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My presentation deck crashed in front of 40 people, but I recovered with a whiteboard
Happened at a client meeting in Cleveland on Tuesday. My laptop froze mid-slide and the projector just went black. I panicked for a second, then grabbed a marker and started sketching the same workflow chart on the whiteboard in the room. People actually paid more attention after that. Now I always print a backup outline before any big pitch. Has anyone else had to improvise like that, and did it work out or backfire?
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holly_williams18d ago
The bit about people paying more attention after you switched to the whiteboard really got me. I think it's part of a bigger pattern where the raw, messy version of something beats the polished one every time. Like, we all get so caught up in making slides look perfect that we forget the actual point is connecting with the room, not showing off our design skills. There's something about watching a human draw in real time that makes people lean in, maybe because they feel like they're seeing the thinking happen instead of just the final product. I've noticed it at parties too, when someone pulls out paper and starts sketching a map or explaining something by hand, everyone gathers around way more than if they'd just pulled up a photo on their phone.
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