EQUIPMENT GUIDELINES
Almost all Symposium locations this year will have an on-site computer
and projector, and some way to show DVDs or play CDs and sound files.
You should also be able to count on having internet and wireless access.
How to Prepare
Your best bet to make sure all your equipment will work the
way you want it to is to arrive early
enough to your session to check the
equipment, upload your
material from your flash drive to the session computer (or cue up your
video clip), and do a test
run of your material as you would use it in the presentation. Doing
this will
save you time and it will relieve some of your anxiety about doing the
presentation itself.
If you have a chance, check out your
room
location at a
prior session (or
in the days before the Symposium), even if
just to get a sense of the layout or to watch someone from another
session using the equipment.
If you are part of a group
presentation, you might assign one
of
your people the job of working the technology while the rest of you run
the show.
GW faculty and technical
staff will be on hand to help out. If you can't find anyone to
help, check with the information table in front of Post Hall in the
Academic Building.
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Problems
Expect Problems
Assume something will go
wrong.
With presentation technology, something always does -- networks go
down,
your files turn out to be incompatible with the version of software on
the computer (see the "PowerPoint" section below), documents
inexplicably don't open, no one can figure out
how to work the remote for the DVD player, etc.
So have have a back-up plan, and have a
back-up plan for your back-up plan. For example, say you're
interested in
showing something that appears on a web site. While you'll probably be
able to access the internet, you should also download and archive the
pages you want to
look
at as files that you bring on a flash drive. As a last resort, you
might even plan on having
page printouts to pass around.
Expect
No Problems
Having said all that, we don't actually anticipate there being
any
major problems: the equipment works, it has been tested in the rooms in
which you'll find it, and we will have faculty and staff on hand to
help you through the process of using it.
Computer Needs
All presentation spaces have a dedicated
computer/projector
set-up; all have internet access; most have wireless. To make things
easy, reliable, and quick, we strongly recommend that you bring all necessary files on a flash (or
"jump" or USB)
drive. This enables all presenters in a session to upload their
material to a single, on-site computer before the session begins. This
is infinitely preferable to everyone trying to connect and disconnect
their individual laptops during the session (though we will do our best
to accomodate you if you if that's how it has to be).
Though slower, you might also burn files to CD as a
failsafe. Slowest of all, you might
also email yourself the files. We recommend this only as a final backup
plan.
The PowerPoint Question
...itself a subcategory of The Microsoft Question.
Many of you will want to use
PowerPoint,
which presents special
technological challenges. PowerPoint is one of those Microsoft wonders
that gets really
screwed up if the software you used to create it doesn't use the
version of the software that is used to play it. Most of the trouble
centers around how the program handles animation, so it's best to play
it safe by using as little crucial animation as possible. It will save
you set-up time and look more professional if you save your finished
presentation as a PowerPoint Show (.pps) rather than as a PowerPoint
Presentation (.ppt).
The Mac Question
Mac users should, as always, take
special precautions to
make sure that their files and/or equipment will work within the
PC hegemony of the Symposium. Avoid letting your Mac become the
loneliest piece of equipment in the room (see image, left). If at all
possible, test your
material on a
friend's PC ahead of time.
Particularly, if you bring a flash
drive, you will also want
to bring a Mac-to-PC flash drive adapter (it adapts the Mac output to a
USB input).
