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Had a major presentation crash 2 minutes in... here's how I saved it
I was in the conference room at our Chicago office last Thursday, ready to present Q3 numbers to the VP. I connected my laptop to the projector and boom, blue screen of death. Everyone just stared. I told them I'd be right back, ran to my desk, grabbed my backup notes on paper, and walked them through the key numbers from memory. Turns out the VP actually preferred the informal chat, said it showed I knew my stuff. Has anyone else had a tech failure turn into a win like that?
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jakeb811mo agoMost Upvoted
Last week in our office a guy tried that same move and the VP told him to reschedule when he had his laptop fixed. So your mileage may vary on this one. The VP at your Chicago office might have liked the casual approach, but in my experience most executives see that as unpreparedness, not quick thinking. They're paying for the whole presentation with all the data and visuals, not a guy reading from crumpled notes. I get that you pulled it off and that's awesome, but I'd be careful turning that into a go-to strategy. One lucky break doesn't mean winging it is a solid backup plan. The real lesson here is to always have a working laptop and a backup laptop, not just paper notes.
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price.ben1mo ago
Hard disagree honestly. You got lucky this time but that kind of thing can really backfire. Most VPs aren't gonna be that chill about a presenter winging it with paper notes.
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nancyg141mo ago
Three years ago I watched a guy give a quarterly update using napkins he found in the break room and somehow he got promoted the next month. So yeah maybe it's not a universal strategy but sometimes the chaos works in your favor. But you're probably right that most VPs would rather see a polished slide deck with bullet points about synergy or whatever. I just think there's something refreshing about seeing someone actually thinking on their feet instead of reading off a screen. Then again I've been in enough meetings where the projector broke and nobody knew what to do so maybe paper notes aren't the worst backup plan.
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