I attended a Web 2.o Conference here in New York sponsored by iBreakfast today. Lots of good speakers, but one big problem: video in presentations. The conference was on advertising and monetizing web content, so it made a lot of sense for marketers and advertisers speaking to show video in their presentation. But speaker after speaker got up, tried to play their video, and then apologized for it not working. The system wasn’t set up properly and there was no audio feed. By my rough estimate, half of the speakers used video and all of them had the same problem.

When you think about it, this really is silly. No one did any of the following:

1. Showed up early to do a rehearsal to see if things worked properly.

2. Tested during a break between speakers to see if their system worked.

3. Paid attention to the fact that the speaker who spoke 2 minutes before they did couldn’t make the system work, so chances are they would be able to either.

Speakers must realize that if you are going to use video in a presentation, you can’t just waltz up to the platform with your flash drive and plug in 2 minutes before speech time. You need to prepare, and rehearse on the actual equipment you will be using; otherwise, don’t bother using video.