Presenting Multipul Shows

Question

Hello,
I have an event night the requires me to play multiple shows. Not at the same time but I need the shows to change over pretty seamlessly.
Example:
Main show is running, but need to switch to the Live Auction slides. Live auction is over need to switch back.
I've been doing this for a few years now in PowerPoint, thanks to a little ShowPoint add-on I found on the net. Basically plays the last show saved and I can save that show to call it up on another networked computer.
The reason I'm considering Keynotes now is because the effort to run my graphic heavy shows has PowerPoint sputtering and taking a considerable amount of time to boot up my big main show. I think keynotes would handle it better since I wouldn't have to put in all the heavy graphics I do to make PowerPoint look good.
Example:
Keynotes handles soft drop shadows brilliantly, if I want them in PowerPoint I need to bring in an image. That I would have first needed to have put together then exported from Adobe Illustrator.
I'm also hoping that keynote will handle video files better. PowerPoint often loses its file connection, which could be a disaster.
If you know of any add-ons or if Keynotes already has this ability or if you can think of another program, I would be greatly appreciative. This is a charity event and I really want it to be the best!
Thanks for your help!!!
PS I know keynote’s is only mac based. I’m currently using a PC but that could change if keynotes is the star I’m looking for!

Answer 1

Thank you so much for your imput, hopefully I can provide you with a detailed enough run down.
Each year my company holds an annual golf tournament in support for local children’s charities. It’s a one day event with the golfers out on the course all day and inside for dinner and other exciting events in the banquet room. Our banquet room is equipped with 4 large projection screens that we have playing through all of our sponsors, silent and live auction items, mulligan and raffle prizes, committee members and event volunteers and a couple hundred pictures that where taken throughout the day.
This has left us with one very large Microsoft PowerPoint show; approximately 180 MB (around 400 slides). This year will no doughty be even larger as we are planning on putting mini movie clips of our golfers playing in the show too. We use 2 computers, one to build and update shows and one to just play them but even with that last year we had problems with launching the shows. Throughout the night we often need to switch (at a moments notice) to smaller more controlled shows, like for our live auction where the displays need to show slides only for that one item and then advance to the next item only when the presenter person is ready. The main show took about 5 minutes to launch back up again each time it was necessary to play it.
Outline of what we are hoping to gain:
- We have multiple shows that need to run smoothly.
- They need to run/ launch as seamlessly as possible.
- They need to be controlled by a single user.
- This single user needs to be able to switch shows on a non-time based clock. Example: Moving to the next live auction item slide set.
- It would be very nice if slide shows could be updated without stopping the show.
- shows needs to be very hardy and able to handle heavy graphic shows.
- The ability to launch the shows from another computer would be great. I'm not sure how else I would launch a show while another show is playing.
I look forward to hearing back from you and learning more about keynotes. Our event is very special to us and we want it to look great and exceed expectations!