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No connection with the video projector: What to do?

Thursday afternoon. I'm in Marrakesh (Morocco) for a presentation on business innovation. I'm well-prepared. I visited the ballroom the day before. I'm all set. Before the conference starts, I have put my MacBook Pro next to the other PC for a smooth connection switch with the video projector. I want to use my Mac and not the available PC, because I'm using the latest PowerPoint version that is not on the PC. Some elegant stuff has been implemented in the last PowerPoint version and I want to make a first good impression on the audience: a couple of attendees are expecting an excellent show.

I have checked the connection between the Mac and the video projector, as well as my remote. I have a second remote in my pocket and two backups. Everything is perfect. Nothing can go wrong.

When the time has come to start my presentation, I simply open my Mac, switch connectors, and oops! ... no signal whatsoever. Nothing. I double-check. Zilch. Zero signal. My first slides are an interesting introduction. But the real question is: How much time can I steal from my audience to solve the problem? --10 seconds. Not more. What would you have done? Think about it. Don't cry over missing impressive first slides...
 

Well, simply forget about these slides. That's it. Start immediately. That's what you have to do. No slides? Fire off.

I did exactly this. Of course, I handed over my USB disk with a copy of the presentation to a technician in order to have the presentation up and running on the PC a few minutes later. I also made sure that the video projector was disconnected to avoid distracting the audience with PowerPoint surgery right on the screen.

So I got started without slides. I moved around the room. Believe me, people are not used to seeing a speaker keep full control of his show without slides; it's commonly accepted that in conferences communication slides are a must for speakers. However, remember that slides are not crutches.They really shouldn't be!

A few minutes later, I was ready with the second chapter of my presentation and everything ran smoothly, besides a few effects that were missing but that probably nobody really noticed as everyone was concentrated on my message.
 

→ What can you learn from this incident?
 

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Other articles on COMMUNICATION:

How not to ruin a meeting although there are too many slides

Emailing these slides to communicate your message: Does it make sense?

10 great tips to avoid the overconfidence trap

Focus your sales presentation and jet-propel your leads into action!

Business plan update: How to be crystal-clear with large chunks of data

No PC. No slides. No flipchart. How about your presentation?

Resolve false presentation timing issues: Apply these 10 KISS principles.

Strong content to communicate urgently? Kick the tires with a booming presentation!

Nick Paulus © 2012. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.smilingresults.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.
 

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