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.
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Hypotheticals

gremlinHow about two quick questions, just for the fun of it…

(okay the first one’s a little boring)

Would you rather give a presentation with your slides but not your speaker notes or have your notes but not your slides?

(the second has a little more “zing“)

You’re at the crossroads, it’s midnight, the contract has been unrolled, the pen is ready and it’s time to make the deal.

Carry a spare for EVERY piece of equipment you normally use to do a meeting and the king of the AV gremlins guarantees that you will never, ever have to use them.

In other words, would you be willing to haul around two of everything you typically bring with you knowing you will never need to use the backup because nothing will ever fail? You would propitiate the gremlins by being perfectly prepared to deal with them. Your plan B could no longer involve a quick run to the Best Buy or renting something from the hotel.

(Does that sound too much like a Twilight Zone episode?)

I think that for most people, answer to the second question would really depend on what kind of meetings they were doing and what was at stake. I wonder what offer the gremlins would make someone if they already carried two of everything.

How about you? Would you go with the slides or the notes? Would you make the deal or take your chances?

2 comments to Hypotheticals

  • Here's one answer that showed up in my feed reader this morning:

    “And prepare for the worst in AV problems. I once heard Denis Reggie present an entire program without one slide when the AV system blew up. He never missed a beat and the audience never cared. His message was solid and he knew his material so well that he didn’t need his slides!”

    (http://mei500.com/blog/2009/10/so-you-think-you…)

    Of course not everyone is capable of pulling something like that off.

  • Here's one answer that showed up in my feed reader this morning:

    “And prepare for the worst in AV problems. I once heard Denis Reggie present an entire program without one slide when the AV system blew up. He never missed a beat and the audience never cared. His message was solid and he knew his material so well that he didn’t need his slides!”

    (http://mei500.com/blog/2009/10/so-you-think-you…)

    Of course not everyone is capable of pulling something like that off.