

I survived a speaker’s worst nightmare - dan_sim
http://birminghamblogging.com/2009/10/17/i-survived-a-speakers-worst-nightmare-at-blogworld-bwe09/

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pg
An even worse variant happened to me at Defcon. They put me in the wrong room.
I was giving the talk that became "Inequality and Risk" and I noticed people
kept getting up and leaving. After about 10 minutes, I stopped and asked what
was going on, and someone said "Isn't this the talk on lockpicking?"

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kirubakaran
Video / audio is at [http://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-
archives/dc-13-archive.h...](http://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-
archives/dc-13-archive.html#Graham) for those interested. Jump to 3:40 [video]
if impatient.

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herdrick
It's interesting to read along and see what was cut for the version on the
website.

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teilo
I can appreciate this. I am a Lutheran pastor (as well as a CTO for a printing
company) and while preaching one Sunday a few years ago, I flipped my page
over and, to my horror, discovered that the second side was the same as the
first. Needless to say, I did not have a duplexing printer at the time.

Though I had been using written-out manuscripts for a couple years, at that
moment I was grateful for being forced by my profs (and I hated it at the
time) to preach from an outline. I did that five years straight, week after
week.

When I flipped the page, everybody knew something was wrong (I don't hide my
reactions well), but at least I was able to recover: just try to recall the
key points and keep on going.

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RiderOfGiraffes
This has happened to me, and I did something similar. Since then I've learned
- always check the program for your name, title and abstract. Doing so is part
of a professional approach, not doing so is understandable, but leaves you
open to this kind of problem.

It happens more often than you might think. Sometimes the program is right,
and then a last minute change leaves everyone confused.

Usually a good speaker is worth listening to regardless, but it does look bad.
The comment is right - listen to your audience, work with them to find a
suitable compromise, promise what's necessary, do what you can.

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9oliYQjP
I was once at a Microsoft conference when a speaker didn't show. We waited 15
minutes when finally a sweaty, scruffy dude comes running into the room
panting all apologetic-like. Apparently he had been in his boxers relaxing in
his hotel room about a mile away and 15 minutes prior when he got a call from
the organizers. His presentation wasn't in 2 hours like he'd expected. It was
right then and there. I felt really bad for him.

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WadeKwon
First, thanks to everyone for reading my worst nightmare and commenting on it.
:)

+1 to RiderofGiraffes for that tip: From now on, I am reading the program
online and in print. No surprises, please.

I only wish the BlogWorld organizers had responded to my direct e-mail
explaining the situation and asking for ways to prevent it for other speakers
in the future.

Wade Kwon Birmingham Blogging Academy

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chris100
Now that is one crazy experience. I'd expect better from BlogWorldExpo, but
messing up on your talk's summary is usually a killer.

I guess the survey (show of hands) was the right approach to immediately know
what to do. What if you had had about half and half? What would you have done
then?

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jrockway
Clearly he should have combined the two talks into one. "How to turn _bold_
words into a startup," or something.

