Teri Kephart pointed out that in her work for the Penn State Alumni Association she is able to develop rather advanced websites, because their surveys have shown that most of their constituents have upper end computer systems. Pat Besong on the other hand, in designing for Penn State's World Campus, kept the technology bar lower since many prospective students wouldn't have the equipment to handle it. This could be especially true for those accessing the site from some other parts of the world. Also, design for a small monitor to be safe. Pat recommends 640x480 pixels.
Some people recommend going even smaller.
Quite a few tips were shared. Pat Besong furnished a whole list of recommendations, which are available here. Teri Kephart and Dave Stong both recommended the new software package from Adobe called ImageReady, which makes optimization far easier than before. Teri also recommended the new Macromedia program called Fireworks. This question generated some lively discussion among the panelists as well as in comments from the audience.