It’s all too common when tech people get together for an event to talk about the latest software or the latest coding techniques, then when each speaker gets up they have to spend a few awkward minutes plugging in their laptops and messing around with screen resolutions while the audience is waiting to hear the speakers no doubt very technically proficient talk.
Or you’ll hear a Brogrammer say something like “I don’t need a mic,” which is always ironic because that’s usually the only thing the audience will hear from the presentation. After yelling “I don’t need a mic” they then return to a conversational volume for their voice while trying to talk to a room with 100 very quiet but still struggling to hear people.
Another one I love is when the speakers bring their own clicker, or try to use an app on their phone to drive their slides. This is bad because they can often only set it up after they are on stage with the audience awaiting their presentation, and it always takes a few minutes to get it to work. It worked perfectly when they were at their desks, so I’m sure it will work just as well now that they are on stage…
There are plenty of other examples of “Tech conferences” where AV hasn’t been considered, and unfortunately there are some who organise these kinds of events who don’t even know that these things can be fixed very easily if you have a good AV supplier present.
If this sounds like an event you’ve been to, or even managed then you should reach out to an AV company who you can talk to about your upcoming events. Let them know all the details for your event and they’ll ask you specific questions about screen content to make sure everything goes smoothly, as well as room set up to make sure the screens are going to be big enough for everyone to see, and that the sounds system will be loud enough for everyone to hear.
