You had it all planned:
- Lights dim
- Lights on
- Intro speaker walks on stage and introduces the panel
- Roaring applause from the audience
- Panelists walk on stage
- Lights dim
- Intro video starts playing
- Lights on
- Panel sits down in their assigned seats
Here is what happened last week at the very first session of a conference:
- Intro speaker starts
- Microphone has no sound, tok, tok, tok,
- The panel is not ready
- Intro speaker tries to crack a few jokes, while looking back stage
- Panel starts walking on the stage
- Lights go out, makes it hard for the panel to find their way
- Video starts playing too early in the middle of the intro applause
- Video starts straight with a dialogue without slow intro, hard to follow for the audience that tries to understand what is all going on
As soon as the panelist have settled in and the content of the session starts, all is fine. That first hick up could have been easily prevented.