photo credit: andreasdantz
Checklist For Conference Speakers
I was one of the featured conference speakers for an organization in Toronto last Friday and had a great time slot of just before lunch which is much better than right after lunch when people are a bit drowsy from all the carbs they ate. However, I’m finding that as my keynote talks are becoming more tech intensive as well as with my usual set of props, it’s quite easy for me to forget something.
When I was packing up my gear after my talk, I did end up leaving one key piece of apparatus which was the power adapter for my Mac laptop computer. I didn’t notice that this piece was missing until I got home and started to unpack my tech case.
My laptop battery had about three hours of power left. I called the meeting organizers but it was already after hours by the time I got home. So I went back to the venue the next morning on Saturday to see if the power adapter was still there. Fortunately, this was a Toronto gig rather than an out of town one.
The facilities manager and I went to the auditorium where I was speaking and the power adapter was not there. We then went into the storage room where they keep all the extra AV equipment just in case if the technical guy brought it back there. Again, it was not there.
I then met up with some of the staff from the organization who were there on the Saturday morning and they didn’t find anything in their offices either although my main contact person was not due to be back until Monday morning. One staff person thought that it might have been one of the other conference speakers who spoke after me who might have taken my power adapter by mistake.
When I got home feeling a bit disappointed that I came back without my adapter, I check the Apple store and it turns out that a replacement adapter would be $79, which is quite outrageous. Similar items on eBay were only slightly priced better at about $50 but of course would take some time to ship. Meanwhile, after checking email and some other really quick things online, I was down to about an hour of battery power left.
On Saturday night, I got a phone call from my contact person and she said that she did find my power adapter and knew if must have been mine since I was the only one of the conference speakers who used a Mac. She had it in her office.
Although this meant another return trip back to downtown Toronto, I still saved myself $79 for a replacement adapter so I was relatively happy. This still resulted in a big change of plans over the weekend since I would have very little time available to be online due to limited power left in my battery.
So I decided to put together a quick list of things to do over the weekend that would not involve the use of my computer. Surprisingly, this cut out a lot of planned activities like writing and doing any research online. So I had to come up with non-computer related tasks.
I chose to catch up on my reading and managed to finish Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thankyou Economy which was a good read about social media and business. I also did extended sessions with my guitar which was awesome too.
By Monday morning, my computer battery power was down to about eight minutes left, which was just enough to quickly check morning email (but not enought to read and reply to all of my messages).
Conference Speakers Tech
After I picked up my power adapter from downtown, I decided to put together a tech checklist for conference speakers which I will now keep in my tech case. The items I listed so far include;
– laptop computer
– power adapter
– remote control
– flash drive
– computer speakers plus adapter
– video adapter
– power bar
– extension cord
This list might actually grow but I now know that I will definitely review this list before I go to any future talk and will also review it before I leave the venues too so I won’t be leaving anything behind.
My speaking presentations are certainly not like those short five to seven minute speeches during my old Toastmasters days. My current full keynotes do require props and tech equipment which I don’t mind using since they greatly enhance my presentations. I’m just learning to utilize a tech list to be more efficient.
To see my current available talks if you need any conference speakers for your event, see my speaking programs.
