Month: January 2016 Page 2 of 6

Snowed In

On January 23, 2016

It’s snowing here. It’s been snowing since yesterday. Like most of the east coast, I’m staying home. I’m not going anywhere. But I did shovel out our front and back doors as I watched the snow pile up. The only trucks I’ve seen driving through our neighborhood are Pepco (power company) trucks. No one else is trying to go anywhere which is good to see.

The road conditions are terrible. The snow is still falling and the wind is blowing. We have power and are all set for the long weekend of snow. We dug out our front and back door since the snow was making me nervous piling up on the glass sliding door. If you’re under snow, stay inside and stay safe.

This used to be a car. Now it’s a pile.

Trying to make some progress. We shovel, we wait 5 minutes and its covered again.

Front door when I opened it this morning.

Our back door before I shoveled it out.

We found a door!

Being a good neighbor, for what it’s worth.

I give this little guy credit for his endurance.

There is a bit of snow in the area. Our back deck has about 31″ of snow all over it.

And what’s a storm without a little fun. Here’s the Fastest Shovel in the East.

I am the fastest shoveler in the East.

A video posted by Carl Holscher (@carlholscher) on Jan 23, 2016 at 12:37pm PST

Woman dropped ice cream cone. Via http://gratisography.com/

Event Planning Rule 2 – Test. Re-Test. Re-Re-Test

By Carl

On January 22, 2016

In Observations

Rule 2. Test. Retest. Re-retest everything.

Now that you have planned for the unexpected it’s time to test your event. You are testing your setup, right?

Steve Jobs made it look easy

They picture Steve Jobs on stage at an Apple Keynote speaking with perfection and running flawless demos.
Many people plan an event like an all-hands meeting and think they can walk into the auditorium start speaking and everything will fall into place. But That’s where everything falls apart. Unless you’ve planned and tested your event.

We have a big meeting next week

What do we need to do? That’s how most of my requests start. Another version is I’ve been tasked by leadership to run this event and I’ve never done anything like this before.

I mention testing and a dry run and they ask, what do we need to test? The answer is test everything you expect to work.

Dry Runs

For every event I plan, I require a dry run. This is a run through of the event in the place it’s going to be held with as many of the people as possible and all the equipment setup and ready.

For even the simplest meeting you’re going to need a few things.

A place to have it (Booking the room is often overlooked!)
Table and chairs
Computer
Internet access
Phone line and telephone
Projector / TV for people in the room (You’re not going to have them looking at a single laptop screen.)

Are you having a larger meeting? That means sound.

Microphones
Speakers
Mixer (all of those mics need to go somewhere)

You want your remote people to see you?

Webcam

Your slide deck has an embedded video or audio clip?

Microphone for the laptop / plug-in to a sound system

Our simple meeting already has half a dozen ways it could fail. And we haven’t even started.

Assume Nothing Works

I’ve walked into rooms without a telephone or a computer. I’ve had a network cord, but the port it was plugged into didn’t work so I had no connection. I walked into a room where half of the lights were burned out and needed to be replaced.

My point is you never know what you’re walking into. Just because a room was perfect the day or week before, doesn’t mean it will be the day of your event.

Find the flaws

The point of this is to find any flaws in the setup before it becomes a problem. An idea on paper may not work once you’ve setup everything else. Will the microphones accommodate the person who wants to walk around? Is the flipboard in the way of a presenter or blocking a camera angle? Is there enough room on the stage for the panelists and their chairs?

I ran an event for National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the planners didn’t account for the presenters who would be in wheel chairs. They had not left enough space on stage for the wheelchair to maneuver. We found this out in our dry run and rearranged the stage to make it work.

The purpose of the dry run is for the people planning the event as much as those supporting the event.

If you run events for a living, you’re comfortable with what is required and the limitations of your equipment. But those you’re working with may not. The dry run is to let you and them see things how they will be which can often be different from the vision they saw in their head. This is a learning experience for you and the people you’re working with.

Test Everything

Each event space is different. I’ve worked with a full setup of power, network and phone lines. I’ve had audio equipment and an enclosed room from which to monitor and troubleshoot the event. I’ve also worked in what amounted to a hallway off the main lobby of the building.

I’ve run events over the internet because I didn’t have a phone line to get sound out to the participants. I’ve run events with limited microphones because the mixer we needed was in use at another event at the same time.

Testing your setup will bring these issues to light before they cause problems. It’s easier to fix a problem with a day or even a few hours instead of 15 minutes as the room begins to fill.

Re-Test Everything

When you’re working with a group of people, they will want to change things. A lot. I try my best to limit changes after we test the setup and hold the dry run.

I do this because if you test one thing and then change it you’re testing something that’s no longer happening.**

Changes are unavoidable. You roll with what you need to but explain to the event organizers when they make changes that need major reworking of the sound or video, there may be issues.

If you go from wired to wireless microphones, they may buzz or interfere with each other. They may pick up cellular signals and feedback. If you decide to have Q&A from the audience in the room, no one online will be able to hear their questions because there are no microphones for the room.

If you change the number of panelists you may be missing a chair for one of them. Or the table they’re sitting at may not be big enough to seat them all comfortably.

Remember that anything you change will need to be tested.

I worked on an awards ceremony for a group that wanted to have live webcam video over WebEx from eight major cities around the country. I think I had a dozen meetings with them on the logistic and exactly how we would pull this off.

We tested and found limitations in Event Center and Meeting Center. We learned we would need to limit the number of active video feeds. We worked out a naming scheme for each city and the order we would scroll through their cameras.

We lost one mid-event when the computer on the site went to sleep but they were able to quickly recover. The event was a huge success. The Director was able to see and congratulate the award winners across the country and he was thrilled.

This was a clear case where testing and more testing won the day. There were so many points of failure to this event but we pull it off and delighted the organizers.

Set Expectations

Underpromise and Overdeliver. If you see any possible issues in the event, make sure you tell the organizers. If there’s anything you’re unclear about ask them. You can never ask too many questions and make sure if they have any questions they ask you. You are the expert.

You can never test an event too many times. You can never ask or be asked too many questions. And be honest. If something’s not going to work, explain why it won’t work and offer solutions.

Don’t try something you know will fail. Make sure you set the expectations. If an event has problems and they’re expected it’s better than if you promise a flawless event and it doesn’t live up to your word.

I supported a 9-month training program for senior executives over WebEx. That meant 4-6 times per month I was in a room with six microphones, a mixer, two speakers, a webcam and a TV or projector testing all of it.

Even when I knew the setup. And I should, I had set it up a dozen times already, I tested every microphone every time. I didn’t want that meeting to the day one of them stopped working or was too quiet or too loud.

I tested the webcam to make sure I had it set to show as many of the attendees as possible in the space we were using that day. I tested the phone line to assure it was clear and the wireless conference phone was fully charged.

I did everything I could to assure success and in that entire 9-months I only had a single instance of a problem. That came when one of the presenters accidentally hung up the conference phone during their presentation.

That’s one of those acts of god you can’t plan for but tends to happen. They were able to quickly dial back and continue without further issue.

Testing your events will lead to more successes than failures. And you will fail. So be ready for it.

Event Planning Rule 1 – Expect the Unexpected

By Carl

On January 21, 2016

In Observations

Rule 1. Expect the unexpected. (And have a backup plan.)

It’s amazing any of the events I run are successful. There are so many points of failure that don’t have to fail for an event to be successful.

People.

Host
The event has to start. There needs to be someone to start the session and allow participants to join. The host needs access to the computer, the application used and the knowledge of how to start and setup the event.

Presenter
The person/people presenting the content need to be present and have their materials. They need to be early and setup to begin on time.

From the slide deck to the microphone setup, the presenter needs to be early to allow for troubleshooting. If the presenter is going to use a lavalier mic, it needs to be attached to the person using it.

Audience
The audience needs to be present. Whether it’s in a large venue, entirely remote with each participant at their desk or a combination, they need to be present and ready.

Events that start late or have issues at the beginning can lose much of the audience before they even get going. Also, the audience needs to be considered in sound and technology.

Are they going to be able to speak? If not, you better forcefully mute their lines. Don’t want to hear babies crying, dogs barking and side conversations? Mute your participants. Find a way to silence them and if you are having them ask questions, find another way to handle it. E-mail, a text-based chat function or an operator-assisted audio call are all possibilities. But they involve planning and testing to assure success.

Technology.

Audio
Microphones and speakers are the key to getting audio from the presenter to the audience. Microphones must be in the right places, set to the right volume and placed properly throughout the room.

There’s a lot to consider when using microphones for an event. Some people hold their mic right up to their mouth. Some people sit back a foot or more from the microphone. Usually there’s no way to know how a person addresses a microphone beforehand so you need to be ready to adjust volume on the fly.

In addition to mic technique people speak at different volumes. Some people speak very quietly. And some people speak very loudly.

The problems are exacerbated when soft-spoken people hold the microphone far away from their mouths and people who speak very loud hold the mic very close.

Be ready for the soft-spoken presenter to hand his mic to the loud presenter and the momentary deafness resulting as you drive for the volume switch. Be ready for your head executive to stand to the side of the podium and not behind it. You never know what people are going to do so be ready to react and adjust.

Internet
A solid Internet connection is vital to a remote conference being successful. Bandwidth is needed for audio, video and any slides or files being shared.

If you’re presenting, try to get a wired internet connection. Wireless is wonderful but it can fluctuate which normally wouldn’t be noticeable but when your audio cuts out or video drops, everything is going to see. And never, if you can possibly avoid it, run an event over a cellular connection.

Telephone
While landlines have fallen out of favor at home, they’re vital to teleconferences. Cellular connections are great for convenience, but they’re also variable in quality and reliability.

The same issues that plague wireless and cellular data connections go double for the audio over the phone. The entire purpose of the event is to hear what the presenter is saying. If the connection is poor your audience suffers.

“Acts of God”

You can plan for every contingency. You can plan tests and test plans but there’s still something else to consider. All of those things you haven’t considered.

What if a presenter puts the clicker to advance the slides in his pocket and the slide show starts dancing around wildly?
What if a presenter hangs up the phone?
What if a presenter mutes the phone by accident and can’t figure out how to unmute it?
What if a presenter cannot launch the software to join the session?
What happens if the video feed to a remote city cuts out right before you’re switching it to the main screen?
What happens if your presenter gets delayed and arrives 2 minutes before your event is scheduled to start?
After testing audio the previous night, you arrive on-site to find the audio levels drastically different from where you left them?
What if you walk into the room you and there’s no computer, telephone or internet connection?

These are all things I have encountered and worked around. The biggest takeaway here is to give yourself extra time before your event begins.

I cannot stress this enough. Almost no issue is too big to overcome if you have an hour or two to solve it. However, if you walk into an event 10 minutes early, you may be stuck with a problem too big to solve.

Little Book of Event Planning

By Carl

On January 20, 2016

In Observations

I’ve spent the last two years running WebEx events for the US Department of Labor. I learned in a trial by fire with large, national events being normal. I worked with the Secretary of Labor, the various Deputy Secretaries and I assisted with software rollouts, policy changes and training initiatives.

I ran meetings for small groups of high-level officials and large sessions with hundreds of members of the public attending from all across the US. I facilitated some international VOIP calls putting people in as many as four countries together virtually.

In that time, I’ve learned some rules of event planning. They served me well and in my time running events, I can count on one hand the number of failed events I had. And in all of those situations, one or many of the things we planned for went wrong.

There are some issues you can recover from and others there is no coming back from. Sometimes an issue can be as unforeseen but fairly minor as a speaker putting the clicker to advance the slides in a pocket which caused the slides to jump sporadically around in front of a packed Auditorium.

There are other, bigger issues such as a phone line dropping mid-presentation or a computer rebooting due to a crash or software installation. The world of event planning and tech support mean never assuming you have everything under control.

I have 10 Rules for Event Planning Success

Expect the unexpected. (And have a backup plan.)
Test. Retest. Re-retest everything.
Be ready to fail. (You will. It is inevitable.)
Know your trump cards (who can push meeting or take scheduled space.)
Write things down. (You think you can remember everything. Right up until you can’t.)
Organize yourself. (Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.)
Be flexible. (Things will change. Usually on short notice.)
Don’t be afraid to be wrong. (You will be wrong. You will make mistakes.)
Be honest. Never lie. (The truth will come out. Don’t let it contradict you.)
The microphone is always hot. The phone line is always open. (Be careful what you say. Private is public.)

Reinforcements have arrived

By Carl

On January 19, 2016

In Destiny, Observations

There is nothing better than unexpected help coming when you’re struggling.

This is just as true in life as it is in video games. When I started playing Destiny, there’s a lot of patrolling Earth and the Moon. I spent a lot of time and bullets trying to bring down the same level enemies as I was. It was hard and I struggled.

There are some public events in those patrol areas where players have to take down a much stronger foe. Or need to defend a certain point on the map or even chase a band of enemies across the map and take them out at a few separate points.

These public events were very hard starting out. It was a big struggle to be successful. Which brings me to my favorite parts of Destiny.

Higher level players would show up and help!

Reinforcements have arrived

One of the things I love about Destiny is how you can run into strangers and all work together. When I started out, I would meet players 10 or even 20 levels higher. And even though we never spoke, they would help kill enemies and complete public events.

We would point and wave and dance together. And it made me feel so good when someone would show up to help and then run off again.

It is those small interactions that really makes Destiny a special game.

Paying it Forward

Later on, when I was a higher level player, I always go out of my way to help out lower level players. It is very important to me to pay forward the kindness of those strangers when I was first starting out.

I try to always be a friendly and helpful player online. I want to have a good time and help others have a good time too. That’s what games are for. Fun!

Recently, my Fr0zen clan and I were running a friend through Vault of Glass for the first time. It was an easy run because it’s an old raid and we’re now overpowered for it.

The raid starts on Venus, in an area that’s also part of the open Patrol. As we began the raid, we were a person short of a full team and we saw a random person around us. He hung around as we started to play it and we decided to toss him an invite to chat with us.

He accepted and we asked if he wanted to join us. He did and we invited him into our group. Just like that, we were running with a full team of six. And we got to meet another player and help him make it through the raid.

He was a nice guy and we had a good time. Destiny is great for the random encounters you can create or stumble into.

We’ve invited people to our team in the Crucible (a player-vs-player game type). Just like in Vault of Glass, we had an almost-full team and we played a few matches with the same random person. So we sent him an invite and he joined us.

This all came to mind as I was listening to an episode of Guardian Radio. There was a comment from BrutalGear about making Public Events better.

The idea was to add the ability to send a distress beacon out to your friends and ask them to come help you in an event. The events could be made bigger and involve getting through multiple rounds of enemies and then a mini-boss at the end of it.

I love this idea because the enemies always get to call for help. I would love to be able to put the call out for allies to come to my aid. But since I can’t, I’ll continue to help other players out and make new friends.