There is a talk I can give anywhere, on almost any subject, at no notice. It is about where I come from, how I got into tech, and how anyone can get better at something they are bad at. If you ever hear me telling it for twenty minutes, you are listening to my backup talk, and something has gone wrong with the one I was supposed to give.

Before any big talk, I ask myself a simple question. If the slides don’t project and the audio fails, what is the bare minimum I could still do on stage? Having an answer, and a story in my back pocket, is one of the most calming bits of preparation there is.

I was the host and anchor of TechDays Online 2013, a Microsoft conference streamed over the internet, and Scott Hanselman, one of the best-known speakers in the developer world, was presenting. Partway through, his slides refused to project over Skype for Business. All that was left was Scott, a camera and the show’s producer in my ear saying “fill”. Scott is an all-time hero of mine, so I had no shortage of questions. I told him there were a few things I had always wanted to ask him, and interviewed him for the next forty minutes. It was not the session anyone had planned, but it was a lot better than announcing that the conference was over.

Afterwards, the producer took me to one side. He told me he had seen professional broadcasters fail in exactly that situation. It remains one of my core memories, because it was the moment I realised that maybe I did have what it takes to do this.

Everything fails all the time. Decide in advance what you will do when it does.