Disaster Preparedness for Teleconference Nightmares

What’s the worst thing you’ve experienced on a teleconference? I’ve been asking my clients and their answers may shock you.

Just this morning I was talking with a program director for one of the Fortune 500 giants. She told me, and I’m not kidding, about her recent experience.

During a recent conference call, the CEO was giving a presentation on strategy. As he was speaking and just coming to the peak of his presentation, everyone heard a loud sawing noise on the line.

At first people thought it was static. But, they soon realized that one of the participants was snoring. And everyone heard it!

The snoozing participant had forgotten to turn on his mute button. There was nothing to do but ride it out.

Sound familiar?

Well, I would have thought it couldn’t get worse. But it does. The most shocking story I’ve heard was from a salesperson in another top-level company.

He was busy giving his online presentation when he asked for feedback from one of the distance participants. No response.

Fortunately he was able to contact someone else in his client’s office. What did he find out? The guy had died. Up and keeled over. During the call.

Now, I really hope and pray neither of these situations happen to you. And that all your conference calls, webinars and online meetings go off without a hitch.

But it wouldn’t hurt to have a back-up plan for the big “What If’s” or pitfalls.

Think about how you could and would respond in these situations. Technical failures. People failures. Environmental disasters. Logistical nightmares.

Imagine a scenario like this: a storm swirls outside your building. The sky is turning green. The building is swaying. You look outside the window and see people boarding up buildings.

By the way, this happened to me during a Hurricane alert in New Orleans. Not the big one. One of the ‘little’ scares. People were prepared for evacuation.

How will you respond? Clearly, you need to be able to alert your virtual participants to the situation. You must deal with any employees who are forced to stay on the premises. And you have to understand that you, and anyone in the region have other things on their mind.

You’ll be thinking about your family and friends. You’ll want to close out the call and get home to make sure everything is safe.

In disaster situations, you have to act fast and make smart, quick decisions. You can’t afford to wait. You have to adopt the mind-set of a fireman. Deal with one thing at a time – starting with the first things first.

The first thing you need to do is acknowledge the situation. Tell participants on the call that your business is being threatened and things may come to a complete standstill. Focus on the human survival challenges. And book a next time to reconvene.

Many of these responses are common sense. But in the heat of the moment, it can be difficult to think straight. This is why you want to prepare in advance.

I once worked with the former director for the Girl Scouts of America. She told a story of keeping a little black book. This book was a record of all the things that had gone wrong, could go wrong – and ideas on how to respond.

This may seem like overkill to you. But it can also make you feel more secure when working with a new medium. It’s a lot like having an emergency phone list by the kitchen door.

You don’t want the emergency to happen. But in the event that it does, you want to be prepared.

Before you go on your next audio conference, telecast or webinar, ask your peers. What was their worst nightmare? How did they respond?

Make your own ‘little black book’ so you can be ready and prepared. Most likely, these things will never happen to you. But you’ll feel so much more confident, at ease and ready to respond.

Once you have these answers compiled, share them with your team, co-workers and clients. You may find a wealth of insights, planning tools and procedures for everyone involved. With this, you and your company are ready for the next virtual meeting disaster – whether caused by internal or external events.

Think of it as your Emergency Preparedness Plan for Virtual meetings.

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