Screens at presentations.

 Keyword: Simple, Please keep it Simple.

TLDR for organizers: 

please provide a dumb HDMI cable that I can use to clone my screen to your display(s).

audio is optional (in my cases).

but… 

Any Button, 

Any Setup, 

Any Thing I need to tweak...

is at best a distraction, a loss of time, but is often a Fail.

For Speakers/presenters: Expect nothing, and do prepare to tweak  around in screen-config from your platform (mac, windows, linux-desktop…).

End of summary.

This topic came up in a conversation among friends.. and my very old, boomer point of view is, I think, still valid.

We often struggle with connecting our laptop to the (fancy) local display setup.

When presenting at a conference or meeting, I want the venue to provide an “external screen” for audience to view. Preferably those viewer screen(s) act as a mirror-copy of my laptop screen in the simplest possible way. 

Others may prefer the “presenter-view" from MS-ppt, or may even bring their own presentation-app-setup (with fancy clicker-pointers!).

But what I expect form the venue is mainly Simplicity and an easy-setup.

Fancy little high-tech-touch-screen consoles where I need to “select my input” are a Big No.

Domotica that will detect my video and will also close the curtains and order coffee: NO!

Dongles laying about that promise the guest some wireless-access to the big screen: only work 30% of time. 

You probably end up competing with the signal from next door.

So NO!

Need to accept+install “the app” to enable projection at the local place??

A colleague once narrowly escaped the mandatory-encryption of her total harddisk, just to connect to the local display-screen…

No.

Please have your local system-person read+understand this.

Best joke is when you are presenting in 1 room, but but you get offered the slides + audio from the room next door.This happend twice in last 3 yrs, wont Shame the places, but they are probably reading …( Hi there, Zdravo, Witam)

Simplicity !

nb: yes, yes, yes I know blogposts should be Positive (yes!) to work best…

hence this super positive filler text to enhance and improve the exceptionally good vibe of this post, and to call on all you super-kind marvellous readers to hit like and subscribe….

Thank you, Thank you, you are all Wonderful.

(closing tag, Romeo Alpha November Tango - over)