Murphy's Law states:
Anything that can go wrong, will.
If you are dealing with web conferencing and real-time internet communications, the law needs a small addition:
Anything that can go wrong, will… Along with a few things that can't.
Today one of my client webinars was saved because I insist on backups that are wasted time and effort in 99% of situations. If you are holding a web event going out to many people, I urge you to adopt as many of these insurance policies as you can persuade your presentation team to go along with.
1) Print out a hardcopy of the presentation slides (along with speaker notes, if present). If they lose power or their computer dies in the middle of the presentation, they can continue by referencing the paper copy. Do not accept "I'll just open it in another window."
2) If using screen share to present, make sure another presenter has a copy of the presentation or can bring up the necessary web page or app to demonstrate. They should be ready to take over if the primary presenter has a problem.
3) If using computer audio, have each presenter find the phone number and personal code for presenter dial-in and write it down on a piece of paper before the session starts. If they lose power or their computer dies, they can continue on phone.
4) If using a mobile phone for presenter audio (please don't), keep it plugged in during use.
5) If demonstrating a software product or a website as part of your presentation, have screen shots on slides to use as a backup if something goes wrong.
You can USUALLY get away without any of these backups. The chance of something going catastrophically wrong for a given presenter on a given webinar is very small. But the cumulative odds of SOMETHING going wrong SOMEDAY for SOMEONE is a near certainty. When it finally happens to you, you'll thank me for urging you to have a backup in place.
