Forest’s first online meeting and I’m nervous as hell
Tuesday, April 28, 2020 at 14:00 This evening we are hosting Forest’s very first online meeting.
If I’m nervous it’s because I have every reason to be.
Last week Rob Lyons, who is in charge of the event, suggested I log in to a similar event he was hosting for the Academy of Ideas.
“I think it might be worth joining the discussion I’m doing on Thursday night,” he said.
“We've got over 120 people coming, so I'm bricking it a bit, but it might be worth registering and 'attending' to see how it works.”
So that’s what I did.
Unfortunately it was a complete disaster! Not the meeting, which seemed to go very well, but my attempt to participate.
Zoom is a doddle to download so that wasn’t an issue. The problems arose after I had successfully logged in to the meeting.
I could see all the other attendees but when the meeting started and Rob began talking the sound was a bit muffled.
After ten minutes I began getting messages on my screen warning me of an "unstable Internet connection". Generally we have a pretty good connection at home, well able to handle Netflix etc.
The connection then started cutting in and out. I checked that no-one else in the house was on Netflix, in case that was using up bandwidth.
I then logged out intending to log in again and reboot but I couldn’t log back in because there were now 100 guests in the meeting and that was maximum allowed by the software.
Twenty minutes later I did manage to rejoin the meeting (one or two people must have left) but the connection continued to cut out and it became so frustrating that I gave up long before the end.
When I explained this to Rob later his reply didn’t fill me with confidence.
“I had a total nightmare the first time I did a Zoom event. The problem was the speaker's audio and video would slow to a crawl, making them like unintelligible daleks.
“If he hadn't sent me his speech in advance I would have been completely lost. I had terrible problems that week, but it all seems to have settled down. Fingers crossed etc.”
Helpfully he added:
“I would make sure to be as close to the router as you can be. The more floors and walls in between, the worse it gets. Make sure it's not on the ground and can be kept clear of any cordless phones. That may help too.”
Dear reader, do you see why I’m nervous?
Most of the guests are from the UK, as you would expect, but the list also includes people from Ireland, Germany, Belgium and America.
If I haven’t put you off it’s not too late to join us. To register email events@forestonline.org and we will send you the link you need to join the meeting.
Smokers and non-smokers welcome!
Reader Comments (2)
I am sure it will be alright on the night.
The problems you describe tend to be my experience with any new technology I haven't used before so I'll give the event a miss to keep my stress levels down 😂
I will be very interested to hear how it all went. Good luck.
I thought it went very well. And I've been doing things a bit like it in the Smoky Drinky Bar for years.