During my teaching stint in the USA I managed to attend quite a few conferences. The ISTE is an international one for teachers and I was presenting a short workshop along with a colleague – Allan Dunn – at the large convention center in San Diego. Over 12,000 teachers attended and Allan and I managed to achieve an award at the event for our breakout session. I never imagined that this experience at a large gathering would surface in my novel, but it dovetailed rather well into the plot development.
The experience of presenting and arranging speakers during my career in Information Technology (ISTE, NCCE et al) helped me create the scene in MUTINY (Chapter 23) where Michael Hanover delivers his keynote to bankers in Frankfurt:
The lecture room was not large from Michael’s experience. He remembered addressing a hall of over twelve thousand educators at the San Diego Convention Center three years earlier. Michael received a Best Presenter Award for a slick delivery about investing, peppered with case studies and raw humor. After a long year of teaching, the audience was ready to be entertained and Michael made the right impact. The applause rang in his ears all the way home to New York.
….
“Sound check; 1, 2, 3.”
“There’s quite an echo, don’t you think?”
“Don’t worry, Dr. Hanover. When the room fills with people, the reverb will be perfect. The doors open at 9:15 and you start in forty-five minutes. You can wait in the Green Room where refreshments are available. If there is anything else you need, Dr. Hanover, please let me know.”
“Thanks.”]