When Murphy Pays A Visit
If you're like me, you probably watched Apple's WWDC Keynote when the video was posted. I had already followed the major announcements earlier in the day, so I took the opportunity to watch Phil Schiller's much improved performance and marvel at the visuals on the screen.
Watching this video, I also saw something I didn't expect. Murphy got up on stage, not once, but twice during the iPhone 3.0 demos. He may have ruined the demos, but the presenters (and their assistants) saved their presentations.
The first incident was during Pasco's demo of their Spark application, presented by Wayne Grant. Wayne and Apple's own Scott Forstall attempted to demonstrate the "Balloon Burst" experiment in Spark, using some equipment connected to an iPhone. There was an equipment failure and they couldn't complete their demo.
The second incident was a demo of Midi Mobilizer by Line 6 and Planet Waves and was presented by Marcus Ryle. During his presentation, the application failed to produce the appropriate sounds for the selected amplifiers.
In both of these presentations, the presenter did not let Murphy completely take over. Instead there three things I noticed in common in their reactions:
- Show Good Humor - In both cases, they didn't let the mishaps get to them emotionally. Instead, they took the incidents in stride and even laughed a little. Keeping a good sense of humor helped them stay in control at times when the audience might otherwise get restless.
- Don't Immediately Give Up - Both presenters reaffirmed their commitment to their audience by not throwing in the towel the moment something went wrong.
- Move On - Eventually, if it just won't work, move on. Don't dwell on the mishap and just move to the next part of your presentation. If you have practiced your presentation enough, then this is made easier, since you'll know where to go next.
These obviously weren't the first mishaps to occur in an Apple keynote. Steve Jobs himself has had to deal with temperamental computers and software as you can see in the video below. He handles the situations quite well with the exception of the camera that failed to work.
How have you successfully handled an interruption by Murphy?
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