Rony Jung is here again for the 5th time in a row. For those of you who don't know who Rony is, he's basically one of the most famous implant clinicians on the planet, and the fact that we get him completely to ourselves for two days every July is an extraordinary, extraordinary bit of work!
Usually, I spend quite a lot of time with Rony when he comes because we've developed a very close friendship, but it was harder this time for various reasons, and so we just met up for breakfast on Thursday after a one-hour phone call the night before.
It's amazing how much we could get through and talk about, but one of the things we're chatting about is how we work and how we present.
As I've been privileged enough to move a little bit up the ladder of presentation and go to different places, I'm always asked to produce my final presentation about 2 weeks before, so it can be checked for translation, ratios for the screens, all of this stuff, blah blah blah.
The fact is that I've never finished my presentation until about 5 minutes before, and I thought that I was cheating and I was the only one that did that. The reason for this is that I work in bursts of activity; I can't always just schedule in creative thinking for a presentation when I'm supposed to.
I've spent years putting time aside weeks and months before my big gigs in order to get them done and finished so that I'm in a position of security, and I never ever do.
The reason for the plane journey when you're going somewhere to speak is not to finish your presentation; it's to start it.
I have at least managed to collect a library of slides now that allow me to skip things around depending upon how I feel and whom I feel the audience is.
I've hidden behind this for years, thinking that I was the only one that did this and that I was shortchanging people until I spoke to Rony today.
Rony's about the best presenter I've ever seen, and that's not a joke; that's why he's here. We laughed at how we do this exactly the same way. We arrived at the practice at 8:50 am for a 9 o'clock start, and he borrowed my office for 10 minutes to finish his presentation.
Creativity comes when creativity comes, and sometimes you have to force it with a deadline. There's nothing wrong with that; time for me not to be down on myself about this and embrace the burst of activity.
Blog Post Number - 4597