My Tools: Logitech Cordless Presenter

I’m not very often in the position where I am making formal presentations. It’s more likely that I am leading a discussion or a workshop. But, when I am presenting I hate sitting down.

I’ve been in many situations where people are sat down at the end of a table talking through a set of bullet-points. This has to be the dullest way of presenting, what’s to engage with. One of the reasons that people sit down to present is because they feel tethered to the control of their presentation, their laptop.

A while ago I was provided with a Logitech Cordless Presenter, this completely removes the tether. It’s great to work without a tether, walking around, pointing, being visible. Hopefully presenting in this way is a lot more interesting than presenting from a seat with a laptop in front of me. I want my presentations to be engaging and Cordless Presenter really helps me to do it.

The Presenter has a really simple set of buttons which are just what you need:

• Forward and backward buttons which take me forward and backward through a presentation.
• F5/esc button which allows me to start and end a presentation.
• Black screen button that allows me to get people’s attention back.
• Volume up and volume down. I’m not often presenting video or audio, but when I do it’s great to be able to adjust the volume.

The Presenter also has a couple of features that I rarely use.

• Laser pointer – I tend to use my finger to point rather than to use a laser pointer. If people are near enough to see the laser dot, they ought to be near enough to work out where my finger is pointing. The other challenge with the laser pointer is that it causes me problems with airport check-in, a laser pointer cannot be carried within hand luggage. It seems a bit strange to check-in a single object that fits in your hand.
• Timer – There is a timer on the device that you can set in increments of 5 mins. When the time is reached the device vibrates. I’ve tried using it, but the device only vibrates once, and I’ve actually missed it a couple of times. It doesn’t really vibrate enough for me to notice it.

There is also an on-switch and an off-switch.

The Presenter is a great piece of kit, it always surprises me that so few people make use of them.