TL;DR: I gave a public lecture about the Higgs to 500 people and felt like a rock star.

While back at SLAC for the Summer Institute, I had the opportunity to give a public lecture about the Higgs. The target audience was the general public, which in the bay area still seems to skew towards the technologically knowledgeable: high-school students with an interest in science, silicon valley types, retired engineers, etc…

SLAC has posted the video to youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuZJFzFKLwo

I prepare slides on what seems like a daily basis for work. Needless to say, this was a very different experience. The technical level was substantially different, and it gave me more of an opportunity to play with entertaining graphics and videos. Frankly, I think it all came out quite nicely, and the audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

There were over 500 people in the audience, apparently a new record. The organizers had to prepare spill-over space outside of the Panofsky auditorium (where I was presenting) and opened a second auditorium. According to the security guards, they still had to turn away about 50 cars when they ran out of space. For ~60 minutes I got to feel like a rock-star! 😉