Why is AV still so hard to set up?

I am currently attending a conference related to special education law. This fact isn’t critically relevant to this post, but it explains why I was sitting at a table this morning watching the presenters try to get their laptops working and then wait for the inevitable “tech guy” from the hotel to come sort it out.

When you think for a few minutes about everything that we can do so easily — post phone videos directly to Facebook, use geosynchronous satellites to help us drive to the nearest Starbucks, or publish our thoughts to the world using a sophisticated CMS that non-techies can install on shared servers after 1/2 hour of reading — it’s amazing to me that, in conference rooms all over the world, it’s still hard to believe that companies haven’t settled on a straightforward plug ‘n’ play solution. Why don’t all these systems just work? Plug in an external monitor cable, hit a key combo, and presto! I really can’t figure it out.