Powerpoint has been dominating the presentation sphere ever since real slides went out of fashion. It’s a great tool, easy to use, and part of the Office suite. So basically, it’s the mainstream go-to presentation application.

In the past two years, though, I have noticed more and more speakers using Prezi for their presentation. As one panelist once told me, “it’s like Powerpoint, but on steroids!”. I actually used Prezi for a keynote I gave in November, and it really wowed the audience – OK, it wasn’t just the presentation but also its content too

What’s your take, Powerpoint or Prezi? Which do you prefer and why? Any other hidden gem out there we should be aware of that is even better than these two?

Thank you for this topic Frederic  @fredericgonzalo   I have had success with PP and have very good templates to work with. I use them for speaking, webinars and teleseminars. Since I have a team that helps me create them, I will admit, they do rock. We also use Camtasia to bring them together. 

 But…I am always looking for more effective ways to communicate with my audience.  I had not heard of Prezi until today,  and now will look at that after your rave review and Rory’s. @roryramsden  Thank you for sharing this information!  

@randithompson , @Frederic Gonzalo The key goal is to keep your audience engaged when you are presenting. Having a dynamic screen using Prezi resets people’s attention very minute or so. You can do this with PP too and of course Keynote but Prezi offers more… We usually give people a flash drive to take away… A small price to pay

@joanmuschampfagnani You coined it perfectly: old habits die hard. I also resisted moving to Prezi for a year or so, but now that I have worked with it, I have every intention to use it more often.

Indeed, you raise an excellent point, that PP is shareable via Slideshare, which many people are familiar with as well.

In any case, both have their pros and cons, it’s always a matter of how a presenter uses them. Still, Prezi has an edge, like @roryramsden mentioned, in that it’s a sure way to keep your audience engaged and hooked.

@phil-mershon Absolutely agree! Not sure who once said this, but a powerpoint presentation (or any presentation given by a speaker) should never be as good by itself, i.e. reading the deck of slides, as when given by the speaker. In other words, in a Prezi just like a PP (or any presentation software), keep words to a minimum, emphasize on images and/or videos to keep audience engaged.

Reminds me of the 10-20-30 rule, by Guy Kawasaki. Ever heard of it? A presentation should have no more than 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and use 30pts font size for easy reading.

More on this here: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html#axzz1jHb3bKXm

@rich-brooks I am not familiar with Keynotes, will look into it. Thanks for the feedback!

@fredericgonzalo– Keynote is similiar to Powerpoint for a Mac.

@danhoward @rich-brooks Great, many thanks for the info. Wasn’t familiar with Keynote, but I just watched the tutorial and it seems like a must, now that I am on a Mac.

Still, I will keep putting efforts into Prezi, as I believe it holds even greater potential to WOW audiences. At the end of the day, though, as was mentioned by many on this thread, it’s all about the presenter, rather than the tools. Or rather, both should complement for a powerful delivery.

Cheers,

@warrenveach Hello Warren. Actually, I’ve used Prezi (free version), and worked great, and no logos of Prezi on the presentation per se – they don’t have “slides”. However, I am considering going with the 59$ option, giving more freedom and possibility to download and work from desktop, i.e. offline.

But you’re right, cost is something to consider. Keynotes is also priced, at 19.99$ according to iTunes app store. These are small costs, though, in the big scheme of things, I find…

Cheers,

@rich-brooks haha…I know, I know I need to make the switch to a Mac!

@fredericgonzalo

Wow! That is slick!

I’m going to have to try that.

I did see the Prezi logo when the presentation first appeared, but it went away as soon as the presentation loaded, so I don’t think anyone would ever notice.

I saw it probably because I was looking for it.