I had a very near miss with a horrible humiliation last week.
There was an important presentation I had to give.
It was to a group of international business leaders, part of a University of Cambridge Judge Business School programme.
The course in question was Commercial Communication, something I enjoy teaching.
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As ever, I had planned and prepared well in advance.
The session looked good:
Lots of important learning, from the essentials of commercial communication, to the more advanced skills…
Writing, public speaking, storytelling…
Everything an executive could need to become an outstanding communicator.
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I had also rehearsed aplenty.
So I was feeling good and confident about the workshop.
We were due to begin at 1 o’clock, so the organisers and I logged in at 12.45.
We’ve done lots of these online sessions before, we were familiar with the technology…
Everything was looking most splendid.
.
Until!
My laptop decided to update and reboot itself.
At length. At some considerable length, in fact.
(Does anyone else have a suspicion they're programmed to do this at important moments?!)
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I wasn’t too concerned initially.
These things normally only take a couple of minutes, after al.
But as the computer kept rumbling away to itself…
And the minutes ticked by…
I started to get more and more worried.
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10 to one… Update proceeding.
Seven minutes to one… Still going.
5 to one…
Yep, you guessed it, still merrily updating away.
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The bloody machine only finished its self improvement fixation with a couple of minutes to spare.
Cue some frantic logging in, setting up the session, and...
I made it, thankfully.
Albeit with seconds to spare, in true Hollywood fashion.
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Fortunately, years of BBC experience, trying to talk vaguely sensibly to a camera while chaos unfolded around me...
Meant I managed to disguise my inner turmoil (I think).
The session went well, and the execs were very kind with their feedback.
But it was a horribly close run thing, far too close for comfort.
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The moral of the story being:
- always arrive plenty early for a presentation.
Particularly a big one.
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Whether online or in person…
You just never know what could go wrong and need some frantic fixing, in order to make sure you don’t make a mess of an important opportunity.
