Wednesday, March 22, 2006

A Belated Thank-you

While I'm still in Communicate.06 mode, I should have said thank-you to Ewan and John. The presentation I gave at the conference was delivered without the aid of a Powerpoint safety net and if Ewan and John had not been so helpful, I would have been left tap-dancing and waving my hands for 45 minutes!

I am fairly confident with the technology I use when speaking to groups. My backup plan is usually to have the presentation on a USB memory stick as well as my laptop - it has been years since I printed off OHP copies of a presentation, "Just in case". However, at Communicate.06 I didn't have a presentation at all. Everything was online. Will I say that again? Everything was online! Ewan wanted us to go for a Yoda-like presentation Zen, but as the day wore on, and my presentation came ever closer, I became more and more concerned because I couldn't get my laptop to talk to Stirling University's Internet connection. If a presenter presents without a presentation, will he hear the sound of one hand clapping? Very Zen!

Thankfully, Ewan and John came to my rescue by offering to swap rooms. John was more prepared than me (clearly a Boy Scout... I was in the BB) as he had a backup plan in case he couldn't get a live Internet connection. Ewan and John did their presentation in the room without the Internet connection so I could show my stuff and the people at my session could get online to try stuff out. Phew!

Note to self: never prepare an Internet based presentation again without having a Plan B!

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4 comments:

  1. Nick NoakesMarch 22, 2006 1:59 pm

    David

    Will you post a link to your presentation?

    Nick

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  2. DavidMarch 23, 2006 4:17 pm

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. DavidMarch 23, 2006 4:19 pm

    As I said, I did it, "without the aid of a Powerpoint safety net". Most of the links and ideas I talked about will appear in this blog over the next few days.

    However, since Saturday, I have had a go at another Lessig style presentation on the online bookmarking bit of my talk. I think it was better than my first effort, but I'm still not entirely comfortable creating or delivering in a Lessig style. I may upload that presentation for a future post.

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  4. Christine McIntoshMarch 28, 2006 10:17 am

    Totally off topic - can I direct you to progress report again - they've got it going and I'm pleased. See also my comment on today's blethers for what I'm developing.

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