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August 27, 2012Will Prezi overthrow PowerPoint as the King of the conference presentation? Online buzz says Prezi is hot and PowerPoint is tired.
But a recent survey among meeting and event planners tells a different story. In fact, these industry experts said PowerPoint was a MORE satisfying presentation software to work with. Importantly, there were 10 times as many event planners who expressed an opinion on PowerPoint versus Prezi – another indication of its dominance.
What’s missing from this is research with PRESENTERS and AUDIENCES. Does anyone know if this exists?
I personally see value in Prezi for some types of presentations where the goal is to wow the audience, or for educators who practice whole-part-whole learning. But I don’t see Prezi as a PowerPoint killer for most business presentations which need to be shared internally, or printed and read as handouts. More likely, Microsoft will add zooming and panning features to PowerPoint and close the gap.
About the author: Bruce Gabrielle is author of Speaking PowerPoint: the New Language of Business, showing a 12-step method for creating clearer and more persuasive PowerPoint slides for boardroom presentations. Subscribe to this blog or join my LinkedIn group to get new posts sent to your inbox.
2 Comments
Prezi is an interesting application and kind of fun, but I don’t see it as a PowerPoint killer. It has its advantages for interactive, non-linear presentations that make use of a large interactive digital white board format, but for most of our corporate clients the user interface for producing and presenting is just not as easy as PowerPoint (or more important – familiar). The most attractive attribute of Prezi seems to be the ability to zoom in and zoom out, but after a while this zooming effect is over used can make the audience dizzy and distracted. To make the best use of the non-linear fashion that the application is best used for, takes a lot of practice and extreme content knowledge. I would suspect most presentations are best presented in a linear story. In the end it depends on the content and your objectives of the presentation. On a final note, I read that the new PowerPoint 2013 does have a “Zooom in and Zoom out” capability – maybe a “Prezi killer”?
I completely agree with Marshall – Prezi is a fun little application that makes for a refreshing change from the “typical” PowerPoint decks out in the corporate world.
BUT the interest wanes quickly…and the more you use it, the more you realise that it really is a one-trick pony – the zoom and pan animations.
As for interactivity? It’s plain awful…and comes nowhere near the advantages PowerPoint custom shows can bring a presenter.
Ultimately Bruce asks the most pertinent question of all – what do audiences think of Prezi? I’d also add another question – are audiences retaining more information or better engaging with their presenter as a result?
We recently recorded a short podcast talking through the positives and negatives of Prezi – to hear more on this subject, click here: http://blog.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/2012/02/06/prezi-part-2-%e2%80%93-the-experts-opinion/