Technology making things easier

Earlier this week I presented at the MSFT_Stack SQL User Group in Cardiff. As well as meeting some great people and having fun talking about Microsoft licensing (as always), I had a "yes - technology rocks!" moment. A “the future is here” moment. An "this is properly cool" moment.

Things today

First of all, anyone who presents regularly - or even once in a while - knows the hassle that cables and connectors bring to your day/life:

• "Have I got my X to Y adapter?"
•  "What about my YY to XX adapter?"
• "Will their cables be long enough? Perhaps I'd better take mine too, just in case?"

Then the frustration when, despite having all the right cables/connectors, things still refuse to work for some reason:

• "Is the display on the right input?"
• "Ah yeah, HDMI never seems to work properly"
• "Oh - you need the remote to do that"

and of course, remembering to take the various components home with you again!

The event

I walked into the room at NHS Wales Tech and had one of the best tech experiences of my life- it was as quick, easy and smooth as a vendor’s demonstration...and that's saying something!

I set my Surface Pro 4 on the table and looked at it to log in – yep, that's right, with Windows Hello I literally just look at it and I'm logged in within a couple of seconds. However, I do that every day so, while cool, it alone isn’t worth writing a LinkedIn article about! What made it such a great session was the real life, full size, plugged in and working 84” Microsoft Surface Hub!!!

“Windows Key + P”

“Connect to wireless display”

“Surface Hub”

Sorted.

My presentation is up on the screen with full touch and pen support. No faffing. No fuss. No short cables making me put my device somewhere awkward. No cables to trip over. Nothing but technology doing exactly what it should do – making the experience easier and better for all involved.

I’m free to move wherever I like. I can use my clicker or, if the mood takes me, I can swipe directly on the screen to advance slides. I can underline. I can circle. When the questions come at the end (as they inevitably do after a licensing session) – we can switch to the whiteboard and multiple people can easily collaborate to draw out their proposed SQL environments for us to peruse, delete, edit and argue over discuss!

The Future

The combination of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Hub was exceptional and impressive. I’d highly recommend some kind of collaboration with Nike, as “Just Do It” seems like a very apt slogan for a fully Windows 10 powered presentation experience.

As with so many things, it’s the ubiquity, and cross platform consistency, of this technology that we’re all waiting for. Knowing that every location you visit will have this seamless presentation setup available AND that it will work regardless of your device would be a massive boon to every trainer, sales person, solutions architect and customer around the world. I realise we’re not there yet but, for an hour or so this week, I had a glimpse of that future…and it was good.