In elementary school my class was assigned a project to interview our grandparents about what life was like when they were growing up. My grandparents lived 8 hours away, but would happen to be in town right before the project was due. I decided instead of writing down a few paraphrased sentences over the phone like everyone else I would record an in-person interview.
Grandma and grandpa sat down. They were thrilled I was so interested in their lives. I enjoyed it more than I expected because they were telling me interesting stuff about parts of their lives I had no idea existed.
We talked for two hours. They left the next morning. I went to listen to the recording and there was nothing there! I hadn’t tested the tape recorder beforehand. I felt so bad I didn’t even want to tell them. (Besides it being too late to do anything anyways) I ended up writing down a few paraphrased sentences. I turned in a mediocre project. But worse, the conversation we had was gone, and how many times would we ever get a chance to talk about those things again? Even if we did I wouldn’t ask the same questions and they wouldn’t recall the same stories.
I learned my lesson early how important it can be to get technology right, both for practical reasons and because of what it feels like when things goes wrong. When a group of people meet it’s a unique opportunity that can’t be re-created.
AV Citizen is a project to help you plan audio visual for meetings, conferences, summits, etc. I’ll initially be focused on more basic questions, but hope to be useful to people with a wide range of experience, from folks who plan one event a year to professional meeting planners.
I like to help people. I believe in doing the right thing, doing what you’d want other people to do in the same situation. I’ve been an audio visual professional for over a decade with an emphasis on corporate and association events. I currently work for a national event staging company. A big part of my experience is working for in-house AV partners at luxury hotels. In addition I’ve handled live performance, houses of worship and academia. Let me know if there’s a way I can help you!
