So far in these Prezi tips I’ve talked about the importance of planning, and getting your materials ready before you touch the Prezi software. Well now the time has come… yes I’m finally going to say do it; fire up Prezi desktop if you have it or go to www.prezi.com to use the online version and lets get cracking.
Now I want you to think about the last advert, presentation, movie trailer you saw that instantly grabbed your attention. I’m guessing that you were hooked right from the start, or at least a few seconds in. Ask yourself why? Sure in some cases you may have liked the product already, but what if you were sucked in by something that just isn’t relevant to you at all. Why did that particular presentation grab your attention and make you sit up?
Well it was probably a combination of two things; Graphics and Words. When these two things are used well together they can be very eye catching. Marketing people and advertising execs are masters at grabbing our attention because they have to be to sell their product. They have to fight for our interest amongst millions of other products and cheesy ad campaigns. the same goes for movie trailers, and the same should apply for your Prezi design. You want people to be instantly engaged with your Prezi whether you are presenting it to a room of people, or your Prezi is just online for people to click through. I’m talking about the hook, and here’s the best way I’ve found to get your audience to take the bate.
Graphic Synchronisation
I love this term, although I have to admit I didn’t create it. Roger Courvelle from the 1080 group talks about this a lot in his book ‘The Virtual Presenters Handbook’. Roger makes a great case for why we need to engage our audiences with the use of graphics and words working together to create ‘the hook’.
Graphic synchronisation is incredibly important and easily achievable if you are presenting to a group yourself. The best way I’ve found to create this is to have my words (script) written out before I design my Prezi. If you’ve followed steps 1 and 2 already then you should have all your materials ready to go, so hopefully a complete script is included in those materials.
Prezi Rock Star
Prezi users are in a very fortunate position right now because the chances are your audience wont have seen Prezi yet. This is great because it means whilst they sit there thinking ‘oh here comes another boring PowerPoint’ you can instantly zoo into something or rotate things around to get their attention. I’m sure one day people will be used to seeing Prezi but for now I just cant get bored of the ‘wooooooo’ sound that people make when I instantly grab their attention with some well planned and executed graphic synchronisation.
This is why I’m so passionate about Prezi right now; because as teachers, trainers, presenters our job is to engage and educate, and you cant educate effectivelyuntil youve engaged your audience. Sure you can stand on a chair and cluck like a chicken to get peoples attention but then you’ll be remembered as the crazy chicken man who taught us XYZ and not the very professional and innovative presenter who used that amazing zoomy thing, it was great!
Prezi really can make you a rock star while you present so get using it NOW!
Hook Line and Sinker
So I couldn’t write about creating a hook without showing you one. Below is the beggining of a Prezi I made for a client recently. To show you how it uses graphic synchronisation for a hook I’ve added the words that the prezenter would use in bright red onto the Prezi. These obviously wouldnt appear in the real thing but I want to show you a good example of a hook. I hope you like it….
The Hook on Prezi
So make sure that creating a good hook is part of your Prezi planning, and if your giving a long presentation over a day or two then you might want to master the art of creating lots of little hooks to keep people engaged!
The tip of the ice berg
I really hope your enjoying these tips. I have no idea how many more will come yet because this is as much about exploration for me as it is for you. Please keep in touch and keep those questions and feedback coming in.
Happy zooming (and hooking!)
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