I wanted to follow-up on the Tablet PC Demo I gave last month and talk about what I did, and how I prepared.
First, was to know my audience. They were all academics working at a University, so I knew that I had to sell (in a sense) the benefits to educators. This had to be my focus, home and business application served no purpose here. Students too would be a talking point, but the main focus was how a Tablet PC would enable educators to be more effective. True, a Tablet can make you more efficient, but I was more interested in being effective. Consider this quote from Rick Warren, author of the Purpose Driven Life:
“There is a difference between ‘Effectiveness’ and ‘Efficiency.’ ‘Efficiency’ is doing things right. ‘Effectiveness’ is doing the right thing. Many Churches, not just churches, but businesses and other organizations are efficient, but they are not effective.”
For the weeks leading up, I scoured the Tablet PC Buzz forums. I was looking for people who could give me suggestions on what programs are beneficial in an educational setting. I had a wonderful response in this thread. I’d also suggest you search the forums on keywords such as: academic, educational and student. In addition, I posed the same question here and had an equally great response.
Since I already knew MindManager would be used, I installed the demo. My plan was to use it to organize my presentation topics. It worked amazingly well. Too well maybe. I had way more topics than I had time for! Still, I kept adding and adding. Branching off branches, adding web links and linking to movie files. It was quite a nice map when I had to stop (I am sure I could have gone on and on)
Second, I scoured the web for existing demos and papers on presentations in an academic setting. I knew I was not the first who had to do such a thing. I found less that I anticipated, but enough to let me know I was on the right track.
Third, I searched for short videos that could “sell” the Tablet in a classroom. I really thought I would find more, but there were only 2 videos that fit my need. Both were related to Conference XP. I didn’t go into this software at all, but they had a video on the site called “Learning Experience.” This video was perfect for my needs: short, entertaining to educators, and sold the Tablet PC in a classroom. I was also fond of the Classroom Presenter video, but I only had time for one.
Fourth, was selecting and learning the software. In MindManager I listed all the software programs that I thought would make a good impression, and set about learning to use them. I had to fight the urge to become proficient in them. For my purposes it was not necessary, but internally I wanted to know the programs well. Once I overcame that, I focused on what features could “WOW” the crowd.
For example, I knew MathJournal could take handwritten math problems and solve them. I am horrible in math, but that didn’t matter for the demo. The instructions provided several equations that I could copy and solve. So I created a new page, wrote out some problems and saved it. I would then call up this page and in the demo, have MathJournal solve them before the crowd.
As mentioned previously, these are the programs I used:
MindManager
OneNote +Snipping Tool
ActiveWords
PDF Annotator
Math Journal
ArtRage 1.0
Microsoft Office & Ink-Enabled Applications: PowerPoint, Word, etc.
Voice Recognition in MS Office
InkGestures for Word
(thanks to Loren for adding all the links - I stole your code!)
I spent a holiday weekend learning to operate these programs (thought I already used OneNote).
Fifth was to practice. Honestly, this was a bust. I tried to do the demo alone at home and it didn’t work. I probably should have given it to my family, but there was too much going on that weekend. For some practice may help, but for me it didn’t. I do better going in cold and performing on the spot.
Sixth was to prepare an outline. I should have used MindManager’s built-in tool for this but I just looked at it in one window and typed it into Word. I didn’t think I had time to learn a new process. My outline, in more detail, looked similar to this:
What is a Tablet PC? Show screen swivel, hold up unit, etc.
Options: slate, convertible, optical drive, touch-screen etc.
Ink: describe/show
Benefits of Tablets
Academic Benefits
Educators
Students
Software Demo
see list above
Show Video
see above
Seventh was, on the day of the demo, to prepare the Tablet. I made sure ALL of the programs I was going to show were open and minimized. This I picked up from the many Tablet PC Camtasia presentations I’ve seen. It saves loading time and it also helps you remember what you will be showing (in case you get nervous).
Eighth was to give the demo. I had 15- 20 minutes. When you consider my outline, and trying to cover that in 20 minutes, you don’t have much time for fluff. I blazed through the demo, and finished with no time to spare. I ended with the video, which was the perfect punctuation for this show. Several times in my demo I took questions, and even had a few afterwards. The crowd even applauded when I was finished, which totally blew my mind.
Looking back, I wish I had more time. But, I think less is more. It really left them wanting to know more, and I am afraid if I had gone on too long I would have lost them. Sure as a Tablet PC Evangelist I want to show everyone everything it can do. And if I were demoing to a PC Users Group of some sort, that would be appropriate. But you have to know your audience, and in my case, it had to be fast bullet points. “Less is More” as thy say.
Things I would change:
Don’t demo voice recognition when your Tablet is by an overhead projector. Slightly red-faced that I didn’t realize this. Laughed it off and moved on, but wish I had skipped it.
Cover MindManager in more detail. I just didn’t have enought time to show the benefits of this program. I would use the wasted time from the above flop towards MM next time.
Leave time for questions. I had little choice on this, but if you can ask for more time beforehand, well worth the effort to take as many questions as you can.
Leave your card. I didn’t and I should have. Though they all know how to find me, and I am not in sales (getting comission), I should have done this. Basic stuff, Sales 101 here, boneheaded mistake.
Get a wi-fi projector. I had no options for this at the facility. Looking back, I should have ponied up the money myself and rented one. It would have taken this demo over the top!
Lastly, I just have to compliment the Tablet PC Community for all the support as I prepared for this. Thanks to everyone, you really gave me more than I could have anticipated. Software companies like ActiveWords, MindJet and xThink were also crucial to the success of the demo. I hope I can give back in some small way, maybe this post will help. And I will drop my two cents whenever I see a chance. Who knows, maybe there is an MVP in my future.
As a post script, I wanted to list as many of the blogs I read in prep for this as I can. But I don’t have the time to compile them. So rather than delay this post (meaning forget I wrote it and never post it), I will come back and be adding to this list as I recall the sites, so do check back now and then.
