I have been accepted to present a paper at a very important international conference. This is great!
As I am based in another country, I have arranged to have a supervisory meeting just after my presentation.
I had brought all my research analysis with my presentation on a USB stick (I have other copies at home, but this was my decision for this visit).
So, today, after meeting all these nice people at the conference, and after discussing about my presentation, and after everything was really great, the time for the presentation came. I tried to put my ppt on the computer in the presentation room, but there was a virus on the computer. The result???? Everything got lost! The IT guy who was there couldn't do anything!
So, I have missed the opportunity to present my work (I did it without any visual aid and that was so bad) AND I have lost the work I had with me AND I didn't have anything to show to my supervisor on our next meeting (it will be about my analysis and we were supposed to look at it).
I know she will understand, but I am sooooooo upset!
My trip here was for 2 reasons: The conferences and the meeting.... Now what?

Argh that sounds awful Emmaki! I will email myself my presentation for next week just in case!

I'd say its time to hit the wine.

Bit late Emmaki - you poor thing - but I'd recommend looking into Dropbox as a back up in this sort of situation. You can copy files from your home computer, then access them anywhere from a computer. And you get gigabytes worth for free, which should be enough for starters.

Do you have anyone at home Emmaki who can access your computer and email your stuff for your meeting? Also, a bit late for now, but something to bear in mind for the future, when you are giving presentations it's handy to have a ton of handouts to give out to your audience, even if you don't need them it's good that they have a copy of your talk and can remember you, and if all else fails, you can use them as your presentation so you aren't solely talking without any slides!

And I second the wine, there's not much else you can do!

Poor you. This was my nightmare when I was presenting at an international conference April and so I had two usb sticks, several sets of notes (these were all split between hold luggage andn hand luggage), I e-mailed the presentation to myself (at work and at home) and my husband had a copy to e-mail if that all failed. Fortunately nothing went wrong for me that time.

Def time for the wine!

Hey, sorry to hear that. Seems to be a couple of upsetting posts today. I'm sure, despite all this, you had some positive feedback from the people in the conference, so it's not all bad. I guess these things just happen.
CB x

Hi Emmaki, what shall I say. See my htread on the nightmare. I am with you. It will pass...

Mentioned this to hubby. He also recommended taking any talk on a CD as well as a USB stick, since the CD shouldn't be corruptible. When I went to an international conference in Canada (quite a few years ago now) I just had my PowerPoint talk on a CD.

hi emmaki, I'm so sorry to hear about your USB. I have had a similar experience but I had time to re-do my presentation from an old unfinished back-up copy.

Hey guys,
thanks for your support!
You know the funny (stupid???) thing is that at home I have my work saved on sevral places (4 usbs, 3 computers, weekly cds...) I am almost paranoid about it...
But this time I had such a big suitcase with me (I am supposed to stay at the UK for 10 days and then 10 more with my bf) that I thought I should take as little things with me as posible, as though a usb is something huge and heavy................
I am angry and disappointed at myself...............
I can't do anything now......I just have to live with it..................
The positive thing was that my presentation wasn't as bad as I thought. I knew my material really well, I knew my research really well and I managed to give a very lively presentation (of course considering the whole situation) and I was told that I was better that many othet presenters with ppt's!!!!!!
So the only problem is the meeting with my sup........ We were supposed to talk about my analysis and all of it was on the usb...........
So, I guess, we will be able to fins something else to discuss......A research has so many aspects, doesn't it????

Sounds horribly awful, really feel for you but so glad it went so well in the circumstances - that's class :-) Do you have your analysis on your home computer? Could anyone email it to you?