My Talk at Beauvoir, 10-15-16

Well, my enjoyment of a flawless presentation experience appears to have been relegated to a singular event.  Unlike at the Pascagoula Public Library, the haints possessed my equipment once again for my talk at the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library located on the grounds of Beauvoir.
Beauvoir was the retirement home of Jefferson Davis and is located right on the beach in Biloxi, Mississippi. 

I've always liked this picture of an elderly Davis sitting out front of Beauvoir and gazing out at the Mississippi Sound, which is the body of water between our barrier islands and the Gulf.  He lived here while writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.  As expected, his work is housed today in the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library which was built, and rebuilt after Katrina, on the grounds of his estate.  The library was also the site of my latest talk.

The room where I spoke was equipped with a projector, sound system, and large screen.  I always bring my own electronics but thought I would use theirs since their elaborate sound system would sound much better than my smaller amp, and their projector, which was suspended from the ceiling, was larger than mine and would, therefore, produce a larger picture for their giant screen.  Seemed like a good plan.....until we couldn't get the projector to even turn on.  After fresh batteries failed to get a response, workers finally got the thing on somehow.....only to display a blue square on the screen.  For some reason, my laptop was not picking up the projector or vice versa. At least we were able to get their sound system working.  While we worked feverishly to get a picture, I prompted the nice crowd of approximately 40 people to check out my reenacting gear, newspaper articles, and copies of letters I had on display.  We finally gave up on the projector.   My mama, who has always worked with technology, couldn't even get it going.  So I grabbed my projector and set it up.  It wouldn't produce as large of a picture, but we were just going to have to go with it. It was fine and people could clearly see my slides.  So it was all good.  Everything went smoothly once I got going.  And then as I was approaching the final part of my talk, I realized I forgot to change "the slide."  I have one slide that is unique to every presentation.  And I forgot to to create one for this talk.  So the previous one was still there.  When it showed up, I tried to click as quickly as I could and hoped nobody saw it.  DOH!!!  I'm so embarrassed.

Photo by Cindy Harriel

Speaking of technology, I had the first person ever use an app on her phone to scan the QR codes I put out with my reenacting gear.  The codes will take you to my blog and Facebook page on your phone.  There have been other people whom I've coerced into trying it out, but this lady was the first one who did so on her own, so I was thrilled with that.

I was also thrilled to see my friend, Linda, in attendance.  I really appreciate my friends when they come to support me, so it was great to see her.  And she honestly enjoyed my presentation.  She laughed and actually shed some tears at the end.

Photo by Cindy Harriel

The man in blue interviewed me after my presentation for a short 10-minute feature for his website.  You can check it out here:  www.americanlifestylenetwork.com.  I will probably post it when it comes available.   He was a great interviewer as you'd expect since he worked in television before he retired.  He also mentioned perhaps obtaining some sponsors and filming a series about women soldiers with me.  I'm not sure if it will come to fruition, but it sounds like an interesting project.  Although, speaking in front of people in a teaching environment is one thing, but talking in front of a camera is something else!  Scary!

I had another great crowd, and I appreciate them bearing with me while we got everything set up and going.   I was especially glad to see some young men in their teens or early 20's attend.  They showed up as a group, so I think that they actually came upon their own volition as opposed to someone "making" them attend.  They were attentive and engaging.   It was so good to see.

Thanks to the folks of Beauvoir for once again giving me the chance to come speak and for the absolutely fabulous desserts they had available for the guests.  They were incredibly yummy.  

Until next formation....rest.
.