If the most knowledgeable people are bad presenters, we need to teach them how to be better presenters so we can learn from their experiences.

We’ll also need to teach them how to accept negative feedback. Doing something new or different does not earn an exemption from criticism.

I love the idea of getting the audience more involved, whether it’s through something like what Start is doing, or using an audience-response system, or breaking up into small-group discussions.

When people start getting testy is when they don’t feel heard, for whatever reason. So bring the wisdom of the crowd into the sessions, by all means.

But I agree that getting surly, snarly, and snappy because you don’t like a session isn’t terribly productive for you, your fellow attendees, or the presenters. That’s why you have feet–use ‘em to take you to somewhere more to your liking already!