Six Months in Copenhagen

The Danes are very proud of their achievements in science and engineering. As a nation of islands, the most spectacular engineering accomplishments have come in the area of bridge design. Several of the bridges that connect the many islands are among the longest spans in the world. The Danes have since exported their knowledge and participated in construction projects around the world. Meanwhile, a thriving economy has recently led to a lot of local building construction.

As the engineering field has grown, Danish engineers have been meeting together in professional organizations to further advance engineering knowledge and promote their work.  The Danish Society of Civil Engineers is about 75 years old.  As in America, many other trade societies have sprung up to promote the use of various building materials. These organizations host many seminars and conferences throughout the year.

I was given the opportunity to speak at one such conference, the 2007 Danish Steel Day. My Danish company had reserved a presentation slot for one of the VIPs of my American firm.  However, no one had realized until the week of the presentation that the conference fell on Thanksgiving Day (which is a holiday unique to America). The honor fell to me with only a few days to prepare. I was to speak about the two tallest buildings in the world: Taipei 101 and the Petronis Towers. I had a lot to learn.

The conference was actually very interesting for me. Two of the presentations were even given in English. One talk was about the schematic design of a tower planned for St. Petersburg, Russia. Unfortunately for me, that presenter talked about several aspects of skyscraper design that I had hoped to introduce in my presentation. I hoped that everyone would still be interested in what I had to say.

Finally, I was up. I began my presentation with a short personal introduction - in Danish!  It must have gone all right, because I was rewarded with a round of applause. I thanked the audience saying, "I figured that an American speaking Danish might be more impressive than the rest of my presentation." Throughout my talk, I tried to throw in more humor. When talking about the 'mega-structure' and 'super-columns,' I said that Americans are just in the habit of 'super-sizing' everything. That elicited more laughter.

Like many engineers I frequently participate in such conferences back in America, but I didn't know what to expect from the international crowd - especially since I was touting American engineering achievements. Overall, the talk was well received. At the end of the day, I felt very proud of my own accomplishment in public speaking.