Re: [AGA-mcm] Feedback from Jay Luto

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Paul Krombholz wrote:

> I think that Diana's presentation suffered from the 2x2 projector slides, 
> which projected a rather small picture on that large screen.

I don't think having the slides any bigger would have helped.  It was a 
very dry presentation, Diana was very nervous, clearly not used to 
speaking.  If there was anything with the slides that made the 
presentation suffer, it's that she only has about 10-15 actual slides of 
plants, which we've already seen in her book.  The remainder of the 40 
slides in the presentation were just photographs of a printed WORD 
document.  I'd heard she wasn't too hot on speaking, and if I'd thought 
about it more, I would have probably recommended that she not be the FIRST 
talk (but rather the second), but we had other things to worry about.

> She kept her 
> lecture almost too simple, but I got a feeling of approval from the audience 
> when she finished.  There was also some relief that she made it through the 
> presentation, since she seemed rather nervous.  There are a number of people 
> that are saying they are setting up tanks according to the "Walstad method", 
> and so I think her lecture was not a waste of time.

There seems to be one presentation every year that's a 
little awkward, and that's the fallout from getting a few people who've 
never presented before.  I think it's a good trade-off.  Remember we did 
this in 2002 with Chuck Gadd, and he rocked.  In fact, more than half of 
the non-keynote speakers at our convention are newbies.

I'm kinda with Jay on Diana's talk; didn't personally get anything out of 
it, but maybe others found it helpful.  And I think it was good for Diana 
to get to speak at an AGA for once.

> I am not recommending that power point be mandatory, but, for 2x2 
> slides, a projector that has a wider angle lens should be used.  It does 
> seem to be a lot simpler these days to project a large bright picture 
> with a video projector.  How times have changed!

Though I don't think larger slides would have helped, this I take at least 
3/4 responsibility for... I went into the convention under the assumption 
that we were having a room twice as long (the same setup in "bowling 
alley" mode), and brought a lens that was meant to be used from the back 
of the room.

Also note that Rick attempted to get Diana to send her slides to me for 
scanning, but she was too nervous sending them.  I guess if I only had 10 
plants slides, I'd be nervous too.  Oh well.  I think that slides will 
still be around in some talks, but they'll keep getting rarer.

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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