When you have an upcoming meeting or conference, you have time to prepare your innovative presentation’s message and the accompanying visuals and rehearse what you plan to say. Nonetheless, last-minute and chance meetings happen.
Your boss may call or send you an e-mail at 4 p.m. Monday asking you to present the latest product development schematics to a potential investor at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Take a few deep breaths, make a pot of coffee, and keep the material you prepare simple and to the point.
Or maybe you’re on the train to work or waiting in the dentist’s office working on your laptop or tablet and the person next to you takes a sideways glance, and says “What are you working on?” Or, as you take your seat on a plane, your seatmate introduces herself and through polite small talk you find that she’s been looking for a solution you can offer.
With an opening such as “If you’re interested, I can show you what I’m talking about,” you then open a presentation or PDF document that shows your product or a case study.
Because these are impromptu situations, ask permission before going into a full-blown, or even half-blown, presentation; your seatmate may just want to chill, catch up on her own work, or watch the latest movie. On the other hand, if the person is amenable, take the opportunity to ask questions and have an informal conversation that can give you insight to an industry or profession that interests you.
If the situation lends itself, personal projectors connect to laptops and smart devices and create an instant presentation atmosphere
To prepare for unplanned or on-demand presentation opportunities, keep the following in mind:
Check your equipment now and then, especially if you use battery-powered devices such as a microphone or remote control (obviously, you won’t be using those when talking to your seatmate on an airplane). Remove the batteries from seldom-used devices to avoid corrosion.
Create a folder on your laptop or a remote storage site such as Dropbox, or use an account on a visual social network such as Pinterest, to place images or videos that capture your latest developments — but remember to clean out older images as they become outdated.
If you maintain an active, up-to-date website, the images, videos, or articles there often support your impromptu presentation.