Good evening from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport where I’m preparing to head home after a long, but fruitful FTU in Amsterdam this year.

Please do not throw these at presenters….

Whilst not as big as the American FTU’s, there were lots of chances attendees to talk to speakers, speakers to answer questions and for apples, coffee and Heineken.

Well, we are in The Netherlands after all. It would had been rude not to have a few glasses.

I’ll be honest. Public speaking isn’t my hot spot. My hot spot is looking at computers, shouting at them and then clicking buttons to make them work.

So public speaking – whilst not new to me – is still a challenge.

Most of that challenge isn’t at the event itself – rather its the preparation you’ve done beforehand to ensure your subject was researched correctly, and that the content of the talk is relevant to the audience.

A challenge.

And even when you think of the subject, rehearse the subject and know it almost inside out, something will catch you.

The subjects I chose were… things I knew about to a good extent (even if I had to change the slide deck of one of my talks with a couple of weeks to spare and start again).

Those subjects were:

• Is the Mileage Run Dead?
• Star Alliance for Europeans

I kept my subjects focused on things that the European Traveller would be interested in (and not talking about credit cards amazingly).

And it’s still a challenge when you see an hour slot, and you’re working out “Do I have the content to fill that hour?”.

All those thoughts do melt away when you stand up and begin to talk. Having an audience who’s listening, nodding, asking questions, and engaging in the presentation turns it from a dry PowerPoint/Keynote slide deck… to something better.

I’d therefore like to thank the audiences I had a FTU Amsterdam this weekend.

Slide decks are available from the weekend for those who attended FTU. Please email economyandbeyond@ghettoife.com to get a link to download it.

Again – to those who came to my talks at FTU Amsterdam two big words I need to say:

THANK YOU

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – The new name for GhettoIFE (and a lot more pronounceable). Expect in-depth coverage, analysis, route news as well as humour and madness as I only know how.

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