Surprising simple

Today's conference was mostly par for the course for an Icelandic conference. The Cultural Minister whizzed in and out. The Icelandic speakers spoke Icelandic, while everyone else spoke English, and several of the international guests who could not understand Icelandic left early. Running behind schedule can happen anywhere, so that was not so particularly Icelandic. But then a really un-Icelandic thing happened: one speaker was playing a short video just via his computer. No one could hear the audio, but no one complained. Then all of a sudden, the panel organizer stood up, pushed the microphone down to the level of the computer, and the miracle of sound filled the room. 

Such decisive action without prodding was positively American, even the guy who did it seemed surprised, looked around the room to see if everyone caught that, who knew I had it in me sort of thing. Because really I think culturally, he was supposed to wait until a woman complained.  

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