What happens when the PC just won’t behave for your seminar?

Recently for a seminar at the Sasin Institute in Bangkok where I was invited to do a talk for the 3 rd I.E.M. Convention Conducted by the Institute of Engineering & Management and University of Engineering & Management, an Indian Business initiative for BBA students to learn about business from seasoned pros, when it all went awry I got the chance to show just what you can do with your passion.

Upon my arrival the screen and PC was set up, I was given a lapel mike, all very professional, I got my flash drive out where I had put my power point, and the PC and my flash drive were just not at all compatible, so nothing was working, I was looking at 30 eager students who all traveled a long way to see and learn from professionals, what can you do?

“If I had 30 days to cut down a tree I’d spend 29 days sharpening my axe” Abraham Lincoln

Well hind sight is a great gift what I should have done was emailed the power point to the team in preparation so they could have the presentation ready for me and on screen.

I was late arriving, so it would have saved a lot of messing around having it already on the screen for me. The other alternative is to bring it up from slideshare.net (now part of LinkedIn) where the power point presentation was already loaded, but no, far too easy, again some of us are blessed with the ‘prepared and ready for whatever could happen’ gene, but not me.

Here is where your passion for what you do will carry you through the stormy seas.

I remembered the slides, and anyone who has good experience in public speaking will know your slides should be one good image and a few pointers that are your notes, reading directly from a power point is dull as dishwater.

A few lines to remind you to embellish on what is written is what makes for a good show, so I just remembered the ten slides had prepared and each image came to me and that gave me a structure to share the best points with my audience.

The chaps at I.E.M. who were managing the two day session, told me they learned a lot from my 30 minute gig and were impressed with the content and how I had carried it off, even with a big blank screen for company.

Practice makes perfect

If you ever get invited, go and talk wherever you can, as a business person the more talks you can do the better you will be at it. I started public speaking about Digital Marketing at Rotary events 10 years ago where most of the people had not even owned a P.C., and half the audience were asleep due to their age. Yet it was good experience to learn about what could happen to equipment and how to deal with it.

If you see a great comedian or public speaker you can bet he has a CV of calamities and great learning behind them.

You can see our images from the talk here ( I cannot upload images to LinkedIn come on guys fix it!)

Thanks again to the guys at I.E.M. for your patience in Bangkok traffic and to Soumik for inviting me to speak and your warm Indian hospitality.

PS You can see my presentation here