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Final act (leewochner.com) – "…but we had major ongoing tech problems, too. At the end of an 8-hour cue-to-cue rehearsal in which all the light and sound cues were programmed, they mysteriously disappeared. All of them had to be reprogrammed, which added nine hours onto the day. (I said, “I won’t be here at 2 a.m.” And wound up leaving at 1:56 a.m.)…" Be the Duck: The Key to Calm (speakfearlessly.net) – "Most people, if rolling out a franchise product in front of thousands of people and something went wrong, would panic. But Jobs is a master. He casually said, 'Guys, the slides are stuck.' Then he made a joke about 'Somebody backstage is scrambling,' which everyone knew to mean, 'Somebody is fired.'" [In a previous life, I had a boss who called this calm "The Valium Bubble" (http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com/2008/05/08/the-valium-bubble/) and it's just as important for those backstage as it is for the folks onstage.] 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…." 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’." 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 .] 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?] 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." win7 demo – japanese tv show (YouTube) – [Know your equipment!] Lights Go Out On Craig Ferguson (Blog Stage) – Last night, high winds swept through Los Angeles, disrupting electricity in the city — including the television studio where comedian Craig Ferguson was busy filming The Late Late Show. [Ever lose electricity during a presentation? In addition to the general disruption it causes, power failures can start a cascade of other problems. For instance, projector lamps don't react well to being turned of suddenly with out without competing their cooling cycle. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about a building- or block-wide power failure. Just be sure the electrical service you request from the venue is adequate to the equipment you will be using so you don't cause an outage in the room you're working in.] I survived a speaker’s worst nightmare at BlogWorld! (Birmingham Blogging Academy) – [Sometimes things started to go wrong week or months before you even hit the stage] "When the first few attendees left my presentation early, I wasn’t fazed. … Then, a few more left. Did my slides suck? Had I forgotten to shower?? And then someone raised her hand to ask a question. Jill Stanek asked if I would be teaching about how to write better blog posts. I said, “No, maybe you have the wrong room?” No, she was in the right room… I was confused. Another attendee pulled out her printed guide and read the description for my session. The session title was right, but the conference organizers had included a summary from a different proposal I had submitted months ago. (See, print isn’t dead.) I was horrified. I had been giving the wrong presentation! I started to panic. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was embarrassed for me. I was concerned for those who had already left. I was a little ticked. And I needed a game plan. I took a deep breath." |
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