Denmark!

I just got back from Denmark where I was giving a presentation on my video series Let Us Praise Famous Men in the conference Transcultural Montage by the University of Aarhus and the Moesgaard Museum.

Here are some images from Denmark:

America's second favorite pastime

So twice in the last 48 hours I've been told that I have an "interest in copyright." Ok, so maybe that's true that I do have some interest and maybe that's because on some level it's linked to my field, but shouldn't everyone be interested in copyright? It's not as though the laws don't apply to those who aren't "interested." Copyright laws are more important than ever and awareness is really important right now. The laws are a lot more aggressive and restrictive than they once were.
Case in point, my new box set of The State DVDs (loved that show, check it out if you've never heard of it). The back of the box set includes a disclaimer stating that they had to replace a lot of the music they used in the original episodes because they didn't have the rights. This show wasn't fly-by-night, it was on MTV. If the music was legal in the 90s why isn't it legal now? What's changed? Copyright laws. (The same thing happened with the tv show WKRP).
So don't think awareness of copyright is an option. This kind of reminds me of email in the 90s. Remember when people would just say "Oh I don't use email" and that was a legitimate excuse? No more. The same is true for copyright. The laws are becoming more pervasive and more aggressive and you might be violating something that you never even knew could be illegal. So don't be scared, get on teh interwebs and "google" copyright today.

(And if you're really stuck for where to start, come to a CopyNight event, also hosted by yours truly)

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Awesome photo thanks to 917press

More importance of being....

Well the conference is wrapping up now and I have a few more bits of reflection on presentations to add to my original list:

1. Warnings. I was in a presentation that was generally benign when suddenly I was confronted with images of a decapitated sheep's head in a vice. If you are going to show this, especially when jumping from "innocent" images, it might be a good idea to warn people.

2. Know your technology and do a practice run if possible. Have a video? Play it ahead of time so you know if the audio is wonky or that it won't run without a certain player. Too many minutes were lost in presentations over fudging with technology. In this conference it was fairly easy to get into the presentation spaces ahead of time and make sure everything will run. But even when that's not the case, stick to something you know will work, have a backup plan or even just try to use your own laptop if possible.

3. Do not read your powerpoint. I would hope most people would have something to add besides the few words they have included in their powerpoint. If not, you either don't have enough content or you've loaded your powerpoint with far too much information. Plus I feel like a kindergardener having a book read to me by the teacher - I can read thank you very much.

4. Language. This one is a bit sensitive, but make sure you can converse in the language in which you will be expected to present. If not, make some arrangements. It's very frustrating to not understand something that sounds as though it might be very interesting, but I just can't get to it.

5. Move the pointer! This one might be an issue of minutia but I cannot stand when someone clicks on something either in powerpoint or a video and then leaves the cursor in the middle of the screen. It's quite distracting to see this little finger icon or an arrow when I am trying to focus on whatever it is you are showing.

So that's it for now. I'll have radio silence until I get to London sometime tomorrow afternoon. Oh and by the way, my presentation went well and I am proud to say I did none of the mentioned offenses. But I do have one more don't that I know I am guilty of: stop saying "um." (Any suggestions for me on that one?)

The importance of being...

Years ago at the first conference in which I presented, I was was scheduled to go in the first panel. While this was nerve-racking, it did free me to relax and enjoy the rest of the conference. At this conference, I am scheduled to present on the last day, in the last session. While on the one hand this is extending the nervousness, I also have an opportunity to see a lot of other's presentations while thinking about how to refine my own. And here's what I've discovered. When thinking about your presentation it is important to:

1. keep it simple. Case in point, the graph I snuck a photo of. This was not the most complex of this presenter's slides, but he was too quick for me to snap a shot of the busiest slide. This was exacerbated by him not explaining these graphs and after a few, I just sort of stopped trying to read all the little red text on black.

2. stay on topic. If you show me images or video, talk about those images and video. If you seem to be talking on a completely different subject than your visual aids, and don't offer any way of telling us how they are connected, I am just going to tune out and just focus one or the other.

3. practice. Each session is two hours long and has about 4-5 presenters. So that's about 15-20 minutes per person. So practice what you are going to say ahead of time. With a watch. See how long it takes you. Many presenters went well over their alloted time with the clever strategy of looking down at their paper or focusing on the screen to avoid the time monitor's indicators of just a few minutes remaining. Not only will practice help you to know how long to talk, it will also help you to be less nervous and appear more organized - this will also save you time.

I've heard a lot of interesting concepts, theories and work in this conference so far. But very often I was distracted to the point that I almost missed it. And while I'm nervous to go last, after another day and a half of these presentations, hopefully I can refine my own presentation learning from what does and doesn't work in the others.

Overall, this is a really great conference. (And tonight I have my first real British pub experience!)

(insert British colloquialism here)

Greetings from England! I'm attending and presenting in the International Visual Sociology Association conference on the campus of the University of Cumbria in Carlisle England. The conference has only just begun and I've just come from the keynote address by a very interesting man named Howard Hull. Luckily my presentation is on the third day so I have plenty of time to acclimate to the local time (I'm a bit sleepy at the moment). We had a bit of an internet problem but I seem to be one of the lucky few who could get their mac laptops to connect to the wireless. This conference seems very promising, so more to come as possible (hopefully the internet continues to work). The image above is the Learning Gateway, a very nice facility in which the conference is being held.