The secret is in the planning
In one of those twists of fate, I’m involved for the next couple of days as the technical delegate to a gathering of like minds. Now, they would never admit to such homogeniety, but if you take a group of sixty people who all have similar goals and come from the same sector, you don’t get a smorgasbord.
My day job is in education, and the powers that be have decided to see if our communities are all on the same wavelength. Hence, a “Town Hall” meeting was called, and for the last few weeks there has been a lot of whispering and sharing of small notes. Just like in the classroom. This time around, the aim is to put a few dozen like minds in a closed space for a few hours of discussion and then see if anything unusual emerges. I’m running the sound system, and the computers and the projectors and the coffee machine; the secret is in the planning, but the delivery is in the gear.
First sign that we may have a few unforeseen gaps in the planning came this afternoon, when we prepared to set up the discussion room. Tables. Check. Sound system. Check. Display racks. Check. Chairs. Chairs?
Happily, we’re using a gymnasium that doubles as a church on weekends, so someone found the key to the storage lockers and we “borrowed” the necessary stackseats. After all, churches preach that we should share. Besides, it will be all over before they even notice.
During the opening meet and greet I projected a long PowerPoint as background “noise” and then was asked to present a video. Up to there, it was all cheese and crackers. Of course, the projector didn’t push the video footage, so the assembled multitude watched the show on a small laptop screen. Not the same punch. And, of course, when I tested with a second projector a few minutes laters, all was wine and roses. Except that the focus group had gone back to cheese and crackers. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
