What do you do when the show can’t go on?
Last week was supposed to be a good week for BMW. The Frankfurt Motor Show was on, and BMW CEO Harald Krueger was on hand to present the company’s new line up of cars to the assembled press and audience.
Apparently, he hadn’t been feeling well. Worn out from traveling. The good news is that he was not seriously sick, by all accounts. Just a passing affliction.
But what do you do when your speaker – whether or not your CEO – simply cannot – for reasons of health — speak? The old theatrical adage holds that “the show must go on.” But sometimes it can’t – or at least the speaker can’t. What do you do?
Mr. Krueger’s tumble was a great reminder of the need always, always, always – to have a Plan B.
And I would wager that most of you don’t. Most speakers don’t have a contingency plan for when they’re incapacitated. Most conference organizers don’t have a back up speaker at the ready for when the keynoter fails to show for one reason or another. And most webinar hosts don’t have a sub ready to go on when the invited guest develops acute laryngitis.
I’m hear to tell you that you should.
A few years back, I was the MC for a conference in Vegas. My job was to warm up the crowd for 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the event in the morning, introduce the first speaker, and then return periodically during the day to help keep the audience engaged, draw lessons from what had been said, and help with any logistics that needed addressing.
It’s a useful role, and can even be a transformative one if the MC is good at number two on that list – drawing lessons from what has been said. It’s difficult for an audience to take in messages from speaker after speaker. A moment or two to take stock is incredibly helpful.
In any case, there I was, ready to go at 8:15 AM, when the word came that the keynote speaker was circling the Vegas airport and unable to land. It was going to be at least 45 minutes until he could be there. Maybe longer.
Suddenly my MC role looked much more important. The conference organizer whispered to me – as she pushed me on the stage – “keep ‘em happy for the next hour!”
So I did. I told stories, I did an extended Q and A with the crowd about what they were hoping to get out of the conference. I even played trivia games (with Vegas-style prizes).
And finally, several lifetimes later, the keynoter showed up, and I was able to sit gratefully in the dark back stage, recovering.
That was the day I learned of the importance of a Plan B. In that case, we pulled it off, but we could have made it much easier on ourselves if we had rehearsed that possibility, and I had lined up an hour’s worth of fun and games – just in case.
So take a lesson from Vegas, and baseball. Yes, this is one of those rare times that I will actually make reference to a major league sports concept. Always have a relief pitcher at the ready.
In fact, here are five lessons to draw from BMW’s fainting CEO.
1.If you’re a speaker, have a buddy. It’s a good idea to pair with another, compatible speaker so that you can sub for each other on short notice. Plus, it’s good to have someone with which to compare notes about business and life in the road warrior lane.
2.If you’re a conference organizer, have a backup. Take this problem seriously. If you’re running a conference, have a speaker ready to go – an understudy, like in the theatre, that you pay to stand at the ready. And probably not speak.
3.If you’re a company doing a road show, take a back up along. If the stakes are sufficiently high, you should have a back up executive ready to cover for the CEO when he faints, or some other calamity befalls him.
4.If you’re running a webinar, have a speaker-in-waiting. I did a webinar on my recent book, Power Cues, for Harvard when the book first came out. There were 6,000 sites on the call. That’s a lot of people to disappoint if I suddenly couldn’t speak. We didn’t have a back up, but we were lucky. Have a back up. Don’t rely on luck when the stakes are sufficiently high.
5.If you’re an MC, have extra material at the ready. An MC should be ready to vamp forever if necessary. So prepare your material, your stretch material, and your day-long material for all the possible eventualities. Do it.
Stuff happens. Be ready. You don’t do this now, and you should.
Nick, your wit, wisdom, and authenticity are evident in your every blog post. I really connected with your comment: “And finally, several lifetimes later, the keynoter showed up, and I was able to sit gratefully in the dark back stage, recovering.”
The MC who can pull off the feat that you managed in Vegas is an endangered species. For most of us, I think our first instinct (after wincing) would be to say: “Beam me up, Scotty.”
Thanks, Matthew — your kind words and comment are deeply appreciated!
Nick…As always a most insightful post. As a former conference organizer in healthcare and technology I got anxious just reading your story about your Vegas experience. Keynote speakers I’ve found to be far more disciplined in planning for the unexpected but often the real points of failure can be those corporate executives who are balancing 500 things in addition to their speaking slot. I’m always amazed by how few conference organizers have a PlanB. It’s not just speakers but also event planners who should carefully read this post. Great points. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Peter – I really appreciate your perspective as the conference organizer. And you’re right about busy executives — they so often don’t build any slack into their lives!
How about the business end of this? Do you build into a contract or statement of work what the rate differential is if a substitute speaks? Do you assume a sub is free and forfeit the fee if the speaker can’t go on?
Would love your perspective and advice on that.
Hi, Susan — absolutely you need to have the contractual side of PlanBs represented. If you’re going to have someone standing by, then that person should be paid to provide that service, even if he/she doesn’t speak, just the way an understudy is compensated in the theatre. If you’re talking about a corporate environment, then you might want to have an internal person ready to go. Presumably that person would not get extra compensation; it would just be part of his/her duties. But it might be nice to buy that person dinner…..
Hi again, Nick. As always, you are full of great advice! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to make an emergency speaker switch at one of our many CIO magazine events. I’m especially fortunate in having an advisory board of Chief Information Officers who are already at the event and often willing to pitch in at the last minute. A “fireside chat” format can work very well if the emcee is comfortable with interviewing people, so I highly recommend that as a way to convince an 11th hour speaker to get on stage with you. The lack of PPT slides is actually a blessing as a format change.
I’ve also used last-minute workshops as a creative time-filler. You can throw out a few juicy questions and have the audience chew it over at their tables (also a great way to get introverts chatting with each other — they need a purpose!).
Thanks for the good advice and ideas…
Fondly, Maryfran
Thanks, Maryfran — great to hear from you again! And love the fireside chat approach, as well as the interactive work with the audience at their tables. The issue there is that, in order for the audience to feel fulfilled, you must find some way to allow them to give what they’ve learned/done/created back to the session as a whole. Closing the feedback loop is essential.
Yes, absolutely agree, Nick. That “reporting back” portion at the end is very gratifying for the audience. Even the raving Introverts love to ‘show and tell’ — echoes from our Kindergarten training perhaps? :-)
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