Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

in July 2010, I had the pleasure of presenting on a panel Living with a Disability in the Web 2.0 Era at the Plain Talk Conference held in Alexandria, Virginia.

While at the event, I met two women who worked in the web accessibility field in Boston. Upon parting, one of them extended an invitation to meet up, if I am ever in Boston.

My immediate thought, of course, was Yeah, right, when will I ever be in Boston?

Fast forward to May 31st, 2014: I was trying to navigate through the still-under-renovation Main Street Shytrain Station on my way to a speaking gig, when a song line suddenly popped into my head out of apparently nowhere: Please come to Boston.

Huh? That was the only line that came to mind from a song I know I knew, but I couldn’t recall any other words.

While I was searching for the new elevator at the far end of the expanded platform: Please come to Boston.

While I was scooting along the sidewalks, trying to concentrate on finding the venue in a part of town I wasn’t particularly familiar with: Please come to Boston.

Again, huh? Where was that coming from? And, perhaps equally as important, what did it mean?

(Welcome to the inner workings of my brain! Total chaos most of the time.)

I managed to quiet the voices in my head in time to deliver my presentation; my second one using my iPad. And, yeah, I kinda rocked it!

Afterwards, Karen, my partner in crime since we were 7 year old Brownies, and I went to Starbucks around the corner. Karen, who also serves as my editor on speed dial, was excited to see me deliver a presentation live. Likely to prepare herself for the next round of editing, she asked what was the next speaking gig I had lined up. At that point, my schedule was open, which is kind of an empty feeling for someone who is trying to get her speaking career going.

While Karen checked her phone for an email message she wanted me to read, I took advantage of the free wifi to check Facebook. Much to my delight, there was a private message from Laura Fitton, who I had first met as @Pistachio on Twitter years ago and then met in person at a BlogWorld Conference in Las Vegas.

She messaged me to invite me to do a 12-minute Bold Talk on any topic I am passionate about, much like a TED Talk. This would be at InBound, with an expected registration of 8,000. The Bold Talks take place in a room with a capacity of 1,000! (I had just finished speaking to a room with 20 attendees, max.) In Boston.

Seriously?!

I am presenting my Bold Talk “Go Beyond: Stare Your Fear in the Face and Boldly Go for It!” at INBOUND 2014 next Wednesday, in Boston!

Boston, here I come.