I had a blast presenting at the Israeli .Net user group Wednesday. It was like coming a full circle- I used to (and still do) come to these talks, and baby, look at me now!

Anyway, this post is about one of things I did to prepare. As an avid listener to Manager Tools, I’ve downloaded the episode talking about how to start off the presentation. In order to focus the audience on you, you have to create a discontinuity – stand still for a couple of seconds, no movement. This discontinuity makes people “interested”.

But not in Israel, apparently. As I was standing still, looking at the audience, people kept talking to each other, were going in. And I had to say out loud “ok, we’re starting” for some attention.

It’s probably working somewhere, in different circumstances. But when you don’t have the attention, you probably need to grab it.