PeaceBang’s Techno Recommendations: Slide Shark and Brookstone Digital Projector

Pigeons!
It is so exciting to find helpful gadgets and apps for our lives, is it not? So let me break from our customary subject matter for a moment to share some techno-recommendations with you.

Part of projecting a competent image is to actually BE competent, and nothing can frazzle a pastor faster than prepping for a presentation and finding that the technology doesn’t work. I’ve been there and I bet you have, too. Like, you go to do a slide show of your trip to Israel for the retired men’s group and there you are messing frantically with the old projector while the gentlemen are all waiting with their cups of coffee in hand on folding chairs in the parish hall. The bloody thing isn’t working or syncing with your computer and you’re trying so hard not to let loose many filthy cuss words as you fume at the devices.

My most cussin’ pastor self has come out during times of technological distress and so it is my commitment to prepare well in advance for presentations involving any kind of gadgets, to practice using them, and to find devices and programs that are easy for me, a true techno-moron, to figure out.

I will be traveling to the Chicago area November 2-4 to lead two days of workshops on membership and growth, and I am preparing several PowerPoint presentations. I don’t really feel like dragging my laptop with me and I was hoping I could pare my gadgets down to iPad or even iPod Touch and smart phone and one more thing I’ll tell you about in a minute. But how? I needed a way to show PowerPoint presentations off of my tablets.

Handy-dandy app Slide Shark to the rescue! Slide Shark is a free app that you can download on your computer and iPhone or iPad and use to show PPT presentations. It’s great to look at, easy to interface with, and best of all, you don’t need to be connected to the internet while viewing the presentation! So if your wi-fi connection is spotty or non-existent, no sweat. I am super excited about this app and had to share it with you.

Second on my “Whee! Fun toys that make my job so much easier!” list is this honey of a digital projector by Brookstone. I spotted this while walking briskly through Reagan National Airport, came screeching to a stop and plunked down my credit card immediately for it. I have so often wished for a low-maintenance projector that this was like manna from heaven, only manna that needs to be charged before you use it.

Look at this little life-saver:

I mounted it on a tri-pod with bendy legs that I got at Target for $30 and had a blast playing with it in the sanctuary with my secretary and a member of our worship committee. The LCD is bright enough that you can see the images during the daytime on a white wall, a feature that is important for those of us serving churches whose sanctuaries have lots of big windows and light. The device is as simple as it gets: no bells and whistles. Just an on/off switch, volume and manual focus wheel. The built-in speaker is just fine for most situations. It filled our medium-sized sanctuary nicely and if I wanted to pump it up a bit I would simply put a microphone near it. You can also purchase a small speaker if you wants lots of volume potential.

I can stash this little guy in my carry-on bag with no fuss, and feel confident that when I get to whatever church I’m going to, the technology needed to project images will be there. That’s an awful lot of reassurance for around $300 (you will need a $30 adapter cable to use the device with Mac devices).

Now that I’m starting to get my presentations and technology really together and travel arrangements are almost all made I can think about what to WEAR! And I’ll be sharing that process with you as well.

Over and out, dearies. I hope you had a beautiful Sunday. I did, and was especially nourished by a theological reflection session with a dozen parishioners. We don’t do that often enough. It felt great just sitting around talking about God.