Tips for an effective presentation - backup your media
I saw something funny once. At least it was funny to me! To the person involved it was a tragedy.
A person arrives at a venue in order to give a very important presentation to a live audience. They arrived just before they were due to speak and shoved a battered and scratched CD into the computer. This is when the fun started. The computer refused to read the CD at all. At this point the person presenting started to become quite agitated and started blaming the audio-visual equipment which happened to be in pristine condition. The A/V operator, being a professional, calmed the presenter a bit and convinced the person that maybe their scratched and dented CD might be the cause of the problem. The presenter then asks the obvious question; “What do I do now?” to which the A/V person replies; “No problem, just use your backup.” “Backup?” was the reply. “Surely you have a backup?”
Well, as it turned out the person did not have a backup and then had to deliver a long lecture with no visual aids at all, and do the whole thing by memory.
It sounds basic and it sounds like common sense but most people don’t do it. Have a backup folks!
- Have more than one CD and make sure you’ve tested them all thoroughly. If they are scratched, then replace them.
- Take a USB memory stick with you as well. Pick one that does not need to install any drivers to run. That is most of them these days but check it.
- If you can, burn a DVD as well… just in case.
- Leave a master copy at home or in your office. A lost or stolen laptop bag with all of your backups in it is useless.
I may seem a bit over-cautious but it’s like the old adage about “take an umbrella and it never rains.” Play safe and have backups folks.
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