Looking for a way to stand out from your competition in your next sales presentation? Want to dazzle your boss with your innovative approach to business. You might want to consider the web tool that I am reviewing today.
This is not a criticism of PowerPoint, it’s overuse, bad techniques or the many other complaints about the primary presentation tool of a generation. It is however a review of a web tool that changes the experience and possibly the results for both presenter and the audience.
PowerPoint is very linear in it’s approach, generally structured in an outline format. I have used it to capture ideas in a brainstorming session, but something was missing. It was not able to capture the free flowing ideas, links, graphics, photos and video ideas without forcing me back into a structured slide by slide format. I use mind-mapping software ( MindJet) but find it too cumbersome unless I am using it all the time. If you are collaborating on a presentation with a group, the limitations are amplified even further.
Enter Prezi, with an approach that works more like my mind does when putting my ideas for a presentation together. Prezi is web-based presentation software (desktop available with Pro version) that abandons the Slide format of PowerPoint and others in favor of one huge whiteboard in which you can put anything you would like to share with your audience. As presenter, you move around the whiteboard either in a pre-determined presentation “flow” or free form, going where ever the conversation is going at that point in time. Using the simple editor, you place your desired text, images, video, Flash files on the whiteboard, and draw lines to show relationships between each item. When you are finished you have a visual map that lets presenters and users alike zoom in and out and navigate to content in a clickable environment. Much more intuitive once you understand the environment.
Here is a brief tutorial of Prezi basics:
A few days ago, Prezi announced a valuable enhancement to the Prezi solution, Prezi Meeting. Prezi Meeting allows up to ten users to collaborate in real-time, whether in the same room or in separate locations. So now you can leverage the brainstorming benefits, live with others to capture the best ideas from everyone.
Here is a short, one minute demo of how Prezi meeting works:
Prezi Meeting is available for free to all Prezi users, but for private presentations and access to Prezi Desktop, users have to pay a monthly fee.
As for Prezi licensing levels in general, they offer a free version which is very effective, and additional options which add additional features as indicated here:
If you make presentations, you’ve got to give Prezi a try. Watch the helpful tutorial videos ( 3 and they are short) and build your next presentation in Prezi. When you have it finished, leave us all a link to see your handiwork.
