I’ve presented twice over the past two weeks. Here is what I need to remember for next time.

At the podium, there is one rule: No rules.

Once up on stage, the following will occur:

• Wifi won’t work.
• Sharing your desktop for the projector/screen will cause your native screen resolution to shrink to 1024x768. Good luck finding stuff.
• The microphone will capture ever breathe your snort. Also, you’ll notice you snort every 3 breathes.

Attentive people and bored people look identical

As an audience member, I have observed I provide no feedback for a speaker to indicate that I’m actually listening. I don’t sit up. I don’t do lots of nodding. I dislike raising my hand to communicate that, indeed, I have used that resource. I imagine everyone else must do the same. When on stage, my brief glimpses into the audience confirmed this theory. Nearly all audience members don’t look that enthusiastic to be there, listening to you. Just have faith and push forward.

Be careful with live sites

As wifi will be confronting Murphey’s Law, there are no guarantees that the Web will be available. I was smart and saved a couple sites locally. But even some of these were flawed, as “Save as Complete Web Page” isn’t so complete. Sites can still load images and scripts dynamically from their original domains. Best precaution is to open up all live sites before the presentation and keep those tabs open.