I spent the morning attending the Raleigh Neighborhood Exchange, a half-day of talks and information booths designed to strengthen Raleigh’s neighborhoods. It was sponsored by the city’s Community Services department, which supports the city’s CACs, including mine. I was asked to be a presenter at this year’s Exchange, and so this morning I did two sessions with Eugene Weeks (a fellow member of the Parks board) and Jason Hibbets (chair of the Southwest CAC) on the topic of using high-tech and low-tech methods to strengthen neighborhoods.
I was originally planning to speak off the cuff at today’s meeting, but last night I became inspired to create what I hoped was a captivating slide presentation, Lawrence Lessig-style. I was up until 2:30 this morning assembling my slides, grabbing about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up for the meeting. I arrived at the Convention Center with plenty of time to spare. The only problem is that the Exchange was being held at N.C. State’s McKimmon Center! I arrived at the correct venue about 10 minutes before our session was scheduled to begin. I had time enough to wolf down a muffin and grab my badge before the session started.
The speaker order changed once I arrived, with Eugene and Jason asking to speak after me. I hooked up my laptop to the room’s projector and began my talk.
Only, the projector only showed half of the video showing on my laptop’s screen. No amount of embarrassing configuration could get it to behave, so I glumly opted to forge ahead with only half of my slides showing. Needless to say, this sucked: for my audience as well as me.
Fortunately, Jason’s and Eugene’s presentations went far more smoothly and I learned a lot from both. Also, I was able to straighten out the technical snafus before my second session, so it was a home run! One participant told me it was a “fantastic presentation.” That’s always a good thing! I will have to be better at managing my time next time: leaving time to iron out the technical details.
Before I knew it it was lunchtime. We heard a great keynote presentation about “Motivating without Money,” by Donna Warner and enjoyed a very good meal. Then awards were presented and it was time to go home.
It was the first Neighborhood Exchange I’ve attended and I enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to doing it again next year.