WK1-1 DB Quickies: DIY Classroom/Presentation Solutions

Topic #1: Briefly share an experience about using media (visual and/or auditory) in class or during a presentation, focus your comment on any work-arounds or solutions you used when the tech wasn’t quite working or when the tech wasn’t adequate to do what you had originally planned.

I recently created an iMovie presentation to be used in France at a corporate training event in which I was presenting.  In preparation, I saved my file to a key as well as uploaded it to a Viddler account just in case.  As I work everyday with Medical Devices that save peoples lives, I understand the importance of having contingency plans and appropriate backups like UPS’s, emergency generators, and dedicated power outlets.   I train on Project Management best practices and one aspect of good project management is controlling project risks.  I treat each training event as a project and as such I perform risk analysis, what if x and y and all the stars are not in alignment, what would I do?  

This picture is from my Project Management Training Material that speaks to Protecting the Plan

I arrived at the training class and was next in line to present.  I gave the coordinator my Mac and he proceeded to hook it up.  Guess what, they did not have the right connectors to connect my Mac to the projector, even though I had previously communicated to them that I would be using a Mac.   I was still calm and told the coordinator that I had my presentation on a stick and he could install it on the PC that was there and that it was a .mov file.  He proceeded to install it and then realized that the PC was not equipped with the software to display .mov files.  By this time the audience was getting a bit upset.  So, my last contingency plan was put into action.  I asked him if the room had Internet and he said “Oui,” yes in French, this French word never sounded better!  A few moments later I had captured my audience with my multimedia presentation using Viddler.   I love technology but you have to love contingency plans just as much.