The software we should have used for the conference is called PPV. It’s an old software, only written for single monitors, and is a reasonably lame shell for PowerPoint itself.
What I did was that I wrote a new program, dramatically increasing the capabilities of PPV, which I called OasPresentation. It contained the ability to search for files (by file name only), controlling the presentation through buttons and F11/F12 keys instead of the usual, a chat capability for remote connections, and dual-monitor support. It worked fantastic, but contained a few limitations; for instance, you couldn’t see multiple slides simultaneously. It was necessary to open up the presentation on a secondary laptop to get a good overview.
Now I’m browsing through the OLE Automation API for PowerPoint, and I think I’ll be able to increase the capabilities of my program substantially until the next year. With any luck, I hope to be able to publish it as either open-source or for public binary download, so more people can benefit from it. The advantage to this program (in this particular context) compared to other worship software, is that this still works through PPT files, but uses Automation to enhance the presentation capabilities dramatically.
I don’t have any time-plans for it, but it looks like we’ll be running the Oasis conference next year as well. It’ll be finished well before that.