It was a while ago now, so I can share it without fear of reprisal, but this was a rather hilarious disaster when dealing with a remote presenter for a leading blue chip organisation.
A high profile VIP was booked to do a motivational speech about managing teams for success.
He was a well renowned sports team manager, who had taken his squad to victory on the world stage, and was delivering an address to a bunch of middle managers, designed to inspire them to lead their own gangs of employees to heady heights within the company.
Unfortunately, on the day he was needed on stage in London, he was scheduled to be somewhere in Europe, so our client asked us to facilitate a video call to allow our man to present his keynote remotely.
We duly arranged a test call the day before the show, during our rehearsals.
He dialled in from his hotel room. The lighting was appalling, and the Wi-Fi was hit and miss, but the link worked, and we were assured that for the live show, he was going to be calling in from a meeting room at an office he was visiting.
His slot was immediately after the lunch break, so whilst the guests were dining in another part of our venue, we called him up. Sure enough he was ensconced in a swanky meeting room, well lit, sounding loud and clear, and with a stable connection.
The audience wandered back in from their dinner, and our man was introduced, immediately launching into an inspiring rhetoric, with a genuine and natural enthusiasm.
He was only a few moments in however, when in the background of his meeting room, there was some sort of kafuffle. He looked round mid sentence, and rather lost his momentum, when the voice of a rather annoyed woman could be heard very clearly telling him he would have to move as he hadn't reserved the meeting room. He protested politely, but was told again, and in no uncertain terms, that several senior figures were about to descend on the room in order that they could discuss something of significance that couldn't possibly be postponed.
Not to be defeated, he apologised to us, and started to disconnect his computer, eventually ending up jogging down a corridor, laptop in hand, but still attempting to deliver his speech to the live audience sat in London.
We all started to feel a bit seasick as we watched the image from the laptop camera rocking and swaying.
It was also becoming clear that, despite his illustrious sporting career, he had long since ceased any attempt at fitness, and by this stage of his career, was likely a wearer of the extra large trouser.
He was panting with the exertion of it all. His face reddened and aglow, as the ceiling lights and windows zipped past, forming a moving back drop to the sweating brow that now dominated the main screen at the London event.
The whole thing descended even further into farce, when he paused, huffing and puffing, and asked a passer by for directions in staccato, between trying desperately to catch what was left of his breath.
Thankfully, as our event producer was trying to decide when to end the debacle, technology made the decision for him. The image began to freeze sporadically as the presenter moved away from the Wi-Fi box, and the signal deteriorated.
The call eventually collapsing completely and causing the on stage host in London a few uncomfortable moments as we collectively waited on tenterhooks to see if he would reconnect.
The event producer quickly moved the proceedings on to the next item on the agenda.
Our VIP did reconnect some minutes later from an improved location, but it was decided that we had seen enough, and we would not be finding out exactly how it was that he had managed to win the world cup, given he couldn't book a meeting room.
Even the best of us make mistakes when feeling the pressure of presenting at a live event.
If you are presenting remotely, make sure you have double checked every detail in plenty of time to avoid such embarrassment.
For more information on how we can support your in person, hybrid or virtual event, contact us. hello@confidence-digital.com
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