These last few weeks have been a whirlwind for me. That’s not to say it wasn’t exceptionally interesting and exciting – it certainly was.
It all started with a presentation for English class, where we had to present a 5 minute talk on any (interesting) topic of our choice. One of the requirements was to utilize digital media to enhance (and subsequently not overpower) the talk.
Being me, I went all-out, and the resultant presentation was quite hi-tech. I will post the transcript of the speech after this Thursday, when I have presented it at a speaker’s evening.
But I’d like to share the intricacies of the talk, since I thought it was quite interesting to see how all these technologies came together to create a powerful presentation.
What I Used:
- Apple Unibody MacBook (Late 2008 edition)
- Apple iPhone 3G (2008 edition)
- Ad-hoc Wi-Fi network (to interface the Mac and iPhone)
- Apple Keynote presentation software
- Keynote Remote
As you can see, I’m an Apple fan 😉
So, the presentation was designed and created in Keynote. I didn’t “auto-time” it, so it could be controlled manually.
Then, I set up an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to interface the MacBook with an iPhone. This allowed the MacBook to “talk” to the iPhone via a Wi-Fi network, over a secure connection (so no-one in the audience could interfere with the presentation).
Keynote Remote, an iPhone App, was then used to control the presentation. It displayed the current slide that was on-screen, as well as my speaker notes. This allowed for me to only have one item, the iPhone, up with me, which gave an “uncluttered” look.
At the end of the day though, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s not about the technology, but the way it’s utilized, that makes a presentation. Thus, there was certainly a lot of practice put in to ensure the entire process was seemless.
In a future post I will include the transcript of the presentation, as this topic (colonizing Mars) is something I am quite passionate about.
Life in Pixels 