I have a wee problem. In my everyday life as a teacher (I have somehow become a teacher. Not just at Universities, but also in other contexts) I am sometimes encountering different expectations and/or different levels of pre-existing knowledge of what I am talking about in the same room.

Here’s an example of such an event: on Monday I gave a half hour introduction into social and new media to a bunch of people who work in one way or another in the Austrian film industry. There were about 80 people in the room. Many of them knew very little about what I was on about. They had all used YouTube before, a significant number was on Facebook, and a few even used Twitter. But generally, the majority needed an introduction into the sphere. So, I gave one.

After the event I got loads of feedback, which can roughly be divided into the following categories:

1. “You opened my eyes! The world will never be the same again.”

2. “I knew some of this stuff, but it was really great to get an additional perspective on it.”

3. “I think this was really inspiring (even though it wasn’t news to me).”

4. “I know all that already, and you weren’t specific/groundbreaking enough. Tell me more!”

I love all four kinds of feedback, because they make me think about who needs to know what. The vast majority fell into categories 1 and 2. Some of my co-fighters for the same cause (raising awareness for social media and their importance to filmmakers) said something along the lines of category 3. And two guys said something along the lines of category 4.

Now, here is my problem: how do I satisfy all of these guys’ expectations in one short half hour? I can be very inspirational in 30 minutes, for sure. I can teach newbies something – if not a lot – about social media as well. But can I satisfy the craving of people like me (people who know their sh*t in that sphere) at the same time as giving an introduction to the wonderful world of new media? Not yet.

In the next weeks I will be lecturing more, mostly in front of more homogenous crowds (University students, or filmmakers who all have the same level of knowledge in that area). But I will simultaneously develop a new mini-curriculum that tries to do the impossible: exceed all these folks expectations. Maybe I will succeed, maybe not. Only time will tell.

What is definitely going to work though is planning these gigs in a manner that makes sure that the audience is more homogenous. Making sure that everybody is on roughly the same page and has similar expectations is going to make everybody’s experience a better one, where great expectations (mine as well as the participants’) are not just met, but exceeded. That should solve that wee problem I encountered. I’ll let you know how it all works out.