At Salesforce Connections, I tried something new out that the audience liked: turning my slides into 21st century overheads. I prepared a workbook (which you can download here), but instead of just talking through slides, I was able to draw on them on screen. Here’s a quick demo:

Now imagine this on the big screen, the ability to not only show content, but interact with it. How do you do this?

The secret, at least for me, is built into the software and hardware I use. Most modern Macs (made after 2013) and modern iPhones/iPads (ones which connect with a Lightning cable) can connect to each other to share the mobile device’s screen.

On a Mac, be sure your iPad or iPhone is plugged in via the Lightning cable.

Then open Quicktime Player. Hit New Movie Recording:

Screen_Shot_2015-06-17_at_8_04_26_AM.jpg

Then when the standard movie window appears (probably with your webcam activated), switch to your iPad as the camera:

Screen_Shot_2015-06-17_at_8_04_38_AM.jpg

That takes care of the infrastructure setup. You can, of course, buy a separate Lightning to VGA/DVI/HDMI connector and plug your iPad in directly to the system, but the advantage of going through your laptop is that you can also record what you’re showing, which can be handy for events.

Once you’ve got the wiring done, it’s time to share content. Create slides that have lots of whitespace for writing in the slide making software of your choice. Export those slides as JPG images.

Then, in the drawing app of your choice (I use Penultimate, part of the Evernote family), drop your images in:

screen of ipad.jpg

Now you’re ready to make live annotations on your slides in front of the crowd.

Try this out for a fun, different way to interact with your audience!


You might also enjoy:


Want to read more like this from Christopher Penn? Get updates here:

subscribe to my newsletter here


AI for Marketers Book
Get your copy of AI For Marketers

Analytics for Marketers Discussion Group
Join my Analytics for Marketers Slack Group!


Subscribe to My Free Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe to My Free Weekly Newsletter

Sign up now to the free Almost Timely Newsletter, released every weekend with the latest news about marketing, technology, analytics, data science, and AI.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

You have successfully subscribed to the Almost Timely Newsletter!