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By Russell Anderson-Williams (aka The Prezenter) Official Independent Expert
A guide to what Prezi is really all about, and the impact it can have on your presentations.
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As official independent Prezi experts we spend a lot of time meeting business people that want to improve the quality of their presentations. Even though at the time of writing this document Prezi has well over 26 Million users, it is still a real unknown for many. It’s still amazing for us to find people who have never even heard of Prezi, and of course very satisfying when we completely blow their minds with what’s possible. There are also a huge number of people who have never used Prezi but have maybe seen it being used at an event and then quickly checked it out online at www.prezi.com for five minutes. It’s this second group of people who usually say things like:
It’s just a wizzier version of PowerPoint Everything’s animated and moves around which looks great It looks so much better than the slides I’ve used for years You can zoom in on things It’s like a giant mind-map And so on, and so on....
Of course all of the above is correct, although we could go into lots more detail on each point and be more precise about the explanations being given. Regardless of the fine details though these are the things we hear most. But there’s one key point that we find literally everyone is missing! What? What is it?....I hear you scream. Well the next page explains what Prezi is REALLY all about, and why you should start using it to improve your presentations.
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A lot of these very smart business people we meet always like to put us on the spot and ask ‘So tell us why we should use Prezi?’ Our response is always.....Because it not only gives you better looking presentations. It gives you a whole new way to present! Of course that leads to them then asking ‘What do you mean by a new way to present?’
In Prezi there are no slides (oooh scary!) but instead there’s a giant canvas for you to spread the content of your presentation out onto. Because of this it’s possible to deliver a presentation in a non-linear way i.e. with no start or end point. THE most powerful thing you can do when presenting with Prezi is ask your audience a simple question ‘What would you like to talk about first?’ Just uttering those simple words at the start of your presentation will get people sitting up straight in their seats and thinking ‘Oh wow this is different’. And that’s before you’ve even started to show them anything in your presentation! Once you have their attention and they tell you what’s the most important thing to them right now this is where the fun starts and you can manually click to zoom into the area of interest. Once you are in that area you can continue to freestyle around and click on relevant bits of content, or you can pick up a linear path and present that area.
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Then move back to the overview (or what we call the BIG picture) and ask the question again ‘What would you like to talk about now?’
We probably don’t even need to write this section but just in case you haven’t realised the benefits of presenting in this way here goes: Save time for you and them by only talking about areas of interest Engage the audience from the start by asking them to decide where we go first and what to talk about Everyone has a more natural and meaningful conversation Enable your audience to remember more because they decide the direction and route you take Demonstrate that you are innovative and not a slide monkey churning out Death by PowerPoint! We are sure there is even more benefits that you will come up with yourself, but without a doubt this is what Prezi is really all about. Prezi enables you to present in an engaging, memorable, and natural way
The Prezenter team runs a wide range of Prezi training for all skill levels, and for people across the globe. If you really want to embrace the true power of Prezi then get in touch with us today by emailing info@theprezenter.com or check out our online Prezi training programs at www.theprezenter.com
Is it time for you to ditch the slides? We think so
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