Initially I had been quite apprehensive when agreeing to speak at a follow up webinar a few months after finishing my placement with the CSP. I was worried that Long COVID was such a rapidly evolving area that I wouldn't have the time to keep up with all the changes that had happened in the mean time. I'm glad I did have this apprehension, as it spurred me on to catch up with some of the salient points of the newer research, but on the whole I needn't have been so worried. The pitch of the webinar was very casual and friendly, so my nerves quickly disappeared. My colleagues kept bringing the point home that this webinar was for students, and therefore should be pitched at an appropriately accessible level, and eventually I found my internal monologue repeating the same reassurance. 

I feel the webinar went well as a whole, although I fear that in dividing up the slides between us we may have made things a less pleasant experience for my colleague Emily, as she started her part of the webinar discussing symptoms of Long COVID, an area that I had lead the research on rather than herself. She fed back to me later that this made her nervous as she didn't feel very confident in that particular area, and would have preferred if I had spoken about it instead. It was a tricky balance between dividing up the speaking time evenly, and allowing people to play to their strengths and talk about areas that they were comfortable with. Reflecting on this, Emily was absolutely right, and if we were to do the webinar again this would be the first thing we should change.

My major take-home points from this would be:

1) To remember the audience I am speaking to, and tailor the accessibility of content appropriately

2) Play to your strengths, and allow your colleagues to do the same so everyone feels comfortable and confident in their presenting