For the third year in a row, March was a flurry of presentations. I started with “The Shy Presenter” at Ignite Toronto, did a recorded replay of “Remote Presentations That Rock” for IBM Canada’s International Women’s Day celebrations, gave a 5-minute presentation on collaboration for a client in the UK, gave a short talk on personal brand to the IBM A/NZ social media marketing team, gave a talk on “Presentation Kaizen” at PresentationCamp, and did another replay of Remote Presentations That Rock. I also gave a brief overview of Sametime Unyte and Lotus Connections Communities to my second-line manager. I even gave a short presentation on microblogging, too. Eight talks – new record for frequency! I’m looking forward to a quieter April, although the next few months already have talks scheduled.

March was also a month for career planning. I drafted my personal business commitments and individual development plans after many conversations with my manager, dotted-line manager, and various mentors (including one who is about to retire from IBM). I mapped out what I wanted to learn, and people have been helping me find opportunities to do so. I realized that travel wasn’t as scary as I thought it was, so I applied for IBM’s Corporate Service Corps and indicated my availability for occasional overseas work. I learned a lot about facilitation, too. I helped one of my mentors facilitate a large-group discussion around Smarter Cities. Hooray!

March was a month of transition from winter to spring. I’ve been biking – yay! The tulips and lilies-of-the-valley are starting to poke through the soil, and I’ve planted a few seeds in the garden. Can’t wait to get plants going again! We’ve been very busy baking and filling our freezer with all sorts of goodness, so that’s working out just fine.

April promises to be quieter. I’d like to get back into Emacs tweaking and sewing, and maybe free up every other weekend instead of cooking all the time. =)

For some reason, people really liked On circumstances and somebodies. Here are other blog posts you might’ve missed from this month:

Presentations and public speaking:

• Missing something I love about presentations
• Reflections on PresentationCampToronto
• Presentation kaizen: Seven everyday ways to become a better presenter
• Presentation lessons from Ignite; deliberate practice
• Experiments as a presenter
• Coaching people on how to give better remote presentations – Thinking out loud
• Braindump: Presentation kaizen
• Thoughts on preparing an Ignite-style presentation
• The Shy Presenter: Why conventional advice on learning public speaking sucks, and how to really get started
• An abundance of opportunities

Other communication skills:

• How to get people to read your blog post
• How to brain-dump what you know
• Learning from interviews

Work and career:

• Welcome to IBM! Advice for other newcomers like me
• Book recommendations for new grads
• Steeped in collaboration
• What do I want to learn? Making a map
• Leadership going virtual: how we can help managers
• Thinking about what I want to do with IBM
• What I learned from The Art of Marketing

Automation and lifehacking:

• From delegation to automation
• Automation
• Experiment: Shopping for groceries online
• Kitchen kaizen
• Not just a word

Weekly reviews:

• Weekly review: Week ending March 7, 2010
• Weekly review: Week ending March 14, 2010
• Weekly review: Week ending March 21, 2010
• Weekly review: Week ending March 28, 2010

Previous monthly review: Monthly review: February 2010