Put Your Slides on Attendee Devices?
This is the idea behind Presntation.io, which I saw this post about this week. In a nutshell:
Presentation.io does this by allowing the members of your audience to see your slides on their laptops, iPads, and Android tablets and watch them change when you advance your slides. This ensures that everyone is on the same slide at the same time. Presentation.io includes a backchannel that allows your audience to comment on and ask questions about your slides.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. One the one hand, most people are bringing some sort of web-enabled device and this eliminates the need to deal with a projector and screen in a room when giving a presentation, doesn’t it? On the other hand, where you do want your attendees eyes? Looking down at a screen so they can see your slides, or looking up at you and the slides. Without the benefit of eye contact, do you get the same connection with the people you are presenting to? Or does the back channel allow for even more connection, as your attendees connect with each other as well as the speaker?
Perhaps the best use, however, may be the ability to make your slides available for a limited time after the presentation.
I’d be curious to see it in action, though. Obviously, as a software trainer, most of my presentations are not done with slides, but working in the software. Has anyone else been in a presentation like this one? Maybe one where you had printed handouts and no screen to look at? How did it make you feel about the presenter?
