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It's not me, and it's not that sort of 'problem'.
She's been asked to present at a popular business breakfast meeting. She's been asked to present for 40 minutes including Q&A. She's been told that there is no room for a screen and therefore there won't be any slides.
No slides...
Many of us who present or train regularly rely on our slides. We only present without slides when the technology fails. My most recent technical failure happened in a board room in Geneva; we had to sort it out with a mixture of hand gestures and Franglais. The French IT guy eventually got it working, but I did have a moment when I thought that the lovely Rolf Kurth and I were going to have to do our 3 hour session without the video clips, audio and headline screens.
We were about to deliver the training to a group of International non-native English speaking Senior Executives.
The thing is, even without the slides, we would have been fine... absolutely fine.
Your brain starts to fixate on the problem, on the unexpected, instead of the knowledge that the slides are the icing on the cake... we still had a bloody good cake (or gateau).
If you're a professional, an expert, a leader in your field, the most important thing in that room is you... not the slide show; it's you and what's inside your head.
So....
Be aware that they will look at you not your screen
Monitor your eye contact, you'll have to look at them
Think about how you're saying it (you can't show them)
Imagine you're having a conversation with them in the pub; you've just been asked "what do you think"
Keep it concise, without the visual element more concentration is needed.
Embrace the Adrenaline, it will make your brain work faster and more efficiently.
Don't think how much better it is with slides. The audience don't know or care, they want you to be good now!
And if you can't present without slides, your presentation needs to be re-written... you never know when they'll fail.
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