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It is no longer being updated.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.

Bookmarked: Venues again… (tellingpeople)

Venues again… (tellingpeople) – "Yesterday I mentioned that when you’re working somewhere other than your office it’s a really good idea to have one person in charge of logistics. Today I’d like to make a quick comment about some of the things that your venue might not provide (despite saying they will). The obvious solution, of course, is to take your own…."

Bookmarked: Venues… (tellingpeople)

Venues… (tellingpeople) – "Because bitter experience has taught us that if there are several people who are responsible for making sure everything runs correctly, they’ll both leave something to the other and it won’t get done. They’ll both sneak off for a cuppa for five minutes, thinking you’re covered by their partner… Everyone needs a tea-break, sure, but if one person feels responsible for looking after you, they’ll certainly come and tell you that they won’t be around for 10 minutes, so at least you know. And they’ll be back after 10 minutes too, not the 15 or 20 minutes people take if they think they’re being covered by a ‘partner’."

Bookmarked: SharePoint Saturday Raleigh… (SharePoint Brain Freeze)

SharePoint Saturday Raleigh… (SharePoint Brain Freeze) – "I really apologize to the folks at my session, projector issues cut my time in half and then VM slowness and beta stability problems killed the rest of the session. The really embarrassing part came afterwards when I noticed in my rush to move rooms after the projector failed I never plugged in my laptop. No Power = Power Saving = CPU Suckage = VM Useless." [Classic cascade failure. Started with having to change rooms due to projector failure and ended up with the software crucial to the presentation not working well enough. Also illustrates Principle #8 — Existence does not equal adequacy. Having enough power to run the laptop doesn't guarantee having adequate power to present successfully .]

Bookmarked: Projector problems (Media-savvy’s Blog)

Projector problems (Media-savvy’s Blog) – "A group was giving a presentation and they wanted to show a video. The sound was working, but the video would only show up on their laptop screen, not on the projector. We (the audience) could see the media player, but the rest of the “screen” was black. Did you ever experience the same? What is the problem here? How could it be solved?" [I suggested that they make the projector the primary output. Any other ideas?]

Cyberpunk: Being pros, they had a backup…

gibsonEven fictional characters know the importance of the first principleIf you can’t do without it, make sure you won’t have to.  Acting on this knowledge is what marks them as professionals in the eyes of the other character in this passage from my favorite early work by one of my favorite writers:

“Now,” Lucas said, “when Two-a-Day’s hired help, who are all in all a pair of tough and experienced console jockeys, when they saw what you are about to see, my man, they decided that their deck was due for that big overhaul in the sky. Being pros, they had a backup deck. When they brought it on line, they saw the same thing. It was at that point that they decided to phone their employer, Mr. Two-a-Day, who, as we can see from this mess, was about to throw himself a party.”

~William Gibson, Count Zero

I know. I’ve just betrayed a little geekiness in my ready habits. Just substitute “AV tech” for “console jockey” and “projector” for deck”. Okay, that’s still pretty geeky, but you get the idea.

Bookmarked: Presentation Horror Stories (More than PowerPoint…)

Presentation Horror Stories (More than PowerPoint…) – [An oldie but a goodie from Laura Bergells.] "She turned red, and asked for tech support to help. A gigantic, goth young man lumbered on stage, twirled her around to audience profile, flipped up her blazer, bent over and intently gazed at her mike's fanny pack."

Overheard on Twitter: Should have brought the Kodak projector.

swstevenConference presentation is delayed. AV problems. Should have brought the Kodak projector. @SWsteven (Steven Widmann)