Favourite workshop/seminar moments

I was at a talk tonight and one of the things which happened made me think of all the seminars and workshops I have been too (or been part of, eek) where something very amusing goes wrong. Usually technology-based.

Tonight's classic was a comment from the chair as one of the speakers was bringing up their presentation on a screen where you could see what was on the laptop. The wallpaper was of a child, and the chair said 'ah, lovely picture of your daughter... er, son!'. Nice. To be fair it did look like a girl...

Another one which made me smile was at an 'important' central government-hosted event in London, where the speaker talked for so long that the screen-saver came on behind her over her slides. The screen-saver was the organiser's name (something like Alina) which then continued to bounce around the huge presentation screen for about 10 minutes until the presenter moved onto her next slide.

One where I could hardly contain my laughter was a workshop where the flipchart paper with headings had been blue-tacked the walls of the (big, echo-y) gym we were in. The guy leading was trying to do his introduction and one by one they kept detaching and falling onto the floor. Perhaps you had to be there... That was the same night that I was made to use the 'Madonna' head mike (think telephonist). Which could not be used in conjunction with the roving mike, causing delays of about 5 seconds between questions and answers whilst there was a manual switch over into the amp.

I once held a surgery session in a village hall where I literally spent half an hour looking for the light switch. Also same place where conversation was all but drowned out by the generator from the mobile fish and chip van parked outside.

There are certainly more of these stories...I may have to do further installments...they may just be under the title 'things wot made me laugh when working in the villages'...we'll see.

Please feel free to add your ridiculous stories of seminar-going. I'm going to one tomorrow, so I'm hoping for fodder...