"Do you wanna hear a joke?" was what I asked my audience when told by the secretariat that they were unable to find my slides deck that I gave them 2 hours prior. I was on a podium facing 300+ audience and VIPs seated on stage behind me. The audience were kind to say yes, given that they could see the distress in the scuttling secretariat and also in me because it took me time to prepare the slides of my report. After 2 well-received jokes, I decided to just present without slides based on my memory - I did well enough to do the job, then gave the audience a parting joke to end my time on stage. Despite the seriousness of the event, jokes can save the day. I suppose, you fight distractions with distractions, and then bring in the focus.

Back when I was working in defense I was asked to my team's work to another organization. Due to a mixup in how the classified charts were sent, my presentation didn't make it - no charts, no nothing! I was horrified. I thought about it for a bit, and from memory recalled the key themes, transitions, and messages, and formulated that into a story that conveyed the same points as my original briefing. I took the stage and told the story, and found that the audience was actually at least as engaged as when I had the charts. We connected through the story, it made the experience much more memorable. Going forward, I always do an exercise: what would I talk about if the charts didn't make it. It helps you really hone the story!