I've spent a lot of time watching presentations. I've also spent a lot of time giving presentations as well. I think there are several key components to delivering a good presentation. Prezie helps make 2 of these components easier (BTW - I'm still working on what makes a good blog post!). The 2 areas I want to focus on are: - An engaging visual display - Know your subject A recent Ted talk discusses how the brain makes meaning and I think the key to a presentation lies in the key lessons mentioned here. After all, if you can get your audience to truly understand the pitch you will get a lot more from your time. If they aren't interested it will be because you are in the wrong place or you have a weak product. If they are interested you can move them down the sales funnel. Either way, you will get more signals from a successful presentation.
Lets me show you what I am talking about. This is a prezi:
I've been a big believer in the 10/20/30 rule promoted by Guy Kawasaki for some time and I think that principle can be applied when using prezi. I've also been a fan of the "Who is the dick on my site" presentation style by Dick Hardt. Writing a good prezie will force you to re-examine how you want to organise your thoughts and point of view. I like to think that I can show both the micro and macro view of a subject using prezi and by doing so I am forced to look at priorities in a different way. The non linear zoom allows you to present context. I have found some people can get a but woozy if you change the viewing axis too often but the vast majority of responses to the presentations are very positive. The big problem for this tool is that companies are wedded to Powerpoint though so its going to be an interesting journey for this company. Here are a few of my efforts: Work flow for a charity campaign
Digital strategy for a charity
What I can't do with a prezie:
- Add a lot of video - the file limit is 100mb
- Add a wide variety of standard objects - limited to box, bracket, circle
- Vary the style of connector objects such as arrows or lines
- Get the image quality to be high enough
- Copy the format of an existing object
- Get prezie stable using Google Chrome
- Get prezie to display text the right way round on the strategy presentation above!
Looking through the help it looks like there are a number of tips and tricks I can try so I'll let you know how it goes. My next goal is to make a video presentation (without paying!!) using prezie but that is for another blog post. Keep it up Prezie - you are doing a great job and I believe you have a great product. Microsoft has once again proven too slow to innovate.
