Don’t get hot and bothered by the title; this is not a post about pornography on the iPad, although I do know that Playboy is today unveiling a website formatted for the iPad (i,playboy.com) that gives you access to every page of every edition of the magazine ever published for $8 a month (or less if you start a yearly subscription). Instead, this post is about using the iPad in business meetings.
Like all of you, I have attended countless meetings, conferences, seminars etc. over the years, and seeing laptops at these meetings has been a very familiar sight. However, since Spring of 2010, and especially in the last few months, I have seen an increasing number of attorneys using iPads at these meetings, leaving the laptop at the office. An obvious advantage is that the iPad is so much smaller and lighter than a laptop, making it perfect for travel. Also, the iPad gets much better battery life than a laptop; you can probably attend an all-day meeting without needing to even plug in your iPad to a power outlet. But in many ways the biggest advantages of using an iPad at a meeting are privacy and intimacy.
Privacy. One problem with using a laptop in a meeting or other larger gathering is that if there is anyone sitting behind you, they can easily see your screen. This gives rise to serious confidentiality concerns if you are exposing privileged attorney-client communications to others, but even if you are just typing notes during the meeting, there is something unsettling about others seeing your work. When you are writing notes on a legal pad, you can tell if someone is close enough to stare at your notes. With a laptop, you never know when it is happening, which leads me to assume that it is always happening. I realize that you can use a privacy filter on your screen to reduce this risk, but I don’t like how they make the screen darker, and I see very few people use those at meetings.
With an iPad, on the other hand, you are likely to have it flat on a table or perhaps propped up at a very slight angle using an iPad case or (for the iPad 2) the Apple Smart Cover. In this arrangement, it is possible for someone to see what is on your screen if they are at the correct angle, but it is much harder to do. You can take notes on your iPad using the on-screen keyboard, an external Bluetooth keyboard, or using a stylus and an app that lets you draw on the screen without having to worry so much about privacy.
Intimacy. Another advantage of using the iPad either flat on a desk or propped up at a slight angle is that it is not a barrier between you and whoever is in front of you. Even if there is nobody behind you and thus no privacy concern, you will obviously be talking or listening to someone in a meeting. With a laptop in front of you, there is a barrier between you and the other person. It is not a big barrier, but much like the old Battleship game that you played as a child, it is enough to give the impression that you have something that you are not showing the other person.
When you use an iPad, you have a more intimate connection to others in the room because that barrier is gone. Others are unlikely to be able to see what is on your iPad screen unless they are close and at the correct angle, but even if they are not seeing what is on your screen, the absence of a barrier provides you with more of a connection with the others in the room.
I’ve mentioned some of these advantages in the past in the context of using an iPad in court, but if your law practice is like mine, you find yourself in meetings with others far more often than you find yourself in court. Using an iPad gives you most of the advantages of having access to a laptop without the compromise of privacy and the barrier to intimacy.