Comments on: Presenting help wanted

By: Nabeel Hyatt

Nabeel Hyatt — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:07:04 +0000

Until a better device comes along — a cellphone actually works great.

I use a Sony Ericsson K800i — it talks to my Macbook over Bluetooth and it comes with an app called “Wireless Presenter” which basically lets me load up Keynote and then turns the phone into a simple presenter. Any late model SonyE phone will likely come with it.

And anyway, you need someone encouraging you to ditch that Razr.

By: JR

JR — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 03:52:52 +0000

So true! I use that logitech daily and although it is handy to have I still do not understand why that damn thing was so f’n PRICY!

By: kare Anderson

kare Anderson — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 17:27:51 +0000

In the larger picture of what makes a meaningful, memorable speaker I believe it is in offering a specific insight related to one of the audience’s hot button interersts (fears or desires) characterizing it with aa word picture, best/worst case scenario, metaphor or “what if” scenario to which they can relate, acting “as if” they are ready to make the suggested change for the better.

Follow-up with other news-you-can-use or suggestions, citing people in the audience by name as positive examples of your suggestions… even to the point of walking around and winding up near the next person you’ll mention when you get to your “punch line” – honoring thaat person by naming him or her.

Yes to conversational rather than talking “at.” Yes to involving the audience, asking for responses that evoke their highter/smarter/better side – together.

See some of the vidoes of speakers at The TED conference, for example.

Two of my favorites are Bono and Larry Brilliant. They lift the audience up together – and call for specific action that can bring people closer. Now that’s the power of us

Also see SpeakerNet fre*e newsletter by and for speakers.
And ,to set the stage for a memoraable, meaningful meeting, see at sayitbetter.com site or blog the article Coming Backto Our Senses

By: Rik

Rik — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:18:12 +0000

Thanks for all the enthusiastic comments, folks. But.

Peter/DK: the thing is, I don’t want to be convicted to using a phone, the whole point is that the device should have an appropriate form factor. My phone’s a razr…

Noah/Jen: I don’t want to use the Apple remote, since you’d still have to aim. A slightly large stage could mean you’re not at a decent LOS form your mac. We need BT or radio.

Apart from that, thanks again for the responses!

By: Bret

Bret — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:19:50 +0000

Hey, I wish I would have known you were looking at presentation devices. I have one I got for 5 bucks (after rebate) that I really like. I had it in my bag at the Dodgeball event, you could have given it a test run.

By: DK

DK — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:31:22 +0000

Depending on your mobile phone have a crack on Salling Clicker (salling.com – for PC’s and Macs)…

I use to awe and wonderment in my day to day presentations/training/speaking engagements – you can also use it to launch apps and other funky stuff also

Peace

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:04:20 +0000

Unfortunately the Apple remote won’t work with Powerpoint out of the box which is silly. With Remote Buddy, you can do it, though. I’ve tried it and you also have to stand at a decent angle.

By: Noah Everett

Noah Everett — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:41:53 +0000

Ok found this at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Remote#Application_Compatibility

“The remote can be used to control presentations in Apple Keynote (on both Intel Macs & PPC Macs)”

Although the remote uses IR…this could be an issue if you were at a weird angle to your laptop.

By: Noah Everett

Noah Everett — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:35:54 +0000

I wonder if the remote that comes with the powerbook could be used to do something like this? Someone could write some software to put on the mac that could read the signals and change slides etc. I’m on a PC 99% of the time so this may be ignorance speaking.

By: Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:51:41 +0000

Perhaps you could look at some of Jobs’ presentations and look at what he’s using? I’m guessing he’s probably using standard television style gear, although I can’t remember off the top of my head.

One hackish solution I’ve seen some people use to get around the IR issue is to use their cellphones. It’s possible to rig it up so that you can control aspects of a presentation from a cell over BlueTooth, but I’ve not tried it myself.