[TheForge] Re: ABANA conference program problems

[Mike Spencer]

Ralph quoth:

> Having volunteered to do it twice and in putting over 600 hours into the
> planning of the Kentucky conference with Dave Koenig...
> ...
> I was receiving requests for tools and materials (from demonstrators) the
> day before demos in Kentucky...

Well, having been a demonstrator just once ('84), I have to say that I
was blown away by how smooth the volunteers made it for me.  Every
tool and stock item I had asked for was on the bench and a gopher
showed up to ask if it was all okay.  Some one tool wasn't quite what
I had expected and the gopher went off immediately to look for a
substitute.  I had a gopher during the demo who hustled to fix a
problem that arose.  I had asked for a striker.  He showed up early
and was better at striking than I was at using him.  I only regret
that I was so focused on the work (perhaps to fend of stage fright and
the dazzlement of stardom, however fleeting :-) that I failed to give
him credit and tell the crowd how wonderful he was to work with.

So, Ralph, in this world where corporations put megabucks into
engineering fast food joints, supermarkets and malls to get the
sucke... er, customers in, shucked and out without a hitch, the
spectators may take for granted a conference that works or a demo that
goes smoothly as a consequence of all that hustling and planning.  But
the demonstrators notice.  They surely do.



- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^