When I was performing in comedy clubs whether it was “open mike nite” or being paid to perform there was a small light in the back of the room to let the performer know that his time was up. If a comedian kept speaking long after the light went on he was taking time out of the next comedians spot. This has happened to me not only performing comedy but while speaking. I was asked to give a presentation at a Toastmaster’s District conference one time and the keynote speaker went on for about 45 minutes more than his allotted time. They came to me and asked me to cut 30 minutes out of my 45 minute presentation. When I agreed to speak to the organization I told them I would do it but i needed no less than 45 minutes now I have to cut out two-thirds of my presentation because some one else wasn’t respectful of my time and the audiences time.
The other day I walked in to a meeting room with a group of people for a webinar, unfortunately there was a meeting prior to the meeting I was in and it hadn’t adjourned yet. We had to ask them to leave and one of the participants that had to leave the room looked at me and said, that was rather rude. I apologized and said, we are only make you leave because we have a webinar that started five minutes ago and we aren’t even hooked up. The person that was rude was the ones in the meeting before us that weren’t respecting our time in the room. Their meeting could take place in other meeting rooms, but we had to meet in that room because it was the only room with the A/V technology that we needed to participate in the meeting.
Be respectful of others time when giving a presentation or conducting a meeting, after all you wouldn’t want to be the one that has to wait for someone else to finish before you can get started.
George Gilbert's Motivational Humor 