Prezi- the end of death by PowerPoint?
As many of you will know I have never been one to be on the bleeding edge of new technology. I tend to pick up things which have been around for a year or so when they are more mainstream and this is probably the case with Prezi. A few weeks ago I was in a meeting when I saw Prezi for the first time and it certainly caught my eye. Prezi is a reaction to the dullness of presentations such as those labelled ‘death by powerpoint’. It has zoomable functionality which allows the presenter to show the big picture and also zoom into detail. A video explaining Prezi in greater detail can be viewed below.
I found this video in itself a bit dull as a form of presentation! I had a look around at examples of actual presentations using Prezi and the one below is probably a good example in showing some of the functionality that comes with the web based software.
Prezi Tips and Tricks on Prezi
Does Prezi mean the end of ‘death by PowerPoint?’
In short my view is no. I think Prezi has the potential to be another good presentation medium which can be engaging in the hands of a skilled presenter who has created a stimulating presentation. In itself I have seen some excellent presentations using PowerPoint and they all have something in common. They are carefully put together, predominantly image and video based over text and are used by a skilled presenter. With the arrival of Office 2010 PowerPoint has made a big step forward with tools which will engage the viewer if well used. Prezi genuinely offers something different in the ability to link overview and detail as well as the spontaneity to quickly skip around a presentation or presentations. At the same time although the technology caught my eye when I saw Prezi the actual presentation was dire and confusing. I feel sure it will be just as easy to suffer a deadly Prezi as it is to be killed by PowerPoint.
I agree that Prezi is not the solution but that is because the tool is not the main thing (Keynote and PowerPoint 2010 included) but the human behind it. Some of the best presentations I have seen consisted of nothing more than pictures and that was because the presenter had really thought about it..
Checkout pptPlex from officelabs for similar presentation techniques.
http://www.officelabs.com/pptplex
Control with multi-touch or a Wii.