Adapting to the wrong adapter

Our "Misc" Kit

As prepared as we thought we are, we weren't. We have a "Misc" kit that we bring with us at every event. It has some tools, tape, batteries, extra cords, and adapters. We even have a foldable stool, table covers, and some cloth towels. Kind of like a survival kit for what we do. It has helped us out many times. 

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Contents of our "Misc" Kit

Before every wedding, we go through all the equipment to ensure we have everything. Everything from speakers, microphones, stands, cables, gaffers tape, etc. For this one particular wedding, we had to provide a projector and screen. So we made sure we brought the right adapters. We don't usually have these adapters in our "Misc" kit because of how pricey they are. So it's something we'd have to think of bringing when it is going to be needed. 

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So about an hour before we had to set up the screen and projector, we started to prep everything. They provided their own laptop for us to play their slideshow from. We first noticed it was a Macbook so we thought we had the right adapter. Come to find out, it was the wrong adapter! We had the ipad/iphone hdmi adapter. The wedding was on the north shore and for us to drive back to get the right adapter and return would take us almost 2 hours. 

We started going through all the equipment cases, bags, and "Misc" kit in hopes we'd have the adapter buried somewhere. We even started asking other vendors if they had the adapter we were looking for. After not finding any, we thought of maybe transferring the video file to an ipad because the hdmi adapter we had was  for an iphone or ipad. Come to find out, the video was on a trial version of the software. If we rendered a video file from the software, it would place a watermark on the video. So we looked up the software to see how much it costs. It was $40 so we connected to the venue internet to purchase the software. After purchasing, we could not activate the software. It just wouldn't activate. We almost gave up and felt defeated. 

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The many adapters we have to keep track of

There was about 5 minutes left till we had to show the slideshow. We had one last idea and it was a last minute decision to get this slideshow shown. With the help of the coordinators and MC, they changed the slideshow to a later time in the program.
I had my camera gear with me because I wanted to get video footage of our MC for our promotional use. Since I didn't get a chance to get any footage, I decided to hook up our camera to the projector. I would then play the slideshow from their laptop and shoot it with our camera which was hooked up to the projector. 

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This worked. Quality isn't as great but we were able to play a very important slideshow. One that was also a surprise. It seemed like no one noticed what I was doing but I was sweating the whole time. Hoping nothing would happen while the slideshow was playing. Slideshow ended and I had a big sigh of relief. 

This is one of the many situations that we face while at an event. I don't like running into these situations. It bothers me. It bothers me so much, I try to do what ever I can to make sure it doesn't happen again. So I just ordered half a dozen of these adapters. Going to place each of them with our projectors, "Misc" kit, and one with me at all times. I'm determined to make sure this never happens again. 

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We have come across other situations which we were able to solve and work around without anyone noticing. And after each time, we do what ever it takes to make sure it doesn't happen again. Sometimes we think we are ready for anything, but simply grabbing the wrong adapter can change things. 

No company is perfect and mistakes do happen. We aren't perfect but I wanted to show you how committed we are with solving problems and making sure it doesn't happen again. We want every event to be a success whether there are problems or not.