ABSTRACT
It is Friday, May 6, 2005, day two of the First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. I arrive at room 210 in the Illini Union, 25 minutes early for our 1:30 session. The room immediately strikes me as less than ideal: aging ventilation system blowing and clanking, narrow rows of seats stretching back, podium several paces from the LCD projector. I must choose: use the mike but forgo the slides I have spent untold hours preparing or show the slides and project my voice much louder than I have practiced. I choose the slides.
