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Speaker-Presenter Information and Resources

Information, resources, common questions and answers for those doing or prospectively doing talks/presentations at BALUG

If you will or may be giving a talk/presentation at BALUG, the following information will likely be rather to quite useful to you.

Once you're confirmed to give a talk/presentation at BALUG the following
are the first bits of information we'll need most immediately - or at
least as soon as feasible - from you.

You'll also want to familiarize yourself with the information on what
resources we do/don't have available and how, and typical meeting
timelines, to help optimize the talk/presentation experience.

Name and working title for talk/presentation (and optionally
affiliation)
Most immediately after you're confirmed to give a talk/presentation at
BALUG, we'll want ...

name and working title
Your name as you wish it to appear, and title, or "working title" for
the talk/presentation.
If there's some particular affiliation (e.g. company, organization,
institution, etc.) we should show you as affiliated with, please provide
that.

description/outline
Paragraphish outline or teaser for what the talk/presentation will
cover or likely cover (needn't box oneself in as to precisely what
will/won't be covered, but general outline or hints as to what will
or likely will be covered is generally good)

mini-bio
A line (name and title/affiliation) to shortish paragraph on
speaker(s)/presenter(s), background relevant to the topic/presentation,
and occasionally other (very) short interesting bit(s) (e.g. "and also
likes to jump out of perfectly good planes for fun").

Projector
We generally have projector and screen available to us, but do note
that our typical video setup results in rather low resolution
projection to the screen.
Particularly, we have a converter device which accepts most VGA type
input (has VGA type connector) - it then converts to NTSC (ye olde
analog television) composite video.  That is then projected onto
overhead screen (about a 10x10' screen mounted on about 20' high
ceiling).  This generally works quite adequately if the "slides" aren't
too detailed (smaller text, lines and detail won't work so well, most
everything else works adequately or better.  E.g. a screen of 80x24
text is typically slightly too small to be easily read, but slightly
larger (e.g. screen of 62x22 text) is quite readable.)
We sometimes are able to make available higher resolution projector and
portable screen (to bring screen closer to most of the audience - also,
other than the ceiling mounted screens, the restaurant doesn't have
surfaces that are well suited for projection) - but such isn't
necessarily the case, and requires advanced notice and confirmation.
One can bring one's own projector if desired, but again, there's the
issue of available projection surfaces (sometimes BALUG may have
portable projection screen available - may not always be the case, and
also requires advance notice and confirmation).

Audio
We do have a pair of wireless microphones (and a microphone stand) and
PA system generally available to us.  It's probably also possible to
feed other audio into the available equipment, but we may need some
additional advance notice if such is desired in order to work out such
arrangements.

Networking?
We generally have some type of Wi-Fi access at the Four Seas Restaurant
(ESSID: FSR key: f0urseas) with NAT/SNAT Internet access to The 
Internet.  It seems to be fairly reliable, but might occasionally drop 
out, drop connectoins, or (less commonly) require the access point to
be reset.  We typically don't have wired Ethernet connections
available.  Cellular reception is generally reasonable or better, so
networking via EVDO or the like is also generally doable - though we
don't have equipment to provide such - just the cellular signal is
there.

Power
Standard 120 VAC 60Hz is available, and we can likely handle up to
about 5A (600W) without particular concern (likely all on a single 15A
circuit shared with other devices and equipment).  If you do or may
need more than 5A (600W), check with us first - we may or may not be
able to provide such (or one might need a long suitably rated extension
cord to draw additional power from another circuit).

Typical meeting timeline

(some times are approximate):

6:30 P.M. meeting officially kicks off - we gather near the restaurant's
          bar, socialize/meet/greet, typically do nametags, collect cash
          for dinner (we treat our guest speaker/presenter to dinner -
          so no charge there).

7:00 P.M. BALUG pays the restaurant for dinner, and we're seated for
          dinner.  For >= 40 people, we generally eat upstairs (same
          room as used for presentation), for < 40 people (also a fairly
          common occurrence) we generally eat downstairs in the main
          dining area.  Folks should arrive before 7:00 P.M. if they
          wish to join us for dinner (after 7:00 P.M. we may not be able
          to accommodate them for dinner due to our "family style"
          restaurant dinner pre-order arrangements).

7:55 P.M. if we're eating downstairs, and haven't already set up A/V
          equipment and connections upstairs, typically
          presenter/speaker and a BALUG person (or two or three) will
          migrate upstairs to get the A/V equipment set up, connected,
          and all set to go

8:00 P.M. if we're eating downstairs, we migrate upstairs for
          talk/presentation.

          We do "announcements", and "brief community announcements"
          (folks can take up to a minute to announce stuff likely to be
          of relevance to BALUG) before and/or after the
          talk/presentation

          Introduction and talk/presentation

8:45 P.M. - 9:15 P.M. talk/presentation concludes somewhere in this
                      timerange, and often/typically winds down to Q&A
                      (formally and/or informally) and/or more general
                      discussion.

                      if "announcements" and "brief community
                      announcements" haven't already been
                      done/concluded, we'll wrap that up.

                      if we have any door prize drawings and/or
                      giveaways, we'll typically do that

folks may continue to mill about and talk following completion of the above

<= 9:30 P.M. we try to fully wrap up and leave the restaurant by 9:30
             P.M. (we are fairly often the last customers in the
             restaurant, and try to avoid inconveniencing the restaurant
             as much as possible, particularly in consideration of the
             deal they give us on dinner and use of the upstairs
             "banquet room" for our talks/presentations).

Following the above, and if/as announced and if there are interested
folks, some of us will occasionally gather after the meeting at a nearby
pub (e.g. Li Po Cocktail Lounge, 916 Grant Ave. - two blocks away from
the restaurant) for continued discussions, etc.


"bumping" & the upstairs restaurant space and other restaurant notes:
The restaurant is kind enough to allow us to use the upstairs
restaurant space ("banquet room") gratis, but as part of that
arrangement, though it rarely happens, we're subject to being "bumped"
(if paying customers book that room that evening, then we don't have
the space available to us).  Our being "bumped" is a rather rare, but
not unknown occurrence.  In such cases we'd generally know in advance,
but sometimes not very far in advance (e.g. many hours to a few days or
so).  Also, the larger the crowd we can accurately predict and
"guarantee" for the restaurant, the less likely we are to be "bumped"
(e.g. if/when we are or are likely to be a dining crowd of 50 or more,
and are able to project that relatively well in advance, it's
improbable the restaurant would "bump" us).
balug/speaker-presenter_information_and_resources.1362023996.txt.bz2 · Last modified: 2013-02-28T03:59:56+0000 by michael_paoli