Public speaking: facing shy and stage fright

Many people don’t believe me when I say I am a shy person and I don’t like public speaking. How have I learned to overcome stage fright?

Everything started in the University (where else?) around late 90’s. I’ve studied Industrial Engineering (nothing related with computer science or programming). I was mad at using HP calculators, participating in some international newsgroups, betatesting new models, and even writing some code. That was my first participation in on-line tech communities.

My colleagues at the university asked me for a training course. That was my first public talk, in front of around 100-200 people in a classroom, using real transparencies. I still remember my legs shivering.

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