Yesterday afternoon, I prepared for the Webinar on media relations, communications and construction industry marketing. At 2:30 I ran a quick test — all systems seemed to be in order — so rested my mind in preparation for the 3 p.m. start. Then, as everyone arrived and I prepared to log in, the AV system froze.
Realizing the problem could not be solved in minutes and several people had given their time and energy to attend, I decided to postpone the event, offering refunds for anyone who wished the money. Within minutes, I received emails from clients saying they understood the situation, and that we could reconvene at a mutually convenient time. I’m tentatively rescheduling for Friday.
Could I have avoided the technical glitch with some additional preparation and testing? Possibly. However, as a business, this would have been excessive caution. The revenue/risk/consequences of failure simply weren’t great enough. I think the issue of immediate back up and redundency would have been more vital if several dozen people had flown hundreds of miles to meet me in person — or my business wanted to drill for oil in deep water off the coast of Louisiana (or even more seriously, the Arctic Ocean.)
As we reschedule the Webinar, like most business people I am working on several other issues, some related, others distant from the immediate concern. I always need to be aware of my environment and prepare course changes where necessary. Choices, priorities and back-up alternatives all are part of the story as inevitably there will be surprises, things won’t work as planned and we will need to find different solutions. In truth, we can’t predict all the consequences of our actions and choices but we can certainly assess relative risk and prepare accordingly.
