Truth be told, my presentation at this year’s IHSPA (Indiana High School Press Association) conference would not have happened if it wasn’t for SmartFile.
That’s right, SmartFile saved me from looking like a big dummy in front of a bunch of high schoolers. That would have been eat-your-lunch-in-the-bathroom-stall kind of embarrassing, not to mention frustrating after all the effort I put into it!
Here’s what happened:
I worked super hard on my awesome presentation entitled, “So You Want to Work in Social Media?” (as seen in the Instagram video above). Once it was complete, I uploaded it to my SmartFile account in a few clicks and continued to get ready to speak. I love that I didn’t have to worry about something happening to it!
Anyway, day of the presentation (last Friday to be exact), I arrive fifteen minutes early like a good lil presenter to Franklin University. I check-in, find my way across campus to my assigned speaking room, and get ready to rock.
That’s when I notice that they do not have a connector thingy for my Macbook …
… and then notice that I can’t get the WiFi to connect, either, despite having the correct username and password. My cries of despair were heard by a very helpful IT person from the university who tried very hard to get me connected.
His exact words:
“I have no idea why this isn’t working! I’ve never seen this happen before!”
Just my luck! Maybe he hadn’t seen this WiFi catastrophe before … or maybe he was distracted by the beauty of my screensaver and Firefox skin featuring Living Legend Britney Spears (of course). Some mysteries will never be solved.
While Mr. IT troubleshoots, I start to sweat, pace, and click a bunch of icons in hopes of getting something to work. Nothing works. Then I remembered that I had uploaded my presentation to SmartFile! Cue angels singing and clouds parting to reveal a crystal blue sky! LIGHTBULB!
I used one of the university’s computers to log into my account and download my PowerPoint in a few seconds. I proceeded to raise the proverbial roof and knock my presentation out of the park. This is something that I could have done with Dropbox, but it would have been a lot more complicated. I would have had to download Dropbox to the university machine (if they even allow that sort of thing), login to it, wait for it to sync, and THEN download it. Best part is that I don’t even think the high school students knew how close they were to hearing me talk, unstructured, for an hour!
Thanks for helping me educate others on social media, SmartFile! I literally could not have done it without you!
Have you ever had something go terribly wrong before right before a deadline or a presentation? How did you handle it? Share your story in the comments below!