Assignment 3 Evaluate a facilitated online event OR If I had my time again

I have decided to evaluate my own event because I do not think that I have enough experience to critique someone else’s properly.

How the event was organized and promoted.
I worked pretty hard on this and tried to think of what everyone needed to know, what could go wrong and what I would do. I sent new participants information on how to use Elluminate and offered a couple of times to practice with support from me. I made sure that the presenters and I had practice with the software and loading the presentation.
After a discussion with my presenter about security, I would blind copy email addresses from now on.

Managed and conducted smoothly.
I was completely unprepared to arrive in the Elluminate meeting room and find someone else’s presentation loaded on the screen. They said it would disappear if we left the room, but when I came back in it was still there. This really rattled me. I began to panic. Adrenalin rushed through my brain. I couldn’t think straight. All I wanted to do was to get rid of it so that we could load our presentation. Sarah told me we could just leave it there, but it kept popping up when I didn’t want it to. Eventually I deleted it slide-by-slide which took quite a while and cut into the time that I had set aside to introduce newcomers to the Elluminate tools.

Question. What is the etiquette here? Should you wipe the blackboard clean before another presenter comes into the room? I would like to hear some views from people about this.

I didn’t really handle that disruption very well.

Technical Support
I had arranged technical support, and planned to load training up on the screen and go through it half an hour before the presentation started. But I got flustered and ran out of time to take people through the tools and make sure that they were all OK before we started. Most people were OK but one couldn’t see the videos. I had sent out instructions about downloading Quick-time, but forgot to remind her to restart her computer after the download.

Setting the stage, introductions, explaining the aims, managing to remain neutral and facilitatory.
Again, because I was quite rattled and not thinking very clearly, these things were not done that well. They were done, but they could have been done better if I was in a clearer frame of mind. I mostly remained neutral and facilitatory, except for one instance where I became moderatory. I was concerned about showing respect to the presenters. Again, if anyone has any views on this please let me know.

A round up, closure, recordings.
I didn’t do a round-up, but I did make sure that there were opportunities to ask questions, closed the meeting on time and let people know there would be a recording. I forgot to press the record button at the start, and luckily Sarah reminded me. Thanks Sarah!

General
Note to self. Stay calm. Do not suspect sinister plots along the lines of “Wind up your Wife Wednesday” when it is Monday ;).

Thanks to everyone who participated. It was a really interesting presentation from Beverly and Tania. I look forward to working with you again.