Try Your Next Meeting in the Dark

September 8th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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A few months back, I had a very strange experience during a sales meeting. About half way through my pitch, the power to the entire building shut down.  It was so pitch black in the boardroom, I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. So I logically asked everyone if they wanted me to stop and come back next time I was in town or continue on?

Surprisingly, they wanted me to power on as a few people had pulled out their cell phones providing just enough light to make out basic shapes in the room.  I finished my pitch over the next 15 minutes filled with laughter, and then went on my merry way.

It doesn’t end there and gets stranger…

The following week when I was preparing to send the ‘Meeting in the Dark’ participants some follow up material, I though of a really cool gift I had come across before to include with their package. I sent along four eco-friendly wind up flash lights with a little note making fun of the experience. The note also said the flash lights were in case they again found themselves in a meeting in the dark.

I  though that was the end of the story, until I recently was  on another business trip in the area and happened to meet up with one of the infamous blackout participants  for  a coffee. During our meeting he told me about a week after our initial black out meeting, lightning struck a transformer that  again knocked out the power to their building. Although they weren’t in a meeting at the time, they again had to use cell phones to make their way around the office. He figured he would take off early, but his assistant reminded him their was a bubble package on his desk he might want to check out first. To everyone in the offices extreme surprise when he opened the package, there were the wind-up flashlights we sent just a few days earlier. 

I couldn’t even make this stuff up if I tried.   

Most Commented Posts

  • Petri Raito
    Yo Bro,

    Nice story,,or pitch.

    That was a nice touch with the flashlights,,


    I will give you one of my own,

    Quite a few years back i was doing a presentation for a Renault (V.I P ) group


    5 minutes in,,my microphone kicked out.

    There were about 300 people

    I forget the exact math,,but i started yelling and figured i could get away with out the mic..

    I could see people were getting distracted ..

    and i was kinda stuck ,,so i ran up one end of the isle,,and said please pass down this message,,," we will make it like a little game"

    around 20 rows..
    all 19
    got the message "Petri loves Paradise Island"

    the last row got,,,"Petri 's penius is in Paradise"

    ,,so the mic was still down,,,and i was running around like Phil Donahue,, saying hi,,and trying to be charming,,

    SO this all took about ten minutes.

    I asked the end people to come up and deliver the message,,,And at that same time the mic was fixed,,
    Great and lucky timing.


    So i get the 20 people to say there name and what there message was..


    A few funny ones but all very similar..
    But people were laughing and having fun.

    The last lady sais,,,umm ummm ,,ummm and iam like come on spitt it out,


    she sais with a huge smile,,,'' Peter 's Anus pumps leasure "

    There was a split half second of silence then crowd went crazy with laughter,,,

    A little fun..

    But broke the ice,


    Petri
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