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Thoughts and impressions of happenings in the world of PowerPoint and presentations, continuously updated since 2003.
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PowerPoint and Presenting Notes
PowerPoint and Presenting Glossary
Rick Altman, a presentation consultant based out of Pleasanton, CA, USA is well known as the host of the annual Presentation Summit and has a strong sense of the needs of the presentation community.
In this conversation, Rick discusses the just concluded Presentation Summit held in San Diego, and the next conference in this series to be held in Austin in September 2011.
Geetesh: Tell us more about the just concluded Presentation Summit.
Rick: In many ways, the Summit was a high-water mark for the conference. It was the first year of its new branding (having spent seven seasons as PowerPoint Live), and while we did not intentionally design our content any different, the event felt “broader” than in previous years. People have always sought more from us than just PowerPoint training, but this year the environment was even more dynamic.
Geetesh: Why do you think that was?
Rick: One reason for sure was our sharply-increased international participation. We had well over twice the number of patrons from countries outside of the United States than we usually attract, with every continent represented except for Antarctica. I don’t think that was a coincidence – if you are about to fly halfway around the world, are you going to do so for “PowerPoint training” or for “presentation skills development”? This might be largely a question of perception, but that perception came into sharp focus this year.
Geetesh: With so many sessions and interactions during the conference, what are the emerging trends that you see within the presentations industry?
Rick: Less is more. Everywhere you turned, you heard presenters espousing the need to hone and distill core messages. We saw Julie Terberg excising unnecessary text in her makeover sessions, I issued the “three-word challenge” during Monday’s general session, and in Tuesday’s keynote, Garr Reynolds extolled the virtues of “being naked.” In these myriad forms, the message became clear: don’t dump fully-composed thoughts on your slides. That’s Death by PowerPoint.
Geetesh: While the expression is well-known, is it just PowerPoint these days?
Rick: Obviously not, and that is certainly another emerging trend. We saw a sharp influx of Mac users this year and people who exhibited at least a passing interest in Keynote. One way or the other, you can expect our coverage of alternative software solutions to increase.
Geetesh: The next Presentation Summit is going to be held in Austin – why did you chose Austin?
Rick: That city has been on my personal radar for over a decade. It is a vibrant, dynamic, progressive city right in the heart of the country. It has wonderful restaurants, more live music than anywhere else in the USA, and great fall weather. So it is no wonder that the entire room let out a collective cheer when we made the announcement.
Geetesh: What can patrons look forward to?
Rick: They can look forward to our continuing to address their current needs while anticipating their future ones. They can expect the absolute highest caliber of talent amassed for those four days. And they can help with the ongoing evolution of one of the greatest communities I have ever been a part of – those who craft and deliver presentation content. Until you have been to the conference, you just can’t imagine the vitality, the energy, the almost intoxicating excitement from over 200 people all coming together to celebrate their common passion. It’s so cool I want to do it all over again next week. But I’ll wait until next September…
You May Also Like: Presentation Summit 2010: Conversation with Rick Altman
The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.
Filed Under:
Events
Tagged as: Interviews, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Live, Presentation Summit
Glenna Shaw is an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for PowerPoint. She works for the US government, and is also very involved with accessibility aspects for PowerPoint. In another avatar, she creates games in PowerPoint. Glenna also runs the PowerPoint Magic site that has plenty of tutorials and downloads.
In this conversation, Glenna discusses the new dynamic content transitions in PowerPoint 2010 (and PowerPoint 2011 for Mac), and how they can be effectively used to add interest.
Filed Under:
Interviews
Tagged as: Interviews, PowerPoint 2010, PowerPoint 2011, Transitions
It’s easy to insert a Flash movie into PowerPoint 2007, and movies inserted using this process should work in PowerPoint 2010 as well. First of all, you need to have the current version of the Flash ActiveX control installed — everything is explained in this tutorial.
Learn how you can insert Flash movies in your PowerPoint 2007 slides.
Filed Under:
PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: PowerPoint 2007, Tutorials
In PowerPoint 2010 for Windows, there are two ways in which you can add a Flash movie to a PowerPoint slide — inserting it as a normal movie through the Insert tab works as long as all recipients of your presentation use PowerPoint 2010. If any of them use PowerPoint 2007 or 2003, you should use the procedure explained on this page.
Learn how you can insert a Flash movie in PowerPoint 2010 for Window susing the Developer tab.
Filed Under:
PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials
David Tyner is director of sales and partner at KinetiCast Inc. His background is in operations and sales. He has been a perennial president’s club performer and writes the KinetiCast sponsored Sales Salve blog.
In this conversation, David discusses how PowerPoint users can benefit from KinetiCast.
Geetesh: Can you tell us more about KinetiCast, and how it is relevant to PowerPoint users?
David: KinetiCast is an online, on-demand multimedia sales presentation tool. It is web based, so there is no software to download or install. These days sales cycles are getting longer and longer as buyers and buying teams have so much at stake and are overwhelmed with information. We base our presentations on PowerPoint. You can upload your PowerPoint into KinetiCast or you can save your PowerPoint as images (PNG’s) and set them as background images. Once your PowerPoint is uploaded, KinetiCast converts it into Flash so your presentation can be emailed as a link and viewed in a web browser. Your presentation can also be enhanced with multimedia elements. With just a couple of clicks, you are able to capture video or audio as well as layer in other multimedia elements. PowerPoint is an amazing way to present information, methodically and effectively. We have even created some PowerPoint templates and offer them for free to our web visitors. However, sending a standalone PowerPoint strips out one of the most important elements – the presenter! We all know, that it is not always possible to be in front of your prospect or customer to present your PowerPoint. Without a presenter there are many problems that may arise. Here is a partial list:
KinetiCast solves these problems and many more. We allow you to send your slides as a link, so you maintain 100% control of the content. KinetiCast has built in email capabilities. You send your presentation via email directly to key decision makers and track the progress. KinetiCast sends you an email notification complete with your recipient’s contact information (including a click to dial ready phone number for smart phone users) as soon as your presentation is viewed. KinetiCast can also integrate with CRM systems such as Salesforce.com.
Geetesh: With so many Web 2.0 sites sprouting up, users get worried if the site they use to share their presentations is going to be there for a long time to come – how do you assure such users and address their concerns?
David: KinetiCast is a rock solid organization serving many top sales organizations in the US. KinetiCast came out of beta in early 2008, and has had a stellar track record winning awards such as Laptop magazines Top 50 Web Tools and being named MSNBC’s Your Business Website of the Week. Just to reiterate, KinetiCast is a sales tool. Your multimedia online PowerPoint presentations are not visible to the world; they are only visible to the people with whom you chose to share or send them. They reside in a domain that we create for you within the KinetiCast cloud. You control the content. You can deactivate your presentation in a number of different ways. You can set your presentation to deactivate after a specific number of views, after a certain date or you can at any time, log into KinetiCast and deactivate the presentation manually.
Geetesh, out of respect to your audience here at Indezine.com I would like to offer KinetiCast for 30 days free to your readers (we normally offer 15 days). If they sign for a year, we will provide them a free custom PowerPoint template.
For customers outside of the US, they must email us at [email protected], US based customers can visit the pricing page at KinetiCast.com to sign up. Be sure to use promo code D9C71 to enable the extended trial of 30 days.
Filed Under:
Interviews
Tagged as: Interviews, Online Presentations, PowerPoint
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