This quick tip came about in a training session I did this week, and I think is a great way to win over those in your organisation that might try to block Prezi and keep PowerPoint – We’ll call them Old Fuddy Duddies in this blog so you know who I mean
So this week I delivered an Intro to Prezi session to a big group that (like all companies) have used Ppt for ever and have lots of presentations stored away on file.
Within the first hour everyone was excited about using Prezi in the business, but they were very quick to point out that not everyone in the business will be so enthusiastic because:
They dont have time to learn it
They Aren’t of the right mindset to use Prezi i.e. non-linear
They know Ppt really well
THEY HATE CHANGE!
And so the session became very focused on one key question….
How will we successfully bring Prezi into the business and win the minds of our colleagues?
Being real
Even I at times am forced to become a realist and think about those stone cold facts of life that try and stop progression. I’ve worked for large companies myself and fully appreciate that something like Prezi would take a long time to fully replace PowerPoint, and maybe it would never replace it fully but just become a nice addition to how presentations are built within the company.
I’m sure we’d love to sweep Ppt to one side and just role out Prezi across all departments but this is business, and we have to be real honest with ourselves and admit that this probably isnt going to happen. At least not overnight.
So this led us in the Prezi training session to a new question….
How can we slowly introduce Prezi to the company without scaring the life out of those old fuddy duddies?
The answer
What we came up with was a great way to get Prezi in front of people without them knowing it’s not PowerPoint. At least until you start to zoom and use subtle features of Prezi to blow the fuddy duddies socks right off!!!
Hopefully then they’ll start asking how the hell did you do that?, and can you show me?
Step 1
Open PowerPoint and create blank slides that use all of your different company templates.
Don’t add any text at all to the slides.
Leave them completely blank.
Step 2
Save the PowerPoint file as a PDF document by going to FILE>SAVE AS and selecting .pdf from the file types menu.
Step 3
Close PowerPoint and open Prezi.
Go to INSERT>IMAGE and select the PDF file you made in step 2.
Prezi will import all of the blank template slides.
Can you see where I’m going with this yet?
Step 4
Use the blank slides as background layers and place all of your presentations content on top of them.
Add your text and images just as you would in PowerPoint and build the basics of your presentation in the normal linear (slide by slide) fashion.
Link all of the slides together with a path so that when presented it still looks like it was made in PowerPoint.
Step 5 (Prezify it)
On each slide there are bound to be details that you don’t have room for but would like to explain to your audience.
Use this opportunity to zoom into the slides and use some of the nice Prezi features to grab peoples attention. You could insert a YouTube clip hidden inside some text, or use imagery to explain one of the points on your slide.
Whatever you decide to do I’d suggest keeping it simple so that your not spinning and zooming all over the place.
Step 6
Once you’ve seen the old fuddy duddies eyes light up go back to the view with your whole slide and move to the next slide.
The objective
What you’re trying to do here is make your audience believe they are still looking at boring old Ppt slides, engage them in the conversation of your presentation, and then subtly give them a taste of Prezi to grab their attention.
You dont have to Prezify every slide like in step 5 but try and zoom in on something every now and then to explain points in greater detail.
The main objective is to get people (sorry I mean fuddy duddies) approaching you after your presentation asking the following questions….
How did you create that zoom effect?
Can you show me how to do that?
I have a presentation I’m giving soon and I’d love your help to create something as eye catching as yours
This slow and painless introduction to Prezi might get the buy in you need to start conversations about how to roll it out to the wider organisation.
Will it work?
I only came across this technique a few days ago so I’d love to hear back from anyone who tries it in their business, and any other techniques people might have to win the minds of those pesky fuddy duddies.
Let me know how you get on.
The Prezenter
