My biggest concern of the month isn’t with fooling other people. It’s with not making a complete fool out of myself.

Hence my little ruse about the dragon at the beginning of this column. It was a nod of the head, if you will, to hoaxers far greater than I, so I put it in verse to make it clear that something was the matter, and by the final stanza all should have been cut and dried.

You see, my biggest concern of the month isn’t with fooling other people. On the contrary, it’s with not making a complete fool out of myself. Because on April 15 I’m scheduled to give a speech on stage in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, as part of a series of talks organized by China Daily called Vision China.

The only problem is, I’ve never really given a speech to a capacity crowd before. In fact, the closest I’ve come to that kind of public speaking was probably at my wedding reception back in November, and even then, among friends and family, I was shaking like a leaf.

I have heard it said that the real trick to addressing an audience lies in looking past the forest of faces, picking out two or three individuals and speaking directly to them.

Which no doubt is sage advice, if a little hard to follow. Especially when I’ve got a PowerPoint presentation to worry about and the whole thing’s on a clock.

But I’m hoping that preparedness will be what gets me through in the end. So I’ll knuckle down and practice, and if worst comes to worst, at least it’s not going to be broadcast live online.

Oh wait, it is.