I just gave a public webinar as a guest speaker for Adobe. At the end of the session, I gave the audience several easy to type, easy to remember URL names to do things like provide feedback or socialize after the session. I tested them immediately prior to the event to make sure they worked.
Of course when we got to the end of my session and it was time to use those URLs, they didn’t work. I didn’t know what was going on and incorrectly attributed the problem to Adobe’s technology.
PUBLIC APOLOGY: ADOBE WAS NOT AT FAULT. THEIR TECHNOLOGY WORKED PERFECTLY.
I want to make that clear, because there may have been attendees evaluating web conferencing solutions who got the wrong impression.
The problem was with the name server forwarding service I used to redirect my short, convenient URLs to the longer formal URL destinations. The forwarding broke down and never connected with the actual destination site.
Again, THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH ADOBE.
I hope attendees see this message and separate the web conferencing, which worked like a charm throughout the session, from the domain name stuff – which was a completely separate third party solution.
My lesson is twofold… One, every time you introduce another link in a technology chain you have an opportunity for something else to fail – even when you have tested it right before your event. I could have had a backup handy to provide the full, long format URLs for the audience. But I didn’t, so those post-event utilities became useless. Bad planning on my part.
Two, if you don’t know what has failed or why, don’t make guesses and assumptions. I probably harmed Adobe’s reputation and chance of extending their sales to the attendees at this session. That’s inexcusable for a guest speaker. I hope this notice helps a bit.
