Digital Near-
Disaster
Speakers have been thrust into a new technological world--thrown across the digital divide and forced to swim across the sea of social sites, gadgets and smartphone applications. And it’s exhausting.
Speakers are connecting, friending,
tweeting, Skyping and putting their
lives on video for the world to see—in
high definition no less! Do people
really want to see my magnified pores
as they eat their conference lunch?
There really should be a law forbidding our images from being projected
in anything over 600 dpi.
Recently, I spoke to a group over
lunch and still had a proposal to finish,
a blog post to write and two videos to
edit before I could call it a day. I finally
collapsed at 1: 30 a.m. I had a client
call the next morning and some virtual
events that afternoon, so the fact that I
only got four-and-a-half hours of sleep
didn’t bother me.
Rising to the thought of the smell of
coffee, I made a mental note to start
using the high-tech feature on my coffeepot timer. I climbed into some sweat
pants, slammed down my first cup and
took my dog, Bob, for a quick walk. By
7 a.m., I was returning Facebook messages and Twitter replies. I figured I
would shower later. After all, we don’t
have smell-o-vision phones yet.
Suddenly, my computer started
ringing. Did I mention that this client
and I had decided on a Skype call
instead of a regular phone call? I threw
my headset on and answered, not
knowing Kelly had invited three other
co-workers to the meeting and that they
were all seated around a conference
table excited to “see” me that morning.
(Note to self and others: Next to
appointment information, write “video
call—get dressed” in large letters.)
Gina Schreck, CSP, is a technology enthusiast and professional speaker. She is the host of “Getting Geeky,” a tech show that makes technology
easy through byte-sized learning nuggets. She
is also the author of Getting Geeky with
Twitter: Build Your Business and Manage
Your Brand with today’s Hottest Social Media
Tool. Find Gina on Twitter @GinaSchreck or
read her blog at www.Synapse3Di.com.
