A twosome weeks ago , Rob Griffiths and I spend a week aboard theMS Veendamas part of MacMania V — a combining of a Mac conference and A westerly Caribbean cruise . We taught classes on a variety of topic , such as maintaining your Mac , encounter cool and affordable software system , and using iWork . But the class that will in all probability stand out for me — in term of how fun it was to “ teach”—was one that had little to do with the Mac itself ; that academic session was called “ iPod Add - Ons : The Best of Playlist . ”
In the hopes of organize a fun diversion from all the “ let us instruct you stuff ” classes , I get up a intro on many of our favorite iPod accessories . How play could that mayhap be ? Very , as it turns out — especially when youbribethe attendees . You see , I had door prizes . Boy , did I have door prizes .
suppose that a game show would be fun , before the cruise I e - mailed the manufacturers of some of the accoutrement I was covering and ask if they ’d be interested in donate a sample or two that I could give away to attendees . I carry to get a few reaction ; instead , I was overwhelmed by the generosity of these vender . ( To be cleared , I asked about product I had already chosen to cover ; none of the products I included in the presentation were there because we got sample to give away . )
By the prison term we arrange sail , I had a bona fide cornucopia of iPod - relate dirty money . ( Needless to say , the ship ’s porters were n’t too well-chosen with me when I room the ship with my suitcasesplusa palette of boxes . But I tipped well . )
Being capable to give away prizes during a class is always fun . But made the session specially fun was that the mass who attended hadabsolutely no ideaI was going to be give stuff and nonsense off until partway through the presentation .
The amusement set out after I finish up talking about cases , the first part of the display . I mentioned , nonchalantly , that I had some cases to give out , and asked for elbow room key . ( The ship used room visiting card - keys , each of which had the guest ’s name print on it , so these keys were perfect for drawing ; you merely accumulate them from your “ students , ” shuffle them , and then draw cards . ) I proceeded to give out about 30 iPod cases to the appreciative attendees , from Agent 18 , Contour Design , iMojo , OtterBox , and XtremeMac .
Then total earpiece . No one expected to come away with new headphones , yet — thanks to Sennheiser and Ultimate ear — I had someverynice products to give away , worth$60,$80,$100 , and$250 . The fun part of this special draught was that I started with the least expensive models and gave the winner the option of passing to keep their name in the running game for the higher - end models . astonishingly , a unspoilt number of people slip by on the first-class SennheiserPX 100for a gibe at Ultimate Ears’super.fi 5 Pro . It wasDeal or No Dealon the high sea .
The same sequence played out as I talked about cosmopolitan accessary and accessory for the car . aroused attendees walked forth with accessories such as Belkin’sTuneTalk StereoandTuneDeck for iPod nano ; DLO’sHomeDock DeluxeandTransPod ; and batch of gear from Griffin Technology , includingiTrips , SmartDecks , TuneFlex nanos , TuneJuices , andiSqueezes .
By this prison term , I ’d given out hundreds and C of dollars worth of gear , and there was n’t a single sleepy heart in the room . For those of you who ’ve ever yield a presentation — lease alone one on a cruise ship in the recent good afternoon — you know what a rare effort it is to keep every someone in the way engrossed .
But the best was yet to come : speakers . I embrace around 20 of the best iPod verbalizer systems on the food market , in category roam from full - size nursing home systems to appall clocks to lightweight portable models . And as it turned out , I had five recommended systems on hand : Altec Lansing ’s $ 129 inMotioniM500 , $ 199iM9 , and $ 249iM7 ; Logitech ’s $ 300 AudioStation ; and JBL ’s $ 349Radial . Surelytheseweren’t to be contribute away , were they ?
Doing my best Steve Jobs , I uttered the magical Christian Bible every Mac fan make love to learn : Oh , and one more thing … I then inform my attendees that , well , I just did n’t feel like lugging these loudspeaker system systems home with me — a statement that generated more than a small excitement .
This sentence , the drawing wasn&38217;t so simple . I had each person compose down their name andwhichspeaker scheme they wanted a fortune at . This approach sum some strategy to the draft : Should you put your name in the hat for the punk system , trust no one else would — thus devote you a good guess at it ? Or would you go for the gold — in this case , the Playlist Pick - recipientJB Radial — knowing that it would be a democratic choice and your prospect would be slimmer ?
By this point , we had gone over our allotted class metre , but no one was interested in leaving . I started the net exercise set of drawings with the least - expensive organisation , Altec Lansing&38217;s polished , nano - docking inMotioniM500 , and the attender were literally on the edges of their seats . Everyone wanted to see if they won their own draught , of grade , but they also need to know how many people had enter each drawing and who was go home with which of the “ high-flown prizes . ”
The most exciting of these drawings was actually for Logitech ’s AudioStation , a very courteous iPod speaker system with an attractive design , an AM / FM radio , and a clock . At $ 300 , it was the secondly - most expensive product , but onlytwopeople put their gens in for it . Two!For whatever reason , everyone thought that everyone else would consider the secondly - most - expensive organisation to be the “ most strategical ” item — near the top , but not the actual top — and , thus , assume that everyone would put their name in for it . So no one give-up the ghost for it . With a 50 percent chance of winning , the two fledgling were more than a little activated , as was everyone else in the elbow room . Someone had to gain ground and someone had to lose , but both people confessed to hold a lot of fun .
