Your Virtual Presentation can be disrupted by something unexpected.

Like…erm…an Infinity Gauntlet!

This happened to me last year.

I should have spotted it before my virtual presentation started.

But I didn’t.

I was on autopilot as I got ready to speak and missed it. In my defence it was a webinar that started at 6am (my audience was in Singapore, I was in Edinburgh) but that is a flimsy excuse.

The presentation started pretty well. Everything worked fine and the audience were taking part in the interactive sections nicely.

But after a few minutes my son’s Infinity Gauntlet starting flashing and made a loud noise. This was a little embarrassing.

I was about to leave my seat and turn it off.

But it went silent all of a sudden and the lights dimmed.

So, I continued.

A few minutes later it started whirring again. Slightly more embarrassing the second time around.

I nearly got up but it went silent again.

I continued…and then it started making noises again.

This was fast becoming a game of cat and mouse. And I was losing, for sure.

This time I did get up and pressed what I assumed was the off switch.

It wasn’t the off switch – it was some kind of super-boost button!

Yikes!

I had to deposit the item in another room in a thinly disguised panic.

The virtual presentation ended up fine – sort of – but I had to work harder than usual to recover the situation.

What can we learn from this scenario?

There are things outside your control in a virtual presentation that can go wrong. Some are unavoidable, while others are definitely avoidable.

That means it is vital to control everything you can.

And always do one final check in the minutes leading up to going live.

Is there ANYTHING you can see that might lead to a problem?

Deal with it BEFORE you start speaking.

Get more tips for Virtual Presentations here https://www.speakwithimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Virtual-Presentation-Top-Tips.pdf