July 3, 2012, will stay in my mind for a very long time because it was my worst earthquake experience so far. I was looking forward to my virtual presentation at MaharaUK12 at 10:30 p.m. Just a few minutes into the presentation, I felt a little shaking and first didn’t think much of it as heavy cars or minor earthquakes can cause that.
When the shaking didn’t stop but actually got worse, I had to stop for a bit to seek shelter. Thanks to modern technology and the internet, the participants in my session over in Lancaster, UK, experienced the quake live with me minus the shaking and the uncertainty of what was going on, whether it would get worse, how long it would last and whether I should prepare for evacuation.
Fortunately, the heavy shaking stopped after about 50 seconds and after a short audio adjustment period, I could continue with a pounding heart and frazzled nerves. Luckily, there were no aftershocks. At the end of my presentation I learned that it was a 7.0 earthquake 170 km west of Wellington.
I was happy that I could conclude my presentation without any further incidents. Though I still had about 15 minutes left, there didn’t seem to be any questions – either because everything was clear, the session attendees were also shaken up or because I wasn’t in the room to be able to follow up and try to elicit questions. Having the presenter online and all other attendees in a physical location can be tough, and I need more experience of how to handle such a situation. Preferably without having lived through a 7.0 earthquake right before. 
As I record my presentations whenever possible since my slides do not have many words on them, everything was captured in for posterity.