As a follow-up to last month's Fall Week (posts from October 1 to 5; Surprise Central's version of Discovery Channel's "Shark Week"), for the next five days, all Pow! posts will focus on reflections I had before, during and after a speech I gave for MDS Nordion last week (by the way, I just set the Guinness World Record for most use of the word "week" in one sentence).
So, without any further ado, I bring you...
Speech Week!
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As most FOPs (Friends of Pow!) will tell ya, I speak at a lot of conferences. Attend more than my fair share as well. Most of them within the confines of multi-doored, mega-structures called "Convention Centers."
So here's today's Question of Perplexion:
If these halls are built for speeches,
why the hell are the doors within 'em
so interruptively, obnoxiously LOUD?
It boggles the mind. It seems that the smaller the meeting room, the louder the Kerchunk! of the handle and the longer the hydraulic wheeeeeeze of the door itself as it opens and closes. It's like an alarm that signals "I have to pee," "The speaker is boring"...or worse.
The result is a pain in the ass for everyone involved, particularly those on stage who are disrupted not only by the doors themselves, but by the headturning and general reaction of those in the room as THEY react to the noise.
Time Magazine just named the iPhone as Invention of the Year for 2007.
Well, if you get started now, and come up with a silent door for meeting rooms across this land, you will get my vote for 2008.
And gratitude from speakers and audiences everywhere.