Murphy's Law states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." This is especially true and especially painful when there is an audience involved.

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This blog was active from April, 2008 to July 2012.
It is no longer being updated. It will continue to be maintained for reference purposes.

Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!

When you’re the slide guy, once all the presentations have been thoroughly PowerPointed and the meeting has started, they need to find something for you to do so you’re not just hanging around enjoying yourself. At least that was the case at an earlier point in my career. These days I’m also the AV guy and I get to show the slides as well as make them. I’m also the roadie, but that’s a different story.

I’m not even sure what you would have called what they had me doing back then. Production assistant maybe? I was wearing headphones, hanging at the front of the room herding speakers. The technical director and the rest of the crew communicated with the speakers through me once the meeting started. I was also responsible for giving each of them a quick visual check before they took the stage.

Ostensibly, I was making sure they took off their name badges and turned on their lavalier microphones. The badges needed to come off because the spotlights lighting the stage reflected off their badges and the flashing could be distracting for the audience. I was also told to discretely check for a couple other things — making sure flys were up, for instance (I kid you not).

Having someone to do this sort of stuff made things a lot easier for the speakers and let them focus on speaking, not on the necessary last-second minutiae. Unfortunately, not every event can provide this level of luxury. That means if your a presenter, you usually need to fill that role yourself.

Develop and memorize a very brief pre-presentation checklist, something you can quickly rattle off to yourself while you’re waiting to be introduced that captures all those little things that can make presenting difficult if overlooked or forgotten: zipper zipped, badge removed, water bottle, laser pointer, speaking notes, glasses, etc. Remind yourself to smile and make eye contact. Ritualize it. Make it a habit.

You may also want to think about a post-presentation checklist. Two quick suggestions to start the list off: put your badge back on and don’t forget to leave the remote control at the podium for the next speaker.

Related resources:

12 Tips For How to Relax Just Minutes Before You Speak — You might want to add a couple of these to you pre-presentations checklist.

Your turn:

In a comment to this post, let us know what other items would you put on your pre-presentation checklist.

4 comments to Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!

  • Lee,

    Interesting job.

    If you are one of the many presenters to have to do all of that on your own, I always suggest that you should never cram at the last minute.

    This is a mistake.

    Instead, as the presenter, it is your job to create the best environment for your audience to have a good experience, so taking charge of the space is crucial. If you need to move something, move it. If you need to write something on the flip chart or white board, do so.

    If you become too deferential, it can be seen as a lack of confidence , which will undermine your authority and thereby your presentation as a whole!

    Thanks for the post

  • @ Terry Gault: Great advice Terry, thanks. I agree, it’s always crucial that you get to the venue in plenty of time to make sure everything works correctly and that you will have an adequate opportunity to set things up in the way that allows you to deliver the best value to the audience.

  • Lee,

    Interesting job.

    If you are one of the many presenters to have to do all of that on your own, I always suggest that you should never cram at the last minute.

    This is a mistake.

    Instead, as the presenter, it is your job to create the best environment for your audience to have a good experience, so taking charge of the space is crucial. If you need to move something, move it. If you need to write something on the flip chart or white board, do so.

    If you become too deferential, it can be seen as a lack of confidence , which will undermine your authority and thereby your presentation as a whole!

    Thanks for the post

  • Lee Potts

    @ Terry Gault: Great advice Terry, thanks. I agree, it’s always crucial that you get to the venue in plenty of time to make sure everything works correctly and that you will have an adequate opportunity to set things up in the way that allows you to deliver the best value to the audience.