Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Time needed to set up laptop on stage for speech
I took my laptop to give a presentation on stage about Conflict. The conflicts I had were with myself, the event organiser, and the technology (joke). All well-intentioned.
I had had the forethought to email in advance asking if the venue had a projector and screen - answer yes! (Previous venue event had none so this time I was one step forward.)
I also asked for an easel, flipchart, and markers (as backup).
They said they had an easel but bring your own flip chart and markers. So far so good, I thought.
EASEL SIZE
My foray around my home produced various A4 drawing pads and a huge A3 pad. It looked huge.
I had an A3 easel or kiddie art board but it was heavy to carry. At the last moment I dashed back for a large IKEA bag to carry the drawing pad.
I also dashed back at the last moment to get two extension boards with four plugs. Both were too short. But I reckoned that the shortest 2 meters would connect without a lot of trailing wires to trip up myself or bystanders. The longer one about 6 meters might fit. If not, still too short, the two together gave me even greater length of about 8 meters.
EASEL SIZE
When we got to the venue, the easel was much bigger, A1 size. The ledge had no guard so the balanced pad fell forward. By extending the legs and ground area I got the easel leaning backwards which kept the chart more secure. However you could not flip the pages over the top of the easel because it was much higher than the pad. So you had to tear off the pages - which I wanted left attached for next time. Tearing takes time. Or remove the pad, tear off the page, then replace the pad. You need an assistant. But my assistant was busy sorting out whether she would introduce me or leave it to toastmaster of the evening. Later she was busy fixing up her laptop. As for networking or selling a book or socialising, all this fixing up of equipment takes away chatting time and prevents the speaker enjoying the socialising and appearing friendly.
The club event organiser then helpfully offered the smaller lectern. This was in use by others during the meeting, so I had to leave my pad on a table at the back. My laptop was far right of the stage and my backup pad at the back. This resulted in my running between the two, creating a distraction while setting up between the speeches during the introduction to myself by the speaker and my mentor.
Moral - carry the easel which fits the size of your flip chart regardless as backup. Check the size of the easel.
Later, when my mentor and I reviewed the situation, I realised I needed an elastic strap with a Velcro (touch and close) fastener on the back of the pad to secure it.
Most important - one minute between speeches is not enough time for all this hoo-hah. You need to know the sizes, shapes, position of all equipment. Also who else is using the equipment previously. Will they exit leaving their notes, pen, laptop plugged in, screen pointer? Can they be asked to remove their equipment? They won't know somebody else needs the desktop, sockets, leads, unless they are told.
How long will it take to clear this? Will the Seargeant At Arms or tekkie expert have time to clear away the previous speaker's
equipment.
I had had the forethought to email in advance asking if the venue had a projector and screen - answer yes! (Previous venue event had none so this time I was one step forward.)
I also asked for an easel, flipchart, and markers (as backup).
They said they had an easel but bring your own flip chart and markers. So far so good, I thought.
EASEL SIZE
My foray around my home produced various A4 drawing pads and a huge A3 pad. It looked huge.
I had an A3 easel or kiddie art board but it was heavy to carry. At the last moment I dashed back for a large IKEA bag to carry the drawing pad.
I also dashed back at the last moment to get two extension boards with four plugs. Both were too short. But I reckoned that the shortest 2 meters would connect without a lot of trailing wires to trip up myself or bystanders. The longer one about 6 meters might fit. If not, still too short, the two together gave me even greater length of about 8 meters.
EASEL SIZE
When we got to the venue, the easel was much bigger, A1 size. The ledge had no guard so the balanced pad fell forward. By extending the legs and ground area I got the easel leaning backwards which kept the chart more secure. However you could not flip the pages over the top of the easel because it was much higher than the pad. So you had to tear off the pages - which I wanted left attached for next time. Tearing takes time. Or remove the pad, tear off the page, then replace the pad. You need an assistant. But my assistant was busy sorting out whether she would introduce me or leave it to toastmaster of the evening. Later she was busy fixing up her laptop. As for networking or selling a book or socialising, all this fixing up of equipment takes away chatting time and prevents the speaker enjoying the socialising and appearing friendly.
The club event organiser then helpfully offered the smaller lectern. This was in use by others during the meeting, so I had to leave my pad on a table at the back. My laptop was far right of the stage and my backup pad at the back. This resulted in my running between the two, creating a distraction while setting up between the speeches during the introduction to myself by the speaker and my mentor.
Moral - carry the easel which fits the size of your flip chart regardless as backup. Check the size of the easel.
Later, when my mentor and I reviewed the situation, I realised I needed an elastic strap with a Velcro (touch and close) fastener on the back of the pad to secure it.
Most important - one minute between speeches is not enough time for all this hoo-hah. You need to know the sizes, shapes, position of all equipment. Also who else is using the equipment previously. Will they exit leaving their notes, pen, laptop plugged in, screen pointer? Can they be asked to remove their equipment? They won't know somebody else needs the desktop, sockets, leads, unless they are told.
How long will it take to clear this? Will the Seargeant At Arms or tekkie expert have time to clear away the previous speaker's
equipment.
Labels: easel, lectern, preparation, stage, time
Comments:
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I thought you did rather well in the less than ideal circumstances.
We had a packed schedule and were very keen on starting and finishing on time which didn't leave much float for setting up equipment.
I would have thought the large easel could have been adapted for your flip chart.
What couldn't be controlled was your laptop not being compatible with the leads from the projector and the need for another laptop to be setup. Unfortunately the projector was connected initially to another laptop so wasn't tested with yours. In addition the screen and projector were very badly positioned.
Sadly the toastmaster of the evening wasn't told of your requirements or he would have factored that in when running the meeting.
You should come back and we'll see if we have learned lessons.
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We had a packed schedule and were very keen on starting and finishing on time which didn't leave much float for setting up equipment.
I would have thought the large easel could have been adapted for your flip chart.
What couldn't be controlled was your laptop not being compatible with the leads from the projector and the need for another laptop to be setup. Unfortunately the projector was connected initially to another laptop so wasn't tested with yours. In addition the screen and projector were very badly positioned.
Sadly the toastmaster of the evening wasn't told of your requirements or he would have factored that in when running the meeting.
You should come back and we'll see if we have learned lessons.
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