On Presentation Errors
Killing time in Moscone West, waiting for my next session.
When I talked about Jacqueline Woods' session on Monday, I neglected to mention that she had computer problems partway through the presentation. Her computer started beeping at her (and no, it wasn't an ESPN fantasy football message), then locked up. She was able to proceed, even without slides or notes (the woman knew her material), but you could tell that the problem bothered her.
So why do I mention it today? Because it gives me a chance to tell a bad story about myself.
About a year ago I was scheduled to give a presentation. Can't remember whether it was 60 or 90 minutes, but it was a nice long one. And boy, was I prepared. In fact, I was so prepared that I went to the meeting room about an hour ahead of time, took my laptop to the podium, plugged it in to the outlet, proceeded to the first slide, and waited. Boy, was I ready.
Some time later the presentation began, and I was giving it my all - that is, until my laptop suddenly died on me.
My boss came up to the podium - my new boss, by the way - to help me figure out what was going on. It turned out that the outlet that I used for my laptop was not live, and that I had been running on battery power all that time - until my battery gave out.
Since then, I've added one step to presentation preparation - check and make sure the battery icon isn't displaying on the laptop.
When I talked about Jacqueline Woods' session on Monday, I neglected to mention that she had computer problems partway through the presentation. Her computer started beeping at her (and no, it wasn't an ESPN fantasy football message), then locked up. She was able to proceed, even without slides or notes (the woman knew her material), but you could tell that the problem bothered her.
So why do I mention it today? Because it gives me a chance to tell a bad story about myself.
About a year ago I was scheduled to give a presentation. Can't remember whether it was 60 or 90 minutes, but it was a nice long one. And boy, was I prepared. In fact, I was so prepared that I went to the meeting room about an hour ahead of time, took my laptop to the podium, plugged it in to the outlet, proceeded to the first slide, and waited. Boy, was I ready.
Some time later the presentation began, and I was giving it my all - that is, until my laptop suddenly died on me.
My boss came up to the podium - my new boss, by the way - to help me figure out what was going on. It turned out that the outlet that I used for my laptop was not live, and that I had been running on battery power all that time - until my battery gave out.
Since then, I've added one step to presentation preparation - check and make sure the battery icon isn't displaying on the laptop.
posted by Ontario Emperor | 09:43
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home