Advertising Week speaker perspective: Onsite jitters, offsite oversights and key takeaways

I’ve spoken at oh, you know, a few conferences now (humblebrag) and while I’ve always felt that lovely mix of nervousness and excitement before hitting the stage, at last week’s Advertising Week New York, I had a whole swath of new anxieties swirling through my mind. What do I do with my hands? Where do I look? How do I sit? After 18-plus months of leading meetings, panels and webinars from the comfort of my own living room, suddenly the audience was going to see me, all of me, in person again. No more nervously bouncing my legs hidden below the laptop camera or obsessively playing with a paperclip while I sneak another look at my notes. This time, I had to be shoulders back, hands down and eyes focused.  Maybe you can relate? As in-person conferences, expos and summits get their mojo back, many of us are being asked to lead sessions or participate in panels IRL again, and to do that requires a whole different set of muscles than the ones we've been exercising in the pandemic era. And, when we're on the other side of the stage — e.g., the ones putting together these events — we...