Phones Out, Please: The Second Screen at My Fak'ugesi Talk

People are going to look at their phones during your talk. So give the phone something to do.

At Fak'ugesi on 15 October, the first thing I asked the audience to do was get their phones out.

Deac on stage at Fak'ugesi under pink lights, mic in hand. The big screen shows the opening question, "Have you ever done this?", with a QR code to vote. In the front row, someone is holding a phone.

That phone in the front row? Voting. (Probably.)

So What's the Problem?

One notification and someone's in the group chat, then on Instagram, and they've missed the next ten minutes of your talk.

Asking people to put their phones away doesn't really work. They check them anyway and feel guilty about it.

Give the Phone a Job

My slides weren't PowerPoint. They were a little web app at fakugesi.worldbuild.io. You scan the QR code on the big screen once, and your phone becomes a second screen for the talk.

The vote page at phone size: the talk's title, then the opening question, "Have you ever asked AI how to get rich?", with a Yes button and a No button.

When a slide asks a question, every phone buzzes and the ballot pops up. Tap an answer and the bars on the big screen move while I'm still talking.
One poll, "About AI, I'm… excited or worried?", stayed open for the whole talk, and you could change your vote whenever you liked. The big screen drew the answers as a line over time.
Near the end, a slide put up one dot for every person who voted, grouped by what they love and coloured by how they feel about AI.
On the last slide, each phone showed a nudge built from that person's answer: "Most of this room brings X. Go find one of them." Then a QR code for the WeAReVR WhatsApp group.

It's the same QR code all talk, with nothing to install.

Step chart of the live mood poll at my Fak'ugesi talk on 15 October 2026. Excited climbs to 9 votes in the first minute and ends on 10. Worried reaches 3 in the first minute, goes up to 4 just before minute 5, and drops back to 3 at minute 6.5. No votes changed after that. The mood votes from the talk, redrawn from the app's own log.

Why People Keep Looking Up

The phone only shows things about the talk: the current question and your answer. There's nothing to scroll, and links to other sites only appear on the last slide.

The results, the mood line and the dots are on the big screen. To see them, you look up at the stage.

Did It Work?

Mostly, yes. The opening question was "Have you ever asked AI how to get rich?" Five people said yes and seven said no. I believe about half of them. ;)

When I got to misinformation, someone voted worried, and the line moved on screen while I was still on that slide.

The last poll asked what people love. Art came top with five votes, and nobody picked justice, dignity and cooperation. So I pointed at the empty bar: that's the gap, and if that's you, we need you.

The "This is us" slide, re-run with the final votes. One dot per person, grouped by what they love: art, storytelling and culture 5, exploration, tech and innovation 1, building, deals and organising 1, justice, dignity and cooperation 0, and 7 didn't say. Beside it, a QR code for the WE ARE VR WhatsApp community and the mood poll at 77% excited, 23% worried.

NB: It was a small audience, about a dozen voters. And never trust venue Wi-Fi. I had a PDF of the slides on standby in case the app went down.

If You Want to Try It

Only ask questions you'll talk about on stage straight away.
Put the results on the big screen, so people look up.
Keep one QR code for the whole talk, so late arrivals can still join.
Save links to other sites for the last slide.
Have a backup that doesn't need Wi-Fi.

If you're giving a talk or running a meetup and want to try something like this, get in touch. Or come to a WeAReVR meetup in Joburg and we'll nerd out about it.

Related: An Optimist's Guide to the Singularity (the talk itself), Glass Angels at Fak'ugesi 2026.

Virtually yours, Deac