On the 8th of May 2026 I had the pleasure to take part in the Ninth Annual DEN International Student Conference. I had taken part in the 8th conference last year, it feels like a lifetime ago and I have grown so much as a person since. Part of that progression I attribute to Farhang and DEN, in my first year of university I rarely chaired any of DENs meetings and I occasionally took notes. However, this year I have taken more responsibility within DENs meetings, I have chaired and engaged a lot more in the sessions as well as running multiple workshops with DEN. All of this growth in my confidence in public speaking culminated with this year’s DEN Conference.
I co-chaired the second session of the day, being so early in the agenda I felt the nerves and I felt the pressure. I will admit my chairing did not have the strongest start and I felt some confidence slip in my introduction of the session. As my sessions first presenter spoke, I gripped my confidence tight and swallowed my nerves. As I chaired the session each word that flowed from my mouth was poured with greater confidence, poise and presence. All of my presenters were terrific, and I felt we put on an excellent session for our guests. I learned so much from their experiences and felt a gut instinct to present at DENs next conference.
The entire day was incredibly motivating, but it was not without its challenges. Roughly halfway through the day we realised that we were running behind schedule, at this time I had been assigned to assist the presenters for the afternoon and rest of the conference. This was a new responsibility for me but not one that I failed to take on. Building upon my boosted confidence from my morning chairing I quickly learned my responsibilities and got to work. My key responsibilities were to prepare each presentation and ensure every session kept to their time and to win back any time that we had lost. I diligently performed these tasks and by the end of the conference my work had saved us roughly half an hour of our lost time.
Overall, it was an incredible experience, each presenter did an amazing job sharing their knowledge and worldview from all corners of the earth. I am keen to build upon this experience even more at next year’s conference and throw myself even further into it.
Edward Dean