What do you do when the show can’t go on?

Last week was supposed to be a good week for BMW. The Frankfurt Motor Show was on, and BMW CEO Harald Krueger was on hand to present the company’s new line up of cars to the assembled press and audience.

Then he fainted.

Apparently, he hadn’t been feeling well. Worn out from traveling. The good news is that he was not seriously sick, by all accounts. Just a passing affliction.

But what do you do when your speaker – whether or not your CEO – simply cannot – for reasons of health — speak? The old theatrical adage holds that “the show must go on.” But sometimes it can’t – or at least the speaker can’t. What do you do?

Mr. Krueger’s tumble was a great reminder of the need always, always, always – to have a Plan B.

And I would wager that most of you don’t. Most speakers don’t have a contingency plan for when they’re incapacitated. Most conference organizers don’t have a back up speaker at the ready for when the keynoter fails to show for one reason or another. And most webinar hosts don’t have a sub ready to go on when the invited guest develops acute laryngitis.

I’m hear to tell you that you should.

A few years back, I was the MC for a conference in Vegas. My job was to warm up the crowd for 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of the event in the morning, introduce the first speaker, and then return periodically during the day to help keep the audience engaged, draw lessons from what had been said, and help with any logistics that needed addressing.

It’s a useful role, and can even be a transformative one if the MC is good at number two on that list – drawing lessons from what has been said. It’s difficult for an audience to take in messages from speaker after speaker. A moment or two to take stock is incredibly helpful.

In any case, there I was, ready to go at 8:15 AM, when the word came that the keynote speaker was circling the Vegas airport and unable to land. It was going to be at least 45 minutes until he could be there. Maybe longer.

Suddenly my MC role looked much more important. The conference organizer whispered to me – as she pushed me on the stage – “keep ‘em happy for the next hour!”

So I did. I told stories, I did an extended Q and A with the crowd about what they were hoping to get out of the conference. I even played trivia games (with Vegas-style prizes).

And finally, several lifetimes later, the keynoter showed up, and I was able to sit gratefully in the dark back stage, recovering.

That was the day I learned of the importance of a Plan B. In that case, we pulled it off, but we could have made it much easier on ourselves if we had rehearsed that possibility, and I had lined up an hour’s worth of fun and games – just in case.

So take a lesson from Vegas, and baseball. Yes, this is one of those rare times that I will actually make reference to a major league sports concept. Always have a relief pitcher at the ready.

In fact, here are five lessons to draw from BMW’s fainting CEO.

1.If you’re a speaker, have a buddy. It’s a good idea to pair with another, compatible speaker so that you can sub for each other on short notice. Plus, it’s good to have someone with which to compare notes about business and life in the road warrior lane.

2.If you’re a conference organizer, have a backup. Take this problem seriously. If you’re running a conference, have a speaker ready to go – an understudy, like in the theatre, that you pay to stand at the ready. And probably not speak.

3.If you’re a company doing a road show, take a back up along. If the stakes are sufficiently high, you should have a back up executive ready to cover for the CEO when he faints, or some other calamity befalls him.

4.If you’re running a webinar, have a speaker-in-waiting. I did a webinar on my recent book, Power Cues, for Harvard when the book first came out. There were 6,000 sites on the call. That’s a lot of people to disappoint if I suddenly couldn’t speak. We didn’t have a back up, but we were lucky. Have a back up. Don’t rely on luck when the stakes are sufficiently high.

5.If you’re an MC, have extra material at the ready. An MC should be ready to vamp forever if necessary. So prepare your material, your stretch material, and your day-long material for all the possible eventualities. Do it.

Stuff happens. Be ready. You don’t do this now, and you should.