted to achieve. The slides were fun, the content wasn’t
boring yet quite informative. I had the feeling that many of my colleagues actually enjoyed
certain parts of the presentation, for example the slide with the theater seats or using
baking ingredients to lay out why Hamilton is so successful. Yet, while I succeeded in certain
aspects, there are some things that I would’ve improved. Due to my nervosity, I forgot a few
facts and funny quotes that I wanted to add but it didn’t affect the presentation as a whole.
I also noticed that at some point I was talking to fast because I was scared of running out of
time. Not to mention, that I usually tend to speak a bit too fast in day-to-day life, so I know
that might be something to focus on. Another thing I would’ve liked to add, yet was too
timid to do so, was adding some music from the show. It could’ve added a bit more to the
presentation yet while I was creating it there were certain factors that got me to choose
against it. I was scared of running out of time and I was also scared of technical difficulties.
But for the future I know that I shouldn’t let myself be intimidated by that.

Overall, I enjoyed this class more than I thought I would when I first saw it and I wish we
could continue doing this. It was a nice refreshment from all the exams that we needed to
do. Instead of solely focusing on business, I could let my creativity run free and talk about
something I’m passionate about. I really wished we could continue having this class and
presenting more on topics we enjoy, so that we could have some fun outside of the business
context while also doing something that will help us in the future. Out of all the classes we
had up until now, this might have been one of the most useful ones in our future over other
classes where we simply study to pass an exam. It helped us improve our presentation skills,
which are extremely important, without putting any pressure on us on being absolutely
perfect and making no mistakes. The environment in this class was very comforting and
inspiring. Therefore, this class I thought I was going to hate, actually turned into one of my
favorite classes and I know that I will keep missing it.