Afrotech Fest 2018 keynote: Diversity and the joy of being different

Keynote speaker @cubicgarden discusses diversity and the joy of being different #AfroTechFest pic.twitter.com/mJR5v7DrTk

— Afrotech Fest (@afrotechfest) January 26, 2018

The slides are now public on google drive (unusual but I do tend to create and edit them on google slides to be honest) and of course in the usual place of my slideshare presentaion. Its a long one but I could do it with all the videos a tad over 30mins.

Lol where are the black geeks!? Yes @cubicgarden

For real though @SiliconHBO @bigbangtheory #hollywood, where are the black geeks!?#afrotechfest #diversityintech #stem pic.twitter.com/NGVGs1TZd0

— Sahra (@SahraXYZ) January 26, 2018

They are thought provoking and full of references to some excellent research worth reading and digesting.

“Good crime.” @cubicgarden 🤣 || @afrotechfest has me up at 1am still buzzing. I went on my own but left having had inspiring conversations & connections. Just wonderful in every way! #AfroTechFest please continue forever! https://t.co/PzppSb6oDM

— Anaïs Mutumba || JMO 🇷🇼🇿🇦🇨🇦 (@LifeWithAnais) January 27, 2018

Massive thanks to the organisers and the audience for bearing with me through the keynote of 106 slides…

It was going ok, I was about to speed up a little; then I hit a technical problem which set me back quite a bit. The technical fault meant I couldn’t control the mouse and trigger the videos. Its not usual for me to rely on videos but I gave it a try in my new presentation format.

Its been a long time since I had since I had such a problem with my presentation on my own laptop.

Unfortunately…

After the presentation I realised what the problem was. I had plugged in a generic clicker system from the technical support (instead of using my own bluetooth clicker). The clicker half way through ran out of battery or disconnected for some reason. However my laptop still registered there was a pointer device as the USB dongle was still plugged in and the touchpad indicator was set to turn off the trackpad when there is another pointer device. This would be fine if I could get to the indicator with the Dell’s touch screen, But due to the way the display was setup; the projector display was set to the projector not my laptop screen. This meant I could only control the google slides presentation from the keyboard and nothing else.

I should have removed the USB and all would have been fine. But instead I tried to get things working (for about 5mins) and kept going without the videos. This of course threw me and meant skipping my planned points. Results meaning the presentation felt more negative than it was meant to be.

Oh well it seemed to be well received and got the issues over; even if it was without the positive spin planned at the end. There was also no time for questions which was a shame.

Things to remember for the future;

Use my own clicker, even if the battery life wasn’t as good as it use to be. Make sure the main display is my laptop not the projector, even if mirror mode doesn’t work due to the resolution limits of the projector.