PowerPoint Karaoke, the SSP Annual Meeting, and Dueling Presenters: Contribute to the Chaos

At the upcoming Society for Scholarly Publishing’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Geoff Bilder and I have been asked to present together again, after what proved to be a raucous and popular session at last year’s meeting.

But this year, there’s a twist — and you can help make it even more twisted.

You see, Geoff and I seem to be at-ease giving complex, thought-provoking presentations. So, we’ve been challenged by some of the more sadistic elements of the conference committee to prove our mettle in a session officially called “Geoff and Kent Redux,” but known among the tribe assembling it as “PowerPoint Karaoke.”

We’re going to have to present to slides we haven’t seen before, creating a narrative on the fly.

And you can help create the slides we’re going to have to use. The SSP has posted a very brief survey instrument via SurveyMonkey. You can contribute slides, ideas, links, or other items to the session organizers using the information found on the survey page.

Believe me, I have some trepidation promoting this. I know the readers of the Scholarly Kitchen are well-educated, intelligent, and universally good-looking, but also possess deep reservoirs of repressed mischief. Asking them to contribute to what could be a public speaking nightmare seems unwise at some level.

Yet one phrase sums up the spirit of this session: “Bring it on!”