Breaking Murphy's Law» Question of the Week Archive – Breaking Murphy's Law

Question of the Week: Who are you?

Lee Potts — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:13:20 +0000

In order to make this blog as useful as possible, I’d like to get a better sense of who is visiting. Please take a moment and answer the following using the poll displayed near the top of the left sidebar.

Are you usually:

A presenter with a support team that handles your technical and logistic details?
A presenter who handles all of your own technical and logistical details?
Someone who supports someone else’s presentation efforts by handling their technical and logistical details?
None of the above.

It would also be greatly appreciated if you could provide a little more detail about what you do by submitting a comment to this post. For instance, what sort of environment do you operate in? Corporate? Academic?

I plan to use this information when making choices about post subjects and how to go about discussing a particular subject. I know one question isn’t going to capture everything I need to know so keep an eye out for further noseyness in future Questions of the Week. Thanks for taking the time to participate.

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"Question of the Week: Who are you?" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on June 24, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Question of the Week: Five Finger Discount

Lee Potts — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:32:13 +0000

A recent post on Blue Room (a discussion board for folks who work backstage) deals with an interesting subject: “How much stuff have you had stolen?” I’d like to continue the discussion here since having equipment stolen is most definately a case of Murphy’s Law.

Using the poll in the left sidebar, please answer the following:

Have you ever had any equipment stolen?

Yes, I’ve had mission critical equipment stolen (it was a really, really cruddy day).
Yes, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t live without (at least temporarily).
No, I’ve either been seriously lucky (knock on wood) or I’ve been very cautious.

If it’s not too painful, we would all really appreciate it if you would be willing to share what happened in a comment to this post. What was stolen and how did they do it? Did you get it back? Any lessons learned that you would like to pass on to the rest of us?

If you haven’t been in this difficult situation, what procedures (if any) do you have in place to prevent it from happening? Or are you just seriously lucky?

There are a couple aspects of this issues that might be worth a closer look. For instance, are there particular types of venues that are more likely to become crime scenes. Is equipment more vulnerable in transit or at the venue?

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Tags: blue room, Gear, stolen, stolen equipment

"Question of the Week: Five Finger Discount" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on June 04, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Question of the Week: Murphy’s Favorite Target

Lee Potts — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:39:31 +0000

We are all very aware that Murphy’s Law can attack every element of the presentation process. Which of the following areas do you find most vulnerable to problems:

Software
Equipment
Personnel
Venue
Transportation
Communication
Administration

Please respond using the poll in the sidebar to the left (you’ll need to visit the site if you’re viewing this in a reader). You’re also welcome to elaborate on you poll response in the comment section of this post.

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"Question of the Week: Murphy’s Favorite Target" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on May 26, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Question of the Week: Sense of impending doom

Lee Potts — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:38:47 +0000

Sometimes you just have a bad feeling. You can’t quite put you finger on why, but your intuition is telling you things are going to go badly. Very badly. You feel like you have a target on your back but you don’t know where the shot is coming from. Burned out projector bulb? Burst pipe in the meeting room? Unexpectedly hostile audience?

Did you ever know, without knowing how you knew, that some aspect of your presentation was not going to go completely as planned and that you were going to wish you stayed in bed that morning?

Please share your story in a comment to this post.

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"Question of the Week: Sense of impending doom" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on May 19, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

Question of the Week: Grace Under Pressure

Lee Potts — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:13:40 +0000

On Friday, I linked to a video of stage manager Debbie Williams exhibiting aplomb and presence of mind while fixing Brad Pitt’s malfunctioning microphone during the Idol Gives Back concert. We’ve all seen presenters and stage crew deal with difficult situations, mistakes and disasters.

What was the single most inspiring example grace under pressure during a presentation that you’ve had the privilege to witness?

Please share your story in a comment to this post.

Bonus points if you can provide some video.

I’m looking forward to reading your stories.

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Tags: american idol, brad pitt, debbie wiliams, grace under pressure, stage crew, stage manager, video

"Question of the Week: Grace Under Pressure" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on April 28, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.