The most effective speakers show their humanity and vulnerability when they are on stage; you have done the same with this post. Congratulations, I enjoyed it very much.

While I don't ascribe to everything you do - I'd rather pound back the double Kamikaze after my talk and, though I love the song, the Sigur Ros theme from Vanilla Sky is too slow for my "pump up" music - I also know that every speaker prepares differently.

Your "disaster prevention bag" reminded me of my own logistical preparations. For years, the night before a speech or presentation, I would take out a sheet of paper and writer down all the things I needed (or that I remembered I needed). One day I thought, this is stupid. There has to be a checklist somewhere. I searched the Internet and couldn't find anything suitable. So I thought, stuff it. I'll create one myself.

The result is this comprehensive one-page checklist: http://wp.me/pwfa1-1Lz

There is no way that you will need all of these things all the time, but you can go through it and tick off what you do need without worrying that you've forgotten something. There are even blanks for you to add other items.

Hope you and your readers find it helpful.

Cheers!