Hi, Folks. I also had a great time at the conference and felt warmly welcomed as a newcomer. Thank you to all who worked so hard to put together a very good conference.
I'd like to follow up on one of Shelli's suggestion, her first one. My presentation at the conference was a Powerpoint presentation. I had printed out one copy of each slide in case the technology failed, but these paper copies really wouldn't have done the trick and had the technology failed, I probably would not have delivered a presentation at all. So I'd like to suggest advice for future conference organizers. This is not at all a criticism of this year's conference. We are in a transitional period when it comes to technology-based presentations, and it will take years before people can assume that they can rely fully on the connections they need to deliver these presentations. In the meantime, future conference organizers should be aware the trend is toward the increasing use of technology. More and more of us will be developing presentations that rely on technology, and I think that shortly such presentations will be the norm. The hotels are very much benefitting from this trend as they charge exorbitant rates for the rental of the necessary equipment. But we'll still be making lots of Powerpoint presentations (or their future incarnations). The hotel tech people in Brooklyn were wonderful. They were right there to assist me in setting up and showing my presentation, and they were very helpful when I left my mouse in the room and didn't realize it until hours later. (They located and retrieved it for me.) These guys were personable, kind, and most importantly, competent. They got the job done. Things would have gone better for me if I had known I needed to bring a certain adapter. Because I didn't have it, my presentation lost some of its formatting. In the future, it will be very helpful if those giving technology-based presentations know just what the hotel can provide and what they need to supply on their own. One organization I belong to has started to use a form that presenters must fill out if they are using technology. The organizers then get back to the presenters to let them know what they need to bring, or what the venue can and cannot accommodate. In short, there should be a liaison between presenters and the tech people at the venue. This is a big job, and it may be that someone has to be especially appointed to it. But the more planning happens in advance, the less likely it is that the technology will fail. This advice of course applies to all conferences and meetings, not just AJL. I don't mean to sound so negative and apologize for giving so much space to what might seem to be a complaint. But I honestly mean it as a suggestion for the future, and that's why I'm posting it here rather than just mentioning it in the evaluation form. I think this is advice that potentially affects us all. Thanks for listening. Take care, June Cummins ________________________________________ June Cummins, Assistant Professor Department of English and Comparative Literature San Diego State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
