Dr. Ryan McEwan

Giving a presentation in front of a group of people is a normal part of professional life.  These presentations are nearly always accompanied by slides projected on to a screen.  As you grow as a professional, you want to make sure that you don’t have a computer glitch meltdown right before your talk is supposed to start.  “Uhhh sorry, the computer is not working” is not something you want to be saying.  Strategizing against these fails is a part of professional development and is a basic expectation of graduate students.

Here are some ideas on how to avoid this unfortunate situation.

Work from correct assumptions:

1. You cannot assume that the projector/podium computer will have a cable to connect to your own laptop.  “Every podium has an HDMI cable right?” – -> WRONG!  You must plan for the eventuality that you will need to transfer the talk from your computer onto the podium computer.

2. You cannot assume you will have access to a reliable network (eg, wifi).  You probably will, but it is not guaranteed.  This also means that you cannot rely on “emailing yourself the file” or pulling it off of a your drive over a network.  There might not be a network, or you might have one that is unreliable, and start to meltdown if you try to pull your presentation file onto the podium computer.  

3. You must assume that the projector/podium computer is running Windows, and potentially an older version. 

Tips for resiliency against computer freakout:

1. Develop your talk on Powerpoint, or at least download it into Powerpoint after it is developed (for eg, on Google Slides).  Powerpoint is still the standard platform for presentations and does not require a network, or Chrome, to run properly. Google slides might look great on Chrome, but it might freak out on other platforms and **the computer at the podium might not have Chrome** but, it almost certainly has powerpoint! Do you want to be standing in front of a crowd of people trying to download and install Chrome, when the wifi is sketch? No. You don’t.

2. Make your Powerpoint file as simple as possible.  I personally do not use animations (you can use “insert duplicate slides” to accomplish much the same thing and it’s a lot more stable), and I do not embed videos.  I also try to use “snips” instead of importing images in some cases to try and make the file size smaller.  If you really want videos and snazzy animations, you really need to focus on the following tips to make sure it is going to actually work on the computer you have to present from! Its really a bummer to have someone start the talk, click on an animation, and the system freaks out and goes “blue screen of death.” If you want to have videos embedded…then make absolutely sure you have an HDMI cable and bring your own machine.  

3. Download the talk to the computer and run it from there. Your are almost certain to have a glitchy meltdown if you try to just open your talk from your email and run it without downloading, especially given that your wifi connection should be viewed as unstable! Download to the desktop of the podium computer (or your own), then opent it and give the talk from there. This is much more stable than if you run the talk from a network (eg, via Google Slides), or a flash drive.

4. Work with your host ahead of time to have the talk already loaded.  Go to the podium room 20-30 minutes ahead of time and set things up. Or, if that is not possible, send the talk to the host using a drive link or otherwise transfer it.  Ask them to please download it onto the computer desktop prior to the talk. If the talk is waiting there on the desktop of the computer you are presenting from, then you are much safer.

5. Always have your talk on a “flash drive.”  Although old technology, flash drives are extremely reliable.  I actually bring my talk on 2 flash drives every time I give an invited talk, even if I have a good idea that I can use my laptop or access a network.

6. Consider a PDF format.  In Powerpoint or Google slides you can save (or print) your slides to PDF and then run the presentation from an Adobe platform using “full screen mode.”  If you are really worried about connectivity and computer speed, this is a good option. For example, if you are giving the talk in a field station, a PDF format could be a great option. The PDF version eliminates all slide formatting issues, creates a much smaller file, and practically all computers have at least Adobe reader.