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I went to a great workshop run by InvestNI yesterday on Protecting Your IP for Creative and Digital media services.
I got there just as the chair was clearing his throat to start so I had to duck into the nearest seat I could find. And then realised there was a bloody great pillar between me and the speaker.
Now this, surely, is a bit of a design flaw in a room designed for learning (the workshop was at the University of Ulster). But there were lots of lovely (substitute expensive) plasma screens so I thought I’d be ok.
And I was, for the first couple of minutes while I listened to the introductions and got myself settled.
But then I very quickly became frustrated and anxious to see what the speaker looked like. I tried surreptitiously moving my chair slightly to the left but to no avail, and then craning my neck to the right, but my next door neighbour started shifting in his seat so I stopped.
There I remained, for the rest of the workshop. And it was ok, I suppose.
But the speakers I enjoyed the most were those who walked around a bit and didn’t stay chained to the podium. They were the ones I could see.
On reflection, of course, there’s no great surprise here.
Given that over 80% of communication is none verbal it’s no wonder that I felt I was being short changed. I couldn’t see the mannerisms, expressions, eye contact, hand waving and face pulling that the speakers were doing.
Anyway, it was a great workshop and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the good, bad and ugly IP experiences of Donald Clark, founder of Epic, Andrew Ferris, founder of Smalltown America records and Malcolm Barclay, iPhone app developer.
Thanks very much. Your wit and honesty brought this potentially dull subject to life.
And to those speakers I couldn’t see – your slides were great.
Janet
