I can still remember the sinking feeling as I walked out of the boardroom of the technology company. When I arrived and saw 18 people sitting in the room where I expected 3 panic started to set in. I started thinking at a rapid rate, "Why did she not tell me she invited the entire management team last minute." "I only have 4 handouts." "I want to die!"
As I was escorted into the room my panic already took a toll on my effectiveness in presenting and I had not uttered a single word. I muffled through the information focused the entire time on my being caught off guard and walked out of the room defeated.
What is the moral of this sad story? Make sure you find out from the person who invited you to present exactly how many people are coming. Not actually.
I already asked my contact and she said 2 or 3 tops. Due to last minute schedule changes more were available so they decided to come.
Where I really failed in this scenario is I let this affect me mentally because I had not prepared mentally for this scenario. I made a decision that day to let experience be the greatest teacher and to always prepare for the unexpected. I always ask myself today, "What will you do if more show up?"
The fact is, this and any number of possible catastrophes can occur right before we present. To prevent the panic, we need to have contingency plans so that we walk into that room our effectiveness does not decrease.
As a speaking coach, I work with my clients to help them create contingency plans based on what could possibly go wrong in their world. Here are my personal top three events that can and will happen that we can be ready for that I learned from the school of hard knocks. I am sure you all can add to this list based on your own experiences--I would love to hear your suggestions so I can avoid the SOHN in the future as much as possible:
1. Prepare for the number of people they tell you will be there, and mentally prepare a plan if more or less arrive.
We have already talked about what can happen if more arrive. What we can do is really rely on our slides or other means of communicating to a larger audience--white boards, blank note paper. We do not need to depend upon our handouts. If I don't have enough handouts I don't use them at all, or I ask someone to make some additional copies if a copy machine is available.
If we believe 30 are coming and only 3 show we scale down and move the chairs to make the setting more intimate. Don't appear to be disappointed that only 3 show up and give them your best. The worst thing we can do is talk the entire time about how we thought more were coming and so forth. Remember, no big deal to you---no big deal to them.
2. You think you have 1 hour and you arrive and they tell you the other person took your time and you only have 20 minutes.
It is more likely to be in a situation where you are told that you have less time versus more time than expected. Based on this, I always have 3 versions of my presentation ready. In this scenario where I am told I have 1 hour, I will have a 40 minute version and a 20 minute version. I will know and practice what content I will leave out if my time is reduced. Whether I deliver the 60, 40 or 20 minute version, they get will be complete with a proper opening and close and they will not be aware that content was left out.
3. Your technology fails.
Let's face it...there will be a day when we have prepared the most brilliant power point slides or demo of our new product---and the projector burns out. This happened to a friend of mine a few months back where he was asked to speak at a technology conference with a 1000 person audience and his demo would not work because the projector froze up. His solution to this was to juggle until they could swap out the projector and the audience loved it!
My solution is to practice the content before so if the unthinkable happens we can deliver a top notch presentation without slides. This will be more difficult for those of us who have to communicate more technical material---but we can use our creativity to bridge the gap. One time the room I was scheduled to speak in did not have the proper layout to use PowerPoint so I just delivered my talk and used analogies and word pictures to describe the more graphical slides that no longer existed.
Most of us who present feel a certain level of anxiety right before and even during our presentation. My philosophy is to do my best to prepare for the unexpected so we don't add to the normal level of anxiety and allow it to rise to a level where we can no longer deliver a top notch message. If we do this, we will always look like pros. It even works to our advantage when the audience is aware of our trouble and we show them we are not moved. They will walk out of our presentation feeling thankful it was not them and wondering if they would have maintained composure as well as we did. Oh what a great feeling it is to turn a potential defeat into a victory!
Old Murphy's Law will always find a way to creep into almost any activity Amy. I have found the best remedy to be preparation, like you stated.
As far as the crowd is concerned, I will always prefer to have more people than expected than less! Human nature permits us to be a bit disappointed with empty chairs in the room, but adrenaline kicks in when there is "standing room only!"
As far as technology is concerned, we must always remember that it is simply a tool; one that we can do without if necessary.
It sounds like you have a good handle on things Amy. Nice article!
Posted by: Daniel Sitter, Idea Seller | August 05, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Hello Amy:
I'm stopping by via a link from Brain Based Business. I like the idea of specifically preparing preparation versions of different lengths. I build my presentations from my 3 key points and have varied the level of detail according to the time available. I'll practice your tip in the future. Thanks
Posted by: Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ | August 26, 2007 at 07:55 PM