Note: This is part of a 3-Post series on the tools I used to create one of my best presentations ever. Check out the Design Tools and the Closed Captioning as well.

The American Society of Association Executives is the association of associations… in other words, the people who attend this event are the people who hire people like me! So every year when I attend, I try to up my game in terms of content, graphics, activities and more. This year I created a program called “From Hurricanes to Heart Attacks: Apps for Emergencies,” and, well, I think I outdid myself, if I may brag a little.

I promised attendees a “Breakout Breakdown”… an analysis of all the tools I used. This one is about the video tools.

Zoom to Capture Interviews

I wanted real stories in the presentation, so I interviewed about a dozen people about emergency situations they had faced. Zoom is an HD-video conferencing tool that I adore. I use the pro version, which is about a hundred dollars a year, but the free version would have worked just fine. With the free version, you can have video conferences with up to 100 people for up to 40 minutes. I hit the record button and interviewed the people.

Pros: Easy, fast, effective. Everyone was able to download Zoom quickly and connected with no issues.

Cons: The recordings were great but the audio was not 100% synced with the lips, which annoyed me. Not sure if the error happened in the additional processing, but it was definitely there.

Ditty to Own Up to the Fact that the Audio Wasn’t Synced

I wanted to let people know that I knew that the audio wasn’t perfect, so instead of just saying it, I used Ditty to create funny little video. You just write a sentence, pick a song, press a button.

Pros: Ditty takes minutes (seconds?) to use, and then you can share your video anywhere. I make them minutes before a session.

Cons: Well, guys, if you are using them in sessions like I am, you’re probably stepping on someone’s copyright. So… yeah. Be careful and respectful. Oh, and you have to pay a buck each for most of the good songs. I bought the whole Star Wars package. 🙂

Reevio for Section Headings

Instead of just putting words on a slide to announce a new topic, I wanted to do something special. So I used the Reevio tool to create little videos. Reevio’s strength is making little videos to share on social media, and it’s fairly easy to use to jazz up your plain, old logo or message.

I also did this one with my logo:

Pros: I made a half dozen section headings, and they look completely awesome.

Cons: Jeeze, folks, Reevio is quirky. They are promising a big upgrade, but right now I find the templates challenging to use.

• You can’t see a preview of the photos and text you upload, so you have to submit everything to process before you can see what it will look like.
• The longer videos are especially hard to make because they involve “scenes” that you have to add one by one. I never really know what to do, so I stick with the short ones that just add a logo and words.
• Sometimes you get an error when you hit submit, and it’s very challenging to figure out what you did wrong.
• Uploading photos and videos is a pain, and sometimes there are requirements for size, etc., that you don’t know until you get to the place to upload.

Fiverr for One Section Heading

I had a vision for one section, and I couldn’t find a great template to do it myself. So I quickly found someone on Fiverr who did exactly what I wanted.

I know, right? Loved this one!

Pros: So easy to find a Fiverr artist who did this in a day. And it was only five bucks!

Cons: None! I’d pay five bucks any day to create something that met my needs like this.