It’s often the most perfect speaking engagement set ups that have the capacity to deliver the greatest tech disasters for presenters.

You know those speaking engagements where you’ve invested hours into creating a bustling, colourful and visual slide-deck, perfectly balanced with the right amount of text, images and videos to keep your audience engaged and entertained the entire time?

You arrive at the venue early to set up; your computer is fully charged, you have new batteries in your clicker, you run through a demo with the tech staff to check the audio levels of your embedded videos and everything is looking GREAT.

At 8:50am the audience starts filling the room. At 9am the MC introduces you and when you go to click your first slide: ZZZP. Black out. Shut down. Both screens, on both sides of the stage are blank. Your heart races. You panic and look at the tech staff, expecting to see a reassuring ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got this’ sign, but instead they mouth the word ‘No’ and shake their heads from side to side.

So you’re left alone on stage with no slides, no video, no images and no audio. So, what do you do?

Here’s my advice for you:

Go into every presentation armed with an appropriate Plan B. Print out your slide deck and print out the most significant images of impact you wish to show the audience.

Images are so important when we present because visuals help enhance — and create — our message in the minds and hearts of our audience. Importantly, visuals help us develop emotional connections that enhance our key messages.

Do you want to learn how to create high-impact visual presentations that your audience will connect with? Do you want to learn more techniques to plan for the best outcomes if the worst scenarios present? Join my next Communicate With Confidence Workshop!

– Jordana Borensztajn

Image: Family Business /Shutterstock.com