One of the things that bothers me about blogs is that lots of them just leech off other peoples’ work.
They’re the on-line version of lazy radio talkback jocks, who read out someone else’s newspaper article, then ask listeners “But what do you think? Call us now on 1-800-PLAGIARIZE…”
In blog world, there’s no greater source of borrowed inspiration than Seth Godin, marketing writer, entrepreneur and uber-blogger. People have made action figures of him. Entire blogs seem to exist for no other reason than to comment on Seth’s work and bathe in his reflected wisdom.
So I feel kinda guilty and hypocritical referring to a Godin post, but he’s done 3000 of them and this is the first time he’s specifically commented about AV crews.
He’s talking about how some businesses are staffed by people who take any opportunity to say ‘no’, while others are driven to find ways to say ‘yes’.
“The same thing happens with the tech crew before I give a speech. About 75% of the time, the lead tech guy (it always seems to be a guy) explains why it’s impossible. Impossible to use a Mac, impossible to use the kind of microphone I like, impossible to use my own clicker, etc. And then, the rest of the time, using the same technology, the producer asks, “how can I help make this work for us?” and everything is about yes, not no.”
If you’re having that kind of trouble yourself (and you’re in Australia), you should call Scene Change, an abundant source of yes-oriented technical people. And sometimes, the “lead tech guy” isn’t even a guy!
If you’re in the US, you should call President Obama and find out where he got his AV crew, who also say yes a lot.
Our little Obama Xmas video was meant to be nothing more than a bit of harmless desktop fun, and we were really happy with how far it travelled.
But we never thought it would cross the line and actually become show content, until we got this comment on the weekend:
“From another tired av tech in Essex, UK. Brilliant, played it up on screen during the final coffee break to 300 people, most of them understood and we got a special mention at the end of the show.”
Essex AV guys, we salute you.
Is this a new era in respect for AV crews? What next? Cash tips?
With media full of Obama speech analysis, it’s not a good time for would-be politicians to come up short in the oratory department.
JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn her candidacy for Hillary Clinton’s old Senate seat, citing ‘personal reasons’.
Helping her decision was a firestorm of media ridicule for a interview in which she said “y’know” 139 times. It made the average teenage girl sound like JFK by comparison.
It’s tough on her. She’s a well-educated, intelligent person, but she’s just not used to the spotlight, just like many presenters.
And when you’re nervous, there’s a natural tendency to fall back on a favourite phrase: going forward, like, anyway and other favorites. You don’t even know you’re saying them.
The only way to weed them out is to rehearse.
Start with informal rehearsals, just you in the office or wherever you feel comfortable. Videotape yourself. You won’t just pick up the “y’knows”, you’ll also notice physical mannerisms like touching your face or jingling coins in your pocket.
Then plan for an on-site rehearsal for the actual presentation, particularly if it’s in a staged environment. Everything feels different with a dark room and lights in your face.
Spend the time to get comfortable on the stage. Meet the AV techs and do a voice check. So when you hit the stage, you’re concentrating on a powerful opening and creating a link with the audience, not worrying if the microphone’s working properly.
Anyone of CEO-ish age can sing the Beverley Hillbillies theme off by heart, after a million afternoon repeats. As children they would have aspired to be just like Mr Drysdale one day.
That might explain their current fondness for oil production imagery when talking about all areas of business, nicely covered here by Ian Verrender, who has clearly sat through more executive presentations than the most hardened AV technician.
This information will save you the cost of an MBA.
It’s too close to Christmas to provide any more tips on presentations, because presentation season is over for another year. Audiences have fled to the malls, to panic-buy small digital gadgets.
So we thought we’d gaze into the technical crystal ball and predict the hottest gadget trends for next year.
1. SatNav Cam
One of the genuinely frightening things about being on the road in 2008 is seeing people with SatNav units stuck right in front of the driver at eye level.
“Not my fault, officer, the pedestrian ran behind my SatNav screen.”
These people need a SatNav with a webcam on the back, displaying the obscured part of the road on the screen. So the whole unit becomes transparent, in a weird pixelly way. Alternatively, they could just MOVE THE THING TO WHERE IT’S MEANT TO SIT.
2. Recharger Room
By the end of 2009, home designers will start adding a separate room to house all the chargers for the family’s galaxy of small electronic things. Its floor-to-ceiling racks of power boards will be filled with fat black power adaptors, humming quietly, and an Amazonian tangle of leads. Most of them will go nowhere, because they belong to the phone you threw out two years ago, or the Nintendo that your kid lost last holidays, but you dare not throw out the plugs, “just in case“.
3. i-Tome
A battered, hollowed-out hardback copy of something clever by Proust or Sartre, so you can sit in cafes or trains looking thoughtful and intriguing when you’re actually Facebooking on the i-Phone hidden inside.
4. Facebook Door Bitch
Facebook friend list full of undesirables? It’s bound to happen if you’re a polite person who doesn’t want to offend new friends, even if you’re pretty sure you’ve never met them.
Taking a cue from the world of nightclubbing, new application Facebook DoorBitch (FBDB) takes the responsibility out of your hands. When someone unwanted asks to be your friend, the FBDB avatar pops up and tells them that they can’t come in because their shoes are wrong. Or because they don’t have a collar. No amount of pleading will get them past.
“Please let me into their page! I’m a friend of the owner!”
“Sure, that’s what everyone says. Now on your way or I’ll call security.”
5. Sitar Hero
Like this, only more Indian.
And you don’t have to strike poses because you’re sitting on a mat, looking blissful.
The Guitar Hero shots are from last week’s Scene Change Tasmania staff Xmas party. In case you were wondering how they relax after a year of setting up lots of complex technology - they like to set up even more complex technology, but with a vital extra element: beer.
Going surfing now, back next year. A big thank you to all the Friends of Scene Change, we appreciate everything.
Technical crews like it when they get thanked. And the great presenters really do it well.
Most TV networks showed a heavily edited version of President-Elect Obama’s acceptance speech in Chicago. The Scene Change cameras were there to capture the full story.
A friend just attended one of Robert McKee’s famous ‘Story’ seminars in LA, three days of relentless lessons on screenwriting. She thought it was brilliant.
She was particularly impressed with the iron discipline of McKee, who at the age of 75 still delivers ten concentrated hours of material each day with just a 15 minute break. And he does it under rigid rules.
Under strict McKee Presentation Law, if your cell phone goes off, or your computer beeps, you have to walk up the front and put $10 in the phone jar.
“I will not be interrupted,” he says.
He looks like someone you wouldn’t want to interrupt. Even when he’s silent and still, he has terrifying ‘don’t mess with me‘ eyebrows.
In the world capital of bad cell phone etiquette, quite a few offenders were brought to justice. All paid up. Genius.
With control like that, it must be tempting to escalate the punishment for his own amusement. Why not have a fish bowl on a pedestal on stage, ready to send the phones of offenders to a visible, watery grave?
If you don’t have the forceful personality of Mr McKee, here’s another idea.
Make sure your computer is plugged into the speaker system. If someone answers a call and tries to have a hushed-voice conversation, here’s the procedure:
Apologize in advance to the audience.
Switch the big screen image off, so only you can see it on your notebook.
Open up an ‘Adult Entertainment’ video clip* and hit ‘play’.**
Turn up the soundtrack volume.
There is no caller, business or personal, who is going to buy whatever feeble excuse is offered.
Ian Whitworth believes passionately in the power of live communication, without the buzzwords and bullet points. He works as a creative director and principal of agency A Lizard Drinking. He is also one of the founders of audiovisual company Scene Change. Ian is an ex-professional presenter and long ago, ex-audiovisual technician. For non-presentation stuff, try @ianwhitworth.
Ian Whitworth believes passionately in the power of live communication, without the buzzwords and bullet points. He works as a creative director and principal of agency A Lizard Drinking. He is also one of the founders of audiovisual company Scene Change. Ian is an ex-professional presenter and long ago, ex-audiovisual technician. For non-presentation stuff, try @ianwhitworth. 
