Not the best layout

I wonder if anyone else ever has this problem. You go onsite to do some tech support at a conference or other speaking engagement, they’ve been nice enough to let you know that they have the projector, screen and all that already, you just need to bring your laptop and plug in, but when you get there it’s obvious no one actually thought about the layout of the room at all.

This morning, when I go to the location I needed to setup this laptop and presentation for one of our folks, I was struck by the fact that the projector was right at the front of the room, maybe 5 feet away from the screen it was projected upon. Upon powering it on, it was painfully obvious that it was too close, and no amount of adjustment was going to give me more than about 1/4 of the display size I needed. To top it off, the power cord to the projector was already taped down and plugged into the front of the room, so I couldn’t move the table very far.

Luckily, it wasn’t a very large room, so stretching the power cord as far as it would let me, and adjusting the display settings on the laptop at least got us to a point where it was 2/3 of the normal display, and it was perfectly readable from the back of the room at that size. I don’t know what we would have done it that wasn’t acceptable.

I won’t even get into the fact that the video cable didn’t reach the podium from the table they had the projector sitting on, and that table wasn’t big enough for both the laptop and projector to sit on.

Next time you’ve got someone coming onsite to do a presentation, give them a break and check out the room and equipment layout ahead of time. Don’t just throw it together at the last minute. It doesn’t make a good impression on your speakers, or their tech support person. 🙂

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