Rescue – "the video isn't playing"

Have you been to a meeting where the video or the link does not work? Of course you have. It happens every third time.

How long does it take the presenter to try and fix it or to move forward?  Too long!

As the presenter, ask yourself, how valuable is it to the presentation? If you have a 2 hour program and it takes you 5 minutes to figure out, but it will illustrate your point clearly and much better than you can describe it, then maybe it is worth the time. If you are the presenter you should be prepared to and ready when your video doesn’t play, projector doesn’t work or there is no jack for the sound for your video.

As an audience member, what are you thinking when there is a technical difficulty? Here are a few of the common thoughts. It is going to be negative.

• The expert isn’t prepared
• He/she isn’t experienced
• This is wasting my time
• Not again

Is it stressful? You may feel helpless. Or you may be stuck deciding if you should try and help or not.

Prevention

Whether you are the presenter of the meeting planner, identify a techie to contact who can be there in 2 minutes or less, just in case. If you don’t know of anyone, then simply ask. The chances are high that someone will be able to solve a common technical problem.

Today’s scenario

• 3 hour program
• 80 people
• 2 presenters at the same time

Challenge

The video in the PowerPoint isn’t playing.

Before the program, the presenter had a computer problem. He called in someone with a button down shirt and slacks that looked like he could be a computer guy in contrast to the other employees who were in uniforms. I was in the second row out of ten rows. Of course, I was observing to see what the problem was just in case I could help. It appeared they were not solving the problem. The program begins and the presenter after a few minutes into the program apologizes for the videos not playing.

“This room has a magnet vibe that talks to my presentations and pauses the videos. We have tried 3 computers, but the video is not playing in my PowerPoint. Downstairs on my computer it play fine. Sorry about that,” he shares with disappointment.  Basically, it was a fun way to state the problem.  At this point, some of you may have an idea why the video is not playing. What are the thoughts that go through your head?

I have an idea that we can try, but these are the thoughts that might run through your head:

• Should I help?
• What if I am wrong?
• I don’t want to interrupt his program
• I don’t want to seem like I know it all
• Who am I to help, I am just an audience member. I have not role and no one knows my name.
• I am probably wrong, because it is simple fix. If it was so simple, he or someone else would know how to fix it.
• Will I be able to do it with everyone staring at me? That’s a lot of pressure.
• I don’t want to be in the spotlight

Most of these thoughts went through my head, but I know this organization’s skill sets are not working with computers.

• Should I help? Yes, he didn’t ask for it, but you could tell was important and he really wanted to show us.
• What if I am wrong? What’s the worst that could happen? I could not fix it and waste a little time and possibly a little embarrassed. But a victory would outweigh the failure.
• I don’t want to interrupt his program. He is hoping for help to get this program going.
• I don’t want to seem like I know it all. Why worry about it? Why would someone think that?
• Who am I to help, I am just an audience member. I have not role and no one knows my name. Get confidence to help others in need.
• I am probably wrong, because it is simple fix. If it was so simple, he or someone else would know how to fix it. Once again, get confidence and help, you will know the answer after you try.
• Will I be able to do it with everyone staring at me? That’s a lot of pressure. Deal with it. Cowboy up.
• I don’t want to be in the spotlight. Don’t be selfish, help out.

I asked a question and asked if he wanted to help. “YES, PLEASE!” I asked him a couple of questions and showed me the PowerPoint. This was about 30 seconds. Then he asked to co-presenter to field questions.

Scene Update

The secondary presenter is standing in back of us five feet, behind a table and in the corner while the presenter and myself or talking quietly looking at files. Basically, he needed to relink his videos. His video files were not on his computer, so his files weren’t there, they were  just the picture representation. We needed to find the files on the network and download them to the local computer and re-insert them.

I immediately put a clipboard over the projector screen, so people wouldn’ t be visually distracted by activity on the screen. However, certainly, we were in the spotlight front of the person speaking.

As an audience member, who am I to tell the expert what to do, particularly a police sergeant. Well, I do have respect for authority, but I am the expert in this situation. I waited for the audience member to end their question, meanwhile multi-tasking with the computer, then stepped towards the second presenter.

I put my back towards the audience and quietly asked him to move his position and to stand in front of us.  Certainly, I didn’t want the audience see me tell him what to do. In my head, I had the worries, thinking of people and the chair believing I am trying to take over.

I let my confidence win-over and trusted he would roll with it and he did.

You know how distracting it is to here two people talk about the situation and to troubleshoot. With the secondary speaker in front of us reduces the visual and audio distraction of us.

Victory, I was able to download the files and reinsert them into the PowerPoint. Seeing these traffic accidente videos were valuable and illustrated points much better than a verbal description.

Solution

1. If you are the presenter and you need help, always ask your audience for help. On numerous occassions, I have been an audience when a tech problem happened, that I might have been able to help, but the crowd was 200+ and the presenter didn’t ask for help.
2. If someone volunteers to help, before the are at the stage give you audience something to do. Have them take a 5 minute break, discuss a related topic with their neighbor, write down a pressing question. Help focus there attention on something other than you troubleshooting on the stage.
3. Block the projector from projecting your troubleshooting. If you are in PowerPoint, then hit the “B” while in the slideshow mode. Or simply put a piece of paper, book or anything to cover up the projection manually.
4. After the audience member helps, whether they are successful or not, make sure to recognize them and give them applause. You want to show appreciation for people stepping up, so next time, people will know that it is appreciate to volunteer.
5. Audience members. The presenters don’t know to ask for help. Stress will overcome them and they will be delighted if someone would join their team and help out. Even if you don’t find a solution, the presenters will feel less stress because he/she now has a partner. Please assume they want help and then ask them to confirm.
6. After the problem is fixed, tell them “I am here if you need me”. They may or may not need you, but they can feel more confidence with their presentation knowing they have support.

Just remember, of course the presenter wants help. Then confirm. You can save the meeting, constantly. Now, I will always help without hesitation. Get over what other people may think, who cares?  Help out the speaker who will help the audience.  Do a good deed.

Jolene Jang, The Meeting Maximizer

President, NSA Northwest, National Speakers Association