Episode #340: What To Do When Disaster Hits Just Before Your Presentation

I was reading a post on LinkedIn by an American lady, who spilt coffee over her blouse, just moments before she was due to give a key presentation to a group of executives. That got me thinking about how to handle these types of disasters which arise when we are presenting. Most of them are tech related – nothing works, it partially works or it suddenly stops working. Some disasters are down to the ambush presentations, for when we had no idea we would have to speak and suddenly we have to say a few words. Some are things like black coffee over your nicely pressed white blouse or business shirt and it is totally obvious to everyone.

The key to avoiding ninety percent of disasters is to get to the venue early and check the tech. If you get there early enough, there is a strong chance the tech geniuses on hand will be found and be able to fix it for you. Often, with early morning presentations, the tech wizards are not in the building and so there is no solution – you are solo! This is why it is always a good idea to print out your slides, as these are visible to you and form a navigation for you through the talk. If you don’t have access to the copy of the slides, then just sit down and write down the main key words for each chapter for the talk.

I was attending a Harvard Business School week long course on Leading Professional Service Firms and one of the professors gave a three hour long lecture with no notes. Well that is what it appeared to be, but the Prof was crafty. It was one of those lecture theatres with tiered seating from top leading down to the bottom, where the stage was located. As we were filing up the stairs out of the lecture theater, to go outside, I happened to notice a large piece of paper stuck to the back wall, with ten words on it. Those ten words were his lecture notes and only he could see them. It gave him the order and he just filled in the blanks with his talk.

We usually only get a chance to give our talk once and unlike the good Prof, we are not giving this talk every semester, so we don’t know the content cold. It doesn't matter. Write down the key points you want to talk to and then use the list as your guide when giving the talk. No one is going to jump to their feet and denounce you are a scoundrel and fraud because you are glancing down at your list. They are in fact relieved that you are not reading the whole text to them and are only finding your place, as you proceed with the talk.

Another thing is laziness. I am inherently lazy and this particular talk was a packed lunch and a passport away in distance terms, so lugging my laptop that far seemed like a chore to avoid. In a genius moment I thought, “I know, I will just take the USB and plug it into the host’s computer”. I was an idiot. What I didn’t consider was I use a Mac and they were using a different system and immediately the slide layout was thrown into chaos. Fortunately, I do what I advise and I got there early, so I had time to reformat the whole slide deck. I was sweating I can tell you and I got it done with fifteen seconds to spare!

Rather than being ambushed, I suggest that you never let that occur because you are always prepared to speak at any event, with either a question or a comment. We take anticipatory steps to protect ourselves. While you are sitting there, think what is a question you would like to ask and have that ready for the Q&A or in case some smarty pants MC decides to include you in the proceedings, without a by your leave.

If we have a personal presentation disaster such as the coffee incident, what do we do? This lady was vigorously trying to scrub the stain away, but it wasn’t working, so she had to present coffee stains and all. I wouldn’t recommend just carrying on, as if everything was normal. I would acknowledge what has happened and then carry on. Call it out and get it out of the way at the start. I would say, “My apologies for adding a coffee stain to today’s proceedings, but let’s get going regardless”.

If my brain wasn’t totally fried with nerves, shame and embarrassment, I might attempt some self-depreciating humour and say, “Today’s coffee stain on my shirt is sponsored by Blue Mountain from Kenya, it tastes great and wears exceptionally well. Now, let’s get into today’s topic”.

Humour is difficult at the best of times and being able to funny, when you have just spilt coffee all over yourself before a major audience is a big ask. If you can pull it off, make yourself the target of the humor, rather than someone else. Don’t say things like, “I would like to give a big shout out to the waiter for spilling coffee all over me just before I was ready to go on today”. Take responsibility for your appearance, deal with it, then ignore it and carry on with aplomb.

In the end, no one cares. Sure, you provided some light relief to their day, but they are all more focused on themselves, than on the fact you have coffee all over you. Do a professional job and focus on engaging the audience with your key messages and your personal and professional brands will be safeguarded.