An Apple A Day – Day 25
iPad & Microsoft Global Azure Boot Camp
Today is the day! Time to go full on Live at a huge event and see how this new platform performs. Armed with an iPad, AppleTV, and Logitech Spotlight I am poised and ready to deliver an exceptional experience using my new tools of the trade and for a Microsoft only solution nonetheless. This folks is where the rubber really meets the road. How your platform or device performs with native and built-in tech is one thing but using it to demo another vendors platform and tools is a testament to how flexible something can really be.
The Presentation
A hush falls over the crowd, his Logitech remote at the ready. One click and we’re off to the races. Not only did the remote perform seamlessly, it lasted 2 hours without even putting a dent in the charge. The AppleTV and iPad also worked seamlessly. When I had spoken in my previous blog about the poor visibility of code and visual quality it was directly related to the projector, as this time things were crystal clear.
The iPad joined the network and sent my wireless info over to the AppleTV as soon as the wireless name was selected. One thing to note is I would put a password on the AppleTV ensuring someone doesn’t hijack your session with an airplay code and also turn on allow from any network. If you have a network that requires a browser to put information in or agree to ToS you would be out of luck on the Apple TV. However with this little magical setting, you can bypass that as a problem and presentations just work, with no problem.
Polling
Next, the integration of Poll Everywhere was seamless and worked amazingly. I did have one hitch where it took me a couple of tries to understand that only one survey can be active at a time, but I was actually prompted by several people about how they loved the survey so I could cater better to the audience’s experience vs. following a slide deck. For that reason I always post all of my introduction polls (short and simple) so that users can see the diverse audiences and engagement numbers. What a lot of people don’t see is how many participated vs how many were in the room. I would say the higher role of the audience member, the lower the chance they would engage. It’s just an observation and your mileage may vary.
Feedback
Finally, I had a few people give feedback about the fact I could be more interactive with the iPad and walk around and look at others and move through the presentation with more ease because I wasn’t tied behind a laptop. There is some truth to this but it’s not an all-inclusive statement, it’s fully possible to do the same with a laptop or other devices, but being wireless and having a small screen with touch controls definitely trumps a laptop with cables and a need for a mouse.
A special thank you goes out to all the wonderful organizers of the Global Azure Bootcamp and the speakers who came out with me today to share not only their expertise but a great deal of amazing insight with the end of the day panel. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in various technologies Microsoft has to offer in the cloud or some insight to how they are actually being used by business, this is time well spent and the event fills up insanely fast.
That’s it for today and I look forward to sharing what tomorrow holds.
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