Earlier this year, I spoke at Social Slam in Knoxville and, for the very first time, heard Tom Webster (of Edison Research fame) speak.

About halfway through his presentation, the laptop on the stage stopped working, which meant his presentation was gone. He continued to speak while firing up his own laptop and connecting it to the big screen so we could see the stats and graphics he was referring to as he spoke.

That is the definition of a consumate professional. Even if he was flustered internally, you never would have guessed it by the way he just rolled with the punches.

And roll he did. He cracked jokes and completely mesmerized the audience of 600 people while he worked on connecting cables and cords and testing the connections.

If you’ve never heard him speak, I highly recommend it. (more…)