My Unofficial Job: The A/V Guy at Your Service
My real title is Director of IT Development & Operations. That sounds pretty cool, right? Well, I have another job too. It’s pretty unofficial, but it’s real. I’m the company’s A/V (Audio/Video) guy. Here’s what happens nearly every single day:
- I show up to a meeting as an attendee.
- The presenter starts getting setup.
- The presenter starts struggling with WiFi, the display, Skype, WebEx, the speakerphone, cables, adapters, or something.
- The presenter starts to sweat.
- Other attendees start casually gazing in my direction.
- The presenter starts to panic.
- Other attendees give me “the look.”
- The presenter is about to pass-out.
- I rescue the presenter.
- The meeting commences. Everyone lives.
I can’t help it. I instinctively know how all of this stuff works. I don’t know how I know, I just know. People look at me like I’m some sort of magician, but I’m not. I’m just the company’s A/V guy.
Nowadays, conference rooms are pretty techie. We have digital whiteboards, telepresence for remote attendees, and bi-directional video, but this problem isn’t new. Back in school, I was one of the nerds pushing a TV/VCR combo strapped to cart down the hallway. Once an A/V guy, always an A/V guy. (There are A/V gals out there too!)
It’s been 17 years since I left the help desk, but in some ways, you never really leave. I learned the skill of helping end users with computer problems and developed an intrinsic burden to help. In most cases, I don’t let people struggle beyond step 3 above, before I jump-in.
One of my coworkers recently jested that he invites me to all of his meetings just so I can work the smartboard. All along, I just thought he wanted my insightful input on strategic decisions. Nope. Just A/V support.
On second thought, perhaps I’m onto something… Us IT folks are always trying to get a seat at the decision-making table, right? Get invited for the projector-skills. Stay for the strategic business decisions. Brilliant!
Ideally, conference room A/V systems will one day be 100% intuitive for everyone to use. When that happens I’ll gladly give up my honorary post as the company’s A/V guy. Doing my part, I recently posted a video on LinkedIn entitled: Four ways to share your PowerPoint presentation on a Surface Hub
Any other A/V guys or gals out there? What’s your unofficial job at your company? Share your stories in the comments below.
2 thoughts on “My Unofficial Job: The A/V Guy at Your Service”
Yes, I can relate to being the AV guy in every meeting I go to as well. I have been at my current company for about 3 years now and the current project that I’m on I’m know as the “millennial”. So when I show up to meetings and the presenter is having a hard time getting things set up in the fairly new conference rooms that we have, they look at me and say “Hey, millennial come fix this”. Usually I fix the issue and we move on with the meeting. Depending on the importance or the setting of the meeting I will usually take the time and teach them how to do it as well. I like to live by the saying “take a man fishing feed them for a day, teach a man to fish feed them for a life time”
Thanks for the comment Taylor. It’s hard to be pigeon-holed as the “millennial.” But it’s good to help out and teach them to fish. Keep it up!