Yesterday i had my presentation for my Dissertation. As i said in previous posts, i was not really looking forward to it. I was anxious, but i always am. Thursday night i was in a rush, i was just in from work and had to prepare my entire presentation for Friday morning, i should have done it earlier, but that’s just how i get things done. Pressure seems to be a good motivator for me!

I managed to get the presentation and my word for word speech all typed up and into PowerPoint by about 1am. I then went off to get a bit of sleep before i got up Friday morning at 8am so i could memorise the speech i had come up with. I was still adding in extra bits as i read through it. I had originally thought i would only be talking for 10 minutes, but after saying it from start to finish it took me about 25 minutes and then i knew i was going to have to do my demonstration on top of that.

I was glad i went through it before i went into the presentation, it gave me time to re-work some words i felt wouldn’t work. That’s how i like to prepare, i always have everything i want to say completely written out. That way i won’t have to look at the slides and determine what exactly i should be saying at any particular time.

The Presentation

So the actual presentation went really smoothly. I was really relaxed once i woke up Friday morning (surprisingly), and once i was in the presentation room, it just went perfectly. I came across as a person who knew what they were talking about and also that i had prepared well for it. Exactly what is expected from us. The dress code was a lot different than the usual presentation; the norm would be to simply wear a pair of jeans and a top, not for your Dissertation though! Smart clothing was required, that means suit and tie!

I met them half way! I wore no suit jacket, just a shirt, shoes and trousers. During the presentation i was asked questions now and again, we were told previously that they Q&A would be at the end, but i suspected that they would want to question as i went along. I felt confident answering the questions asked, i had prepared for lots of questions on security, since my dissertation supervisor loves that topic and was present at the presentation.

For the demonstration i presented two things, i demonstrated a cloud application called MobileMe, i am sure many people are familiar with that. The second demonstration was of a cloud operating system called Jolicloud! Both spectators of the presentation were interested in the demonstrations; i feel that it breaks up the presentation for them!

In the end i was told that they were really happy with how i presented the Dissertation and that they found it interesting and i was also told that the Dissertation itself was enjoyable to read! I was delighted to hear that. I am not sure if i get a result for the dissertation before the final official results later this summer. Either way, it should not be too long before i get all my results as my exams begin this coming Monday!