Facing technical issues with your visual aids during a virtual presentation?

Have a backup plan, keeping copies of your slides locally on your laptop and in the cloud. Master screen sharing to switch between applications swiftly. Prepare a verbal bridge - a relevant anecdote or discussion point to fill gaps. Use chat effectively by pasting key points or links if slides aren't working. Embrace simplicity; sometimes, a verbal description can be more powerful than a visual one. Practice recovery by rehearsing how you'll handle tech hiccups smoothly. Remember, your audience will forgive technical glitches if you handle them gracefully. Your composure and ability to continue delivering value matter more than perfect visuals. I would love to hear other’s go-to strategies for tech troubles during virtual presentations!

Take deep breaths and maintain your composure. Panicking can make the situation worse and distract you from solving the problem. Staying calm and handling technical issues during a virtual presentation can be challenging but manageable.

As a trainer, you'll develop skills in keeping a poker face when all is going wrong, but for newer trainers the best thing to do if you haven't built that skill is to make a quick joke about it "Technology, eh?" and just excuse yourself for a few moments while you sort things out.

Assessing and resolving technical issues with visual aids during a virtual presentation quickly involves a systematic approach. Calmly inform your audience that there's a technical issue, and you're working on resolving it. This keeps them in the loop without causing panic.

Communicating clearly when facing technical issues with your visual aids during a virtual presentation is crucial. Example: It looks like we’re experiencing some technical difficulties with the visual aids. Please bear with me for a moment while I try to resolve this.

Always have a plan B Example : If I can't get the slides working in a moment, I’ll switch to explaining the concepts verbally and share the presentation with you via email after the session.

Feel free to make self-deprecating jokes to ease some of the transition from the original plan to the backup plan or while giving IT support time to help resolve the issue. We've all been there and we all get it - there's no need to stress out as a new option is being worked on.

It always helps to have a paper or local copy of the trainer notes. Organisations often provide these, but if you're freelance or you tend to go off-script for certain parts, it may be worth having your own personal copy, or at least a cheatsheet with prompts or notes. In addition, adaptability is a key tool in a trainer's toolkit, although this is often forged in tough situations, so it may be developed through challenging scenarios such as this (we all have them!)

During virtual communication visual aids are one of the most engaging factors. Therefore technical know-how is necessary. However while facing any technical issues, it is okay to acknowledge and take some time to check and correct it. In case it doesn't work out, the best way is to engage differently. Different techniques that can be used are: 1. Audience engagement by asking their opinion. 2. Storytelling 3. Using polls 4. Virtual competition and games etc.

While troubleshooting, engage the audience with related content, Q&A, or discussions to keep them involved and minimize the impact of the interruption.

Stuff up happens to all of us, the technical glitches are parts and parcel of the process. Take the learning experience seriously but not yourself. Of course, you have to be prepared in advanced to minimize any interruptions but if they still happen, it is not the end of the world (even though it might feel like that in the moment)