At the Reputation Institute Conference in Rio de Janeiro, there has been extensive amount of discussion on the latest forms of technology and implications that social media has on the business and reputation management professions.  One thing that I noticed at the conference is that everyone was very interested in the iPad, and it was amazing to see that there were only three people at the conference of 350 that had one:  Kristin, Guy, and myself.  There are many ways that the iPad is very useful to have at conferences and help in conducting a presentation.  Based on my experience both as a conference participant and presenter, I wanted to share with you some of the ways that I have used my iPad at the Reputation Institute Conference:

Updating Twitter status and using hashtags: By using Tweetdeck, I was able to update my Twitter status and see who else was talking about the Reputation Institute.  The hashtag that was used for the online discussion on Twitter was #ririo, and there were many people at the conference that were sharing their thoughts and opinions regarding the conference with the online community.

Checking in with Gowalla: By checking in at our hotel, we could share with our friends on Gowalla that we were at the Reputation Institute in Rio de Janeiro – just another way of promoting the conference and sharing with others where we were.

Getting connected via Skype, Contacts, and Facebook:  By using these applications, you can get the contact information from other conference presenters for possible future research projects and activities.  Business cards are still very important – but it is also good to have these applications as well for your iPad.

Taking notes from plenary and breakout sessions: By using the Notes application, Kristin and I were able to use this to take notes from the speakers and others presenting at the conference.  We emailed each other our notes so we had these on record.

Have papers and presentations in Pages and Keynote: During my round table presentations, I made handouts to be passed out for the audience, but I also had my papers on hand in the Pages application so I could go over in more detail what I was going to state in my presentation.  I also created a Keynote presentation to give the audience a visual presentation on my papers.  These are great ways to use the iPad during a conference!

These are just some of the ways that researchers and academic professionals can really utilize the iPad into their conference presentations and activities.  I have really enjoyed using the iPad at the Reputation Institute Conference, and it has definitely been something that people want to stop you and talk to you about.  In other words, in my opinion – the iPad is a necessity for the research professional of 2010 and beyond! 🙂

Hope you all are having a great day!

Best Wishes,

Karen