The Weekly Might Have Missed List (11/30/08)

Virtual Meeting Success: Disaster Preparedness for Teleconference Nightmares — “At first people thought it was static. But, they soon realized that one of the participants was snoring. And everyone heard it! The snoozing participant had forgotten to turn on his mute button. There was nothing to do but ride it out. Sound familiar? Well, I would have thought it couldn’t get worse. But it does.”

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So You Want To Be a Banquet Manager…: Wadda Mean It’s Raining in The Meeting Room? — “Just then someone bellows over the radio, “It’s raining in the meeting room”! “Hurry up, call Engineering”! Well there goes my perfect day. Now you’re racing to find every bucket, bus-tub, unused Lexan and garbage can, to catch the water racing out of the broken pipe from the room upstairs. Son of a b@>\#!. We try to dry the special notebook binders that the group contact spent 2 hours last night putting at each placesetting. We change the flipchart pads ’cause the’re a mess.” (I’ve had burst pipe problems at two meeting at two different venues. It’s a hard thing to prepare for but you need to have some sort of contingency plans for it.)

Humor Power: When Humor Mis-Fires (Part One) and (Part Two) — “Molly laughed. The rest of the audience didn’t. I instantly realized that the audience didn’t understand the closeness between us. They also didn’t know that Molly appreciated the humor. At that point, I completely lost them. But it wasn’t their fault. It was mine. I should have known better. Have you ever said something stupid in your presentation?  Wow! As soon as the audience reacted, I knew I had messed up! I explained the background behind my comment, and then moved on.”

portfolio.com: Making Magic: “Steve Cohen, the ‘Millionaire’s Magician,’ shares some tips for winning over a well-heeled audience, including why you should never wing it and the importance of having backup plans.” For instance: “‘It’s essential to have backup plans—not just one, but several,’ says Cohen. ‘The key is to know all the things that could possibly go wrong.'” I like the way this guy thinks. Thanks for the heads to Olivia from Speaking about Presenting.

Musings: Crisis Management — “The first few hours/minutes/moments are the most crucial and most of us lose that in panic. Instead of thinking of the possibilities we start thinking of consequences, which really is no help at this juncture.”

projo.com: Workplace etiquette — “What do you do about a constant interrupter? I’ve run into this situation in meetings, conference calls, etc. I can’t really say if the interrupter is being rude or just antsy. I find it to be extremely irritating, and it throws off my concentration, especially if I’m giving a presentation.”

CIO: How To Get the Best Internet Connectivity While You Travel — “One business travel irritation is that it interferes with getting work done. If you have to give a presentation in New York tonight, and you need to create the PowerPoint presentation before you arrive, the problem isn’t as much the time spent enroute than how much you can accomplish on the trip.”

Acronym: Remote Troubleshooting — “We’ve all experienced technical difficulty with our computers at some point and some of us have had the opportunity to experience remote assistance. In my case, while offsite, I called my company’s IT department and requested assistance.”

Indezine: Cross Platform PowerPoint — “Cross-platform hiccups happen for more than one reason – it’s not unusual for the same company to have both Windows and Mac machines, or there might be a requirement to create an important presentation that needs to be compatible with whatever platform a client has. It might be that the designer hired to create a presentation or a template might use a Mac when the presenter is using a Windows machine – or even vice versa. Regardless, the differences between the Windows and Mac versions of PowerPoint have been giving presenters a fair share of problems.”

The Producer’s Perspective: We go to theatre to see if someone will #$&@ up — “Wigs falling off, technical screw-ups, and so on, are all things Producers spend millions trying to avoid, but ironically, audiences treasure them . . . and talk about them.”