Dinner Speech - Reading Too Much Into Nothing: The Metaphor of Place and the Internet

When I was asked to speak at this dinner, I realized I was doing something I had never done before. Normally, I am given the task of speaking for ninety minutes early in the morning at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) conferences for patent lawyers. The challenge is always first, how to wake them up, especially when they are often tired and may have had a heavy dinner and drinks the night before with other attendees and, next, how do I keep them awake for ninety minutes?