So I’m back from the MVP Open Day, did you miss me? Whadda ya mean no?! LOL. Anyway, on the plane home I was sitting behind a woman from Edinburgh and a gentleman from the US. As they conversed during the journey, it became apparent to them both that they had once lived in the same small town in the US. “Wow, that’s amazing” proclaimed the woman; not really thought I, if you’d come to my “Science of Social Networking” talk then you’d have known that the work of Milgram et al, makes it quite likely actually.
Speaking of my talk, I turned up running a little late, as the chap before me had over run by 10 minutes, to find that the projector had taken umbrage at the very thought of a Mac being connected to a piece of Microsoft equipment, and point blank refused to speak to it at all. Not to worry, the AV tech. soon arrived on the scene, putting my mind at ease. However, my ease was to be short lived as we had the following conversation:
Him: “Having problems getting connected mate?”
Me: “Yeah”
Him: “Not to worry, we’ll have you set up in a jiffy”
Me: “Good, as we’re running a bit late and I should have started by now”
Him: “Umm, hang on, this is a Mac”
Me: “That’s right, it is”
Him: “Umm, yeeeeeeeees, well you see…. sorry mate, no idea, bye!”
Me: “Okay, anyone got a white board marker?”
I then proceeded to deliver my talk the “old fashioned” way, just chalk and talk (well white board, pen and talk, but you get the idea). As it happens the audience seemed pretty happy with that approach as the day had been a little like “death by Powerpoint” up until then, and I only really needed to “chalk” up my equations. Just to add a little bit of pressure (‘cos otherwise it would have been easy right?) Toby Richards (General Manager, Community Support Services for Microsoft) was in the room. I think it must have gone okay though, as he asked me to send him my slide deck. Of course, he maybe wanted to check that I had one in the first place and wasn’t just conning everyone. :-)