Yesterday I gave my first-ever conference presentation (£0.99 archaeology. Small Things Considered at the 2012 Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory conference in York).

It was a combination of fun and terror. I came at the end of the penultimate conference session, following two academics much more experienced in my field than I. But it went OK. The technology worked perfectly (a bugbear of mine). I decided halfway through to cut some of my text to avoid the session over-running – better to be concise that have people desperately waving papers bearing cryptic messages at you! The audiences laughed at the correct moments. They asked interesting questions, made useful suggestions and made no crushing comments. And afterwards I received some encouraging Tweets. So all in all, a positive experience. Now I know how to make my next presentation even better!