Intrepid

RantWoman is just the sort of inveterate and intrepid NERD who knowingly, willfully, deliberately, with full premeditation aforethought spends her WEEKENDS subjecting herself to various interactions with Powerpoint and information presentation experiences. RantWoman thinks it rained most of the weekend or at least was pretty cloudy. RantWoman is not sure though because she was indoors looking at Powerpoint and bathing herself in other information presentations. Among the self-employed and the Make Your Own Job set this is just called professional development.

Powerpoint #1: RantWoman has seen this presenter before and if she really were on her toes, she should perfectly well know there will be Powerpoint. RantWoman should know this but she does not even think to request the Powerpoint in advance. RantWoman is sure she can ask the presenter and /or just download the needed materials. RantWoman could fantasize about but feels very little urgency about the possibility that there is some iota of information she might interact with immediately so that the whole group of those assembled could have the benefit of whatever RantWoman's questions bring out about the topic. RantWoman frequently goes to group events specifically to network and see what she learns from others' questions. When RantWoman can interact in advance with materials, she can offer more cogent participation. For better or worse, RantWoman tends to be willing to participate whether or not she has thought about the info in advance.

Powerpoint #2: RantWoman went to this event already holding the presenter in great esteem just from her presence in electronic media. In person, RantWoman's esteem and sense of inspiration increased still more. So RantWoman is chagrined that the presentation also falls so unambiguously in the RantWoman rant zone.

RantWoman THINKS she requested electronic copies of the handouts in advance. There were no handouts. RantWoman again did not think to request the Powerpoint. Sigh. RantWoman got A LOT out of the presentation in spite of the fact that the presenter showed slides, asked the audience to read and did oral presentation of a small percentage of the content on most of the slides. EXTREMELY valuable information. Extremely valuable information where in a few places it would have been valuable to be able to pull out the bullet points in order to interact with the scenarios that were part of the training.

RantWoman can see enough to tell the Powerpoints used reasonable text sizes. RantWoman is very grateful to have received a copy of the presentation after the fact. RantWoman probably got at least the high points if not all the nuances from the scenarios laid out just from the questions and comments others offered. But again, RantWoman could not participate to her preferred level.

RantWoman supposes it would be desirable to be enough of a presentation geek to suggest a presentation approach that would have seemed more accessible to RantWoman. For the moment RantWoman is simply noting that thought.

Presentation #3: No Powerpoint, but spreadsheets and accounting terminology. Arrggggghhhh! But wait: RantWoman got the spreadsheet in advance. She even opened it. Then she realized, it's financial reports for an organization RantWoman has been dealing with for years. RantWoman pretty much knows what the numbers are, what direction the changes are going, how to extract key concepts. More to the point, the presenter is crystal clear, so clear that RantWoman got everything she needs from the presentation without even having to interact in detail with the spreadsheet!

Then RantWoman at last got to go out and play.