The Big Moment

*Melissa*

I think we revised “Radiographic Practice and Education at the Oregon Institute of Technology, USA” about as many times as there are words in the title!!  Our presentation for the Sydney ASMMIRT Conference had to be absolutely perfect – not to mention, we had to cut down our original presentation of 45 minutes down to 12 minutes, while still maintaining the same information.  This was an incredible feat. And so it was, last Thursday, our bags were packed and we were heading to the great golden city, the Florida Keys of Australia: Sydney. For better or for worse, our presentation was in its “Final Version”, and we would be presenting it to our International Audience the following day.

*Chad* 

We touched down in the not-so-golden city, greeted by rain, grey sky, and an unimpressive ride to our accommodation; I thought I was back outside of Portland Oregon.  Once we reached our destination, we met up with some of our Flinders family and headed to the Sydney Convention Centre to check in and make sure that our presentation power point would work on the big screens. Melissa and I both walked into the Centre in amazement, overcome with the knowledge that we, two little American students, would be presenting to an Australasian audience in the heart of Sydney. It was at that very moment that the nerves kicked into over drive.

After sorting out the minor details we found the room we would be presenting in the next afternoon. You couldn’t have asked for a better location. The room was on the second floor of the venue boasting an almost panoramic view of the beautiful and bustling Darling Harbour. I was amazed! For me, that moment was very powerful. I realized that all the years (yes YEARS) of planning, hard work and sacrifice had landed us to this place. I was proud to be a student from the Oregon Institute of Technology, proud to have achieved our goal and most importantly, proud of Melissa and I for having the fortitude and determination to see this endeavour through. This all may sound a bit pompous but keep in mind that I was a kid that cared nothing for school during my younger years and, in fact, barely graduated high school.  I’m getting off topic here.

After a few minutes of staring at the sky scrapers, the harbour, and all the people wondering about, Melissa and I took off to explore the local area before the sun went down on our first day in Sydney. 

The next morning we got up early and slapped on our finest broke college kid attempt at professional attire and made our way to the conference. If you can believe, I was so nervous I had little to no appetite (rare I know). The conference was opened in the aboriginal tradition with a song played on the didgeridoo in an attempt to ward off evil and bring success to the delegates. 

The opening ceremony was followed by a presentation from a group of radiographers from Christchurch, New Zealand. The group had been working in hospital on the 22 of February 2011 when the 6.3 earthquake rocked the city. The presentation was an emotional eye opener into the demands of disaster response from a radiographer’s perspective. It was amazing to hear the stories especially considering that the disaster robbed them of friends and family only a few short months ago. Our hearts definitely go out to the people of Christchurch.

The rest of the morning was a blur of more presentations, trade show events and then a lunch break. My nerves still kept me from eating so Melissa and I retreated to a secluded area of the convention centre to get a few more practice sessions in before our time slot arrived. After reading through our cards for the one thousandth time, we began to feel some resemblance of confidence creeping in.  

Our session began with an introduction from a representative from the Queensland Health department as Melissa and I took the podium. The twelve minute presentation seemed to take less than a minute and before we knew it, it was time for questions. Of course we only had one actual question. We tend to tell ourselves that people where just blown away with the public speaking skills that we demonstrated….at least that’s what we told ourselves.  With a massive weight off our shoulders, we spent the rest of the day attending meetings and talking to vendors about new equipment.