Creating the perfect experience is the key
One thing I have noticed in both academic and corporate worlds is that a good presentation can work wonders. I have seen (and regretfully been part of) a few presentations that were lauded because of the technical level of the presentation, the skill of connecting with the audience and simply telling a story, without, however, much substance to back up such a display. The presentation is essentially advertisement for an idea.
As part of a public relations firm, we are constantly trying to create presentations for conferences and new business pitches. However the technology available is not yet what it could be. Let me explain some of the changes I would like to see in the next generation of the presentation standard—PowerPoint.
Currently for conferences, video data must be sent to creative and production firms in order to overlay text into a video format. Thins then plays on a continuous loop and must be timed exactly with the presentation. However, this would not be a problem if PowerPoint could display text over a running movie clip or animation. Then dynamic background could be incorporated and used in a presentation that acts like a movie but is used like a standard deck.
As exciting as this would be, it would move PowerPoint into the position of being the foremost teaching, presenting and media management tool available. If you could edit movies and clips together in PowerPoint, it is conceivable that standard editing software would no longer be necessary. The benefit would be enormous if PowerPoint only had this one additional capability.
Soon, we will see programs that make this process easy. Hopefully then, the battlefield will be normalized and presentations will then be judged by its content rather than by its bells and whistles. But for now, on with the noise.
One thing I have noticed in both academic and corporate worlds is that a good presentation can work wonders. I have seen (and regretfully been part of) a few presentations that were lauded because of the technical level of the presentation, the skill of connecting with the audience and simply telling a story, without, however, much substance to back up such a display. The presentation is essentially advertisement for an idea.
As part of a public relations firm, we are constantly trying to create presentations for conferences and new business pitches. However the technology available is not yet what it could be. Let me explain some of the changes I would like to see in the next generation of the presentation standard—PowerPoint.
Currently for conferences, video data must be sent to creative and production firms in order to overlay text into a video format. Thins then plays on a continuous loop and must be timed exactly with the presentation. However, this would not be a problem if PowerPoint could display text over a running movie clip or animation. Then dynamic background could be incorporated and used in a presentation that acts like a movie but is used like a standard deck.
As exciting as this would be, it would move PowerPoint into the position of being the foremost teaching, presenting and media management tool available. If you could edit movies and clips together in PowerPoint, it is conceivable that standard editing software would no longer be necessary. The benefit would be enormous if PowerPoint only had this one additional capability.
Soon, we will see programs that make this process easy. Hopefully then, the battlefield will be normalized and presentations will then be judged by its content rather than by its bells and whistles. But for now, on with the noise.
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