by Bonnie Chomica

How I got dumped off my own webinar, and didn’t even cry

Do you panic when your tech doesn’t work?

Like when you are doing a Facebook Live to the world, or a Zoom call with an important client.

Or you’ve spent an hour updating your website and it doesn’t save, and you have to start over again.

How about when you’re hosting a webinar and all of a sudden your screen goes black?

That’s exactly what happened to me last week.

Wowser!

Everything was going well. There was good attendance and people were engaging in the chat.

I was presenting some great marketing tips about how to find topic ideas for your marketing content. Things were moving along smoothly, and on time.

And just as I was presenting a fabulous offer…

My laptop screen went black!

All I could see was my reflection in the laptop screen.

Did I accidently hit any wrong buttons? Did I lose my internet connection?

Fortunately, a quick pop-up said I had ‘critical battery issue’.

No kidding!

My power cord had fallen out of my laptop when I moved in position for the presentation. Sooo, it was just running on battery, and eventually I got a big black screen.

YIKES!

Plugged back in and in a few seconds I was back on the webinar.

While I was out of the picture – literally – several people texted (on various apps), and I got one voice message saying people were still on the webinar, where was I?

That was so very heartwarming for folks to reach out to try to help and also tell others in the chat what was going on.

I thought I was going to have to reboot my computer, but when it got a boost of power, I was immediately popped back into the webinar.

The webinar got completed, with takers on my offer, and it all ended well.

CAN YOU PREPARE FOR TECH FAILURE?

The most important lesson for a situation like this is not to panic. Understand that online technical things will not always work according to plan. It’s great when they do, but it’s not the end of the world if they don’t.

Tech snafus happen to everyone.

If you make a mistake or something crashes you need to address it, especially if it impacts your audience. e.g. missing a link or providing a bad link in an email. Just apologize and provide the right information. People get that ‘stuff’ happens.

When my screen went black, I thought my webinar was done. Not much I could do about it, so I started thinking about what I should include in an immediate email to go out to those that attended.

And then the session popped back up. I apologized, got my energy back up, and completed my presentation.

Processes

There is a lengthy checklist that I follow for webinars, everything from my computer setup, to launching the Webinar Ninja platform (the tool I use), to putting on my lipstick.

Hmmm. I should probably make that list available to help you out, too. I’ll get on it. *wink*

Meanwhile, to get the best light, I had to move my laptop to a different place, and that’s when the power cord dislodged. I should have physically checked it, instead of assuming it was still connected.

It’s kind of like proofreading. If you just skim over your work you won’t find the errors.

Be assured, for the next webinar I will check and test everything on my list, diligently.

Remember, just like anything in life, when something tech goes sideways, don’t panic. Think it through and make unemotional decisions to get through it.

I’m curious to know what your biggest tech breakdown was. How did you feel, and how did you handle it? Just drop a comment below.