So what happens when your equipment malfunctions when you're giving a speech for the most part, unless it's a light coming in crashing down on your head, you're better off not talking about it, ignoring it. If one of the wrong slides pops up, or you advanced two at a time rather than one. Don't say, Oh my god, I can't believe this. Instead, just quietly back up and go to your sly. And I've had situations where I was giving a PowerPoint presentation. I forgot to plug in my laptop.
So halfway during the power present a PowerPoint presentation, it powers down. Now I was giving a speech and a training on how to give effective PowerPoint presentations. So I don't very well want to say, Oh my gosh, I'm an idiot. I can't do this. I'm so embarrassing. So I just continued talking about related concepts, asked a question of someone in the audience and then quickly bent down plugged in The laptop back in, brought it back up and continued with the PowerPoint presentation.
As if nothing had happened. In fact, no one actually noticed. So people are not going to notice a lot of the technical problems you have, or for that matter, your own problems of arms or forgetting something. People don't remember your mistakes. Typically they remember your reactions to your mistake. That's why it's important not to get upset.
That's why it's important not to apologize. I still remember a presentation I heard from a colleague who was giving a PowerPoint presentation. Everything was great. But all of a sudden her slide deck got stuck. And frustration she slammed the laptop down. Angry for a second to continue to give a great presentation.
The only problem is the only thing anyone remembered was that moment of Because that was the most emotional moment of the presentation, had the most action and had the most drama. So I'm not suggesting if a lamp falls on your head, you're supposed to ignore that. But if there's a whole bunch of little technical things, the right slide doesn't come up instantly something sticks. Don't make a big deal out of it. Just continue to present, giving people your ideas in an interesting, memorable way, and you'll be fine and that's what they'll remember.