It’s every presenters worst nightmare – brain freeze! All of a sudden it all just seems to have gone. Your brain is empty and you can’t access your memory anymore – as if someone had just pulled the plug out!
This is exactly what happened to Hollywood director Michael Bay (Transformers etc.) at the Samsung press conference at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. In this case though, the director froze because of a broken teleprompter, which is where he was reading his lines from.
Here is the video of him:
Even though just watching it almost makes you want the ground to swallow you up, you still have to ask “what can we learn from it?” You should always learn something from any defeat!
1. NEVER rely on technology!
There are many technical possibilities – Powerpoint, Prezi, videos, animations, multimedia installations, audio effects etc. that can strengthen a presentation. Tools such as teleprompters can also help you keep an eye on the content of your presentation.
BUT, NONE of these tools should ever take priority. YOU are the presentation and it’s because of you and your speech that the people are sitting in the audience. The audience want to hear from you, what you have to say on the matter; they want to listen to your experiences and then afterwards, ask you questions. People don’t want a ‘robot who reads off a pre-written text from a screen.’
This is why you should NEVER – and I mean ‘NEVER’ – depend on technology.
If any kind of technical aid stops working during your speech, you need to have your presentation, your story, so fixed in your mind that you can continue without technology. Because YOU are the presentation, not the technology. The technology can and must only be a supporting measure.
To achieve this you need to ensure the structure of your topic and content is fixed in your mind. This again requires good preparation and practice, practice, practice!
2. Practice, practice, practice – YOU are the presentation!
Everyone’s been there, you have a presentation the next day and are still cobbling something together quickly the day before! Although this works in many cases, everyone still knows it’s not ideal. And because of this, people often feel more nervous before an appearance, just because they know they are ill prepared.
Tests are no different either, the less you have learned, the more nervous you feel. The same principle applies to the presentation situation and to the stage fright associated with this.
This is why the best measure against stage fright is simply just practice, practice, practice! And keep going until you feel really confident, until what you want to say and do in your presentation is internalized in such a way that it is completely natural to you.
By this I don’t mean you should memorise a text, but rather ensure the content and themes are so firmly embedded in you that you can render them in your own words in any situation – without pre-written text on a teleprompter.
The Michael Bay example is a perfect object lesson here, whereby he couldn’t even manage to talk about the simplest topic – i.e. about himself! But sometimes you need extreme examples in order to really think about things!
3. A good start is half the battle!
Nervousness and stage fright are always worse at the beginning of a speech. This is why it’s all the more important for the presentation to get off to a good start.
Just like with sport, a good start in a presentation also serves as a turbo for the rest of the appearance. If the beginning runs smoothly, you start to feel less nervous and more relaxed, and able to manage the rest of the presentation quite naturally.
This is why when you are planning, and also later when practicing, you should focus on ensuring that the first minute/few minutes are perfect.
Want to avoid brain freeze during a presentation?
Having brain freeze has to be any presenters worst nightmare. From a human point of view though, it’s a scenario that can fundamentally happen to anyone. However, if you really take to heart the three tips above, then the chance of experiencing the kind of brain freeze Michael Bay did is very, very, very low.
What’s next?
If you’d like to find out more about planning the perfect presentation, creating powerful presentation documents and then delivering this with enjoyment an enthusiasm, please get in touch with us! Because we’re saving the world from dull presentations and are delighted when someone wants to join us in making the world a little better – one presentation after the other!
Image source: © ArenaCreative – Fotolia.com
The Truth About Powerpoint
I’m sorry, but I have to say this 😱
This will probably offend you…
But everytime I hear someone say “Powerpoint is so boring”… It really makes me angry.
Listen, if you think that having a fancy “prezi” or animated presentation is going to help you…
It is complete bullshit! 💩
Powerpoint is not boring – YOU are!
Powerpoint is just a tool. And, while a tool can help you to create great things, it can never ever be responsible for a bad outcome.
Think about it… would you hold your car responsible for crashing into the car in front of you?
Yes, you can create awesome presentations with Prezi.
If you know how….
But, you can also create awesome presentations with Powerpoint.
If you know how…
So, it is the “Know How”, that differentiates a persuasive from a boring presentation, not the tool used.
My tip: Before you open any presentation software, get that basics right. Think about the people in your audience & their challenges, your message, your content and your story.
Then you are on the right track to creating a convincing presentation.
Not by blaming the software.
Focus on the story THEN the presentation.
How to use Prezi in Portrait format – 9:16, 3:4
When using any presentation software in the past, regarding screen ratio you could only choose between 4:3 and 16:9 in landscape format. But life has changed! Due to Citylights and advertising screens at trade fairs, cinemas etc. portrait format is on the rise. Read more
Prezi app as remote control for your presentation
As of today you can now use the Prezi app on your iPhone or android as a remote control for your Prezi presentation on a PC or Mac. We will show you in a nutshell how it works here:
Step 1 – Open Prezi app
Step 2 – In the Prezi of your choice, click on the 3 vertical dots
Step 3 – Select “Use as remote control”
Step 4 – Follow instructions for next steps
Step 5 – Open Prezi on your PC or Mac by selecting “Edit”
Step 6 – Click “Join” & get started!
It’s as easy as that to use your Prezi app as a remote control!
Give it a try!
Our “Happy Easter” Prezi features as staff pick on prezi.com!
Prezi is always featuring new presentations by users as recommendations on Prezi.com. We are very proud to have been listed among the ‘staff picks’ for the third time with one of our presentations.
Happy Easter by Prezi – example and recommendation
This time the Prezi designers chose our Happy Easter Prezi from 2013 as a recommendation. A picture of this is shown opposite. More information is available here: http://mcprezi.com/beispiele-referenzen/praesentation-frohe-ostern-prezi/ Prezi is available using this link: http://prezi.com/5hmqoo5fbwkg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share and also here:
Happy Easter – here’s a free Prezi template!
Just like we did for Valentines day, we’ve now put together a Prezi template for Easter, which we want to make available free of charge for your own personal easter wishes.
This is what the free Prezi Easter template looks like
If you want to use this yourself, please click on the link to the Prezi template in our Prezi account:
http://prezi.com/gtjdrxkfp6ip/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Then click ‘Copy’ and off you go! Have fun!
More Prezi templates
More free Prezi templates are available in our blog via the tag “Prezi Template“.
Would you like your own Prezi template or presentation?
If you need your own Prezi presentation for your own subject or company, you can find out more by clicking “Prezi Design”.
Best of all though, just send us an email or give us a call!
Our “Application Prezi” featured as staff pick on prezi.com!
We are very proud that our “Application Prezi” has been listed among the recommendations (staff picks) of the Prezi team at prezi.com.
Apply with Prezi – CV & Prezume
And this is how it looks…
mcprezi is one of the TOP 100 Prezi users of 2014!
Its 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We are just working on a customer presentation when an email suddenly lands in our mailbox.
“Congratulations – You’re in the Prezi top 100 of 2014!”
is written right there in the subject line – we are astonished but thrilled! Clarification follows in the email, where it states:
THANK YOU to Prezi & THANK YOU to all our customers
We would like to say THANK YOU to Prezi and also make a promise that we will be a heavy user again in 2015. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers though, who are the main reason for this success!
Publication ‘Das neue Arbeiten’ [the new work] by WerdeDigital.at
In addition to around 70 other authors, we have also contributed an article called ‘Prezi, Slideshare & Co.’
On September 15, 2014 the initiators and everyone concerned got together to see how things were going. One thing was revealed and that was that it’s already looking really good. The finished publication is expected to be available for free download in about two months – and as soon as it’s finished, it will obviously be available from us here too.
Writing too and need some help?
Are you writing a publication too and looking for content on presentation, Prezi and public speaking? Then get in touch with us; we are happy to be involved in your publication.
Brain freeze during a presentation – what we can learn from Michael Bay’s (embarrassing) appearance!
It’s every presenters worst nightmare – brain freeze! All of a sudden it all just seems to have gone. Your brain is empty and you can’t access your memory anymore – as if someone had just pulled the plug out!
This is exactly what happened to Hollywood director Michael Bay (Transformers etc.) at the Samsung press conference at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. In this case though, the director froze because of a broken teleprompter, which is where he was reading his lines from.
Here is the video of him:
Even though just watching it almost makes you want the ground to swallow you up, you still have to ask “what can we learn from it?” You should always learn something from any defeat!
1. NEVER rely on technology!
There are many technical possibilities – Powerpoint, Prezi, videos, animations, multimedia installations, audio effects etc. that can strengthen a presentation. Tools such as teleprompters can also help you keep an eye on the content of your presentation.
BUT, NONE of these tools should ever take priority. YOU are the presentation and it’s because of you and your speech that the people are sitting in the audience. The audience want to hear from you, what you have to say on the matter; they want to listen to your experiences and then afterwards, ask you questions. People don’t want a ‘robot who reads off a pre-written text from a screen.’
This is why you should NEVER – and I mean ‘NEVER’ – depend on technology.
If any kind of technical aid stops working during your speech, you need to have your presentation, your story, so fixed in your mind that you can continue without technology. Because YOU are the presentation, not the technology. The technology can and must only be a supporting measure.
To achieve this you need to ensure the structure of your topic and content is fixed in your mind. This again requires good preparation and practice, practice, practice!
2. Practice, practice, practice – YOU are the presentation!
Everyone’s been there, you have a presentation the next day and are still cobbling something together quickly the day before! Although this works in many cases, everyone still knows it’s not ideal. And because of this, people often feel more nervous before an appearance, just because they know they are ill prepared.
Tests are no different either, the less you have learned, the more nervous you feel. The same principle applies to the presentation situation and to the stage fright associated with this.
This is why the best measure against stage fright is simply just practice, practice, practice! And keep going until you feel really confident, until what you want to say and do in your presentation is internalized in such a way that it is completely natural to you.
By this I don’t mean you should memorise a text, but rather ensure the content and themes are so firmly embedded in you that you can render them in your own words in any situation – without pre-written text on a teleprompter.
The Michael Bay example is a perfect object lesson here, whereby he couldn’t even manage to talk about the simplest topic – i.e. about himself! But sometimes you need extreme examples in order to really think about things!
3. A good start is half the battle!
Nervousness and stage fright are always worse at the beginning of a speech. This is why it’s all the more important for the presentation to get off to a good start.
Just like with sport, a good start in a presentation also serves as a turbo for the rest of the appearance. If the beginning runs smoothly, you start to feel less nervous and more relaxed, and able to manage the rest of the presentation quite naturally.
This is why when you are planning, and also later when practicing, you should focus on ensuring that the first minute/few minutes are perfect.
Having brain freeze has to be any presenters worst nightmare. From a human point of view though, it’s a scenario that can fundamentally happen to anyone. However, if you really take to heart the three tips above, then the chance of experiencing the kind of brain freeze Michael Bay did is very, very, very low.
What’s next?
If you’d like to find out more about planning the perfect presentation, creating powerful presentation documents and then delivering this with enjoyment an enthusiasm, please get in touch with us! Because we’re saving the world from dull presentations and are delighted when someone wants to join us in making the world a little better – one presentation after the other!
Image source: © ArenaCreative – Fotolia.com
Prezi text formatting – now also bold & italics
Until now text formatting has been very limited in Prezi. Namely to the choice of 3 fonts with 3 corresponding colors, which are specified in the Prezi theme.
When editing text, it was only possible to change the colors of the font but not their format. That’s all changed now! Read more
mcprezi is an official Prezi expert – Prezi Independent Expert
Yes, the time has finally come! After an application and certification process lasting several months, we have finally done it. As of today, we are now able to carry the official title of
Prezi Independent Expert
and the corresponding logo (see above).
We therefore now belong to an elite group of around 35 Prezi experts worldwide! We are the only experts in Austria and one of three in the German-speaking regions!
Here is an overview of the current list of official Prezi experts.
Prezi expert – mcprezi profile
Our Prezi expert profile is available here https://prezi.com/experts/mcprezi/.
Looking for a Prezi expert for your presentation?
Then do what our satisfied customers did! Contact us now and arrange a no-obligation consultation today. We will gladly put our expertise and experiences to use for your presentation!
mcprezi company presentation with Prezi
Prezi is different – in a good way! This is why we, as Prezi superheroes of the presentation, have also designed our mcprezi company presentation in a different way to what one might expect. Read more
Prezi templates for brainstorming
Prezi is NOT just presentation software but more a tool for generating ideas. The ‘Collaboration Tool’ integrated in Prezi makes the software ideal for teams who work on an idea together but are actually based in different offices.
It doesn’t matter whether the team members are sitting in the room next door or they’re based on the other side of the world – Prezi makes for perfect teamwork! Read more
“The presentation is the last thing”
I often hear this and other such phrases when I ask people in my training sessions & workshops: “When do you prepare your presentation?” or “When do you start preparing the presentation?”
By that I don’t mean that the presentation is ‘the last’ in the sense of ‘pointless’, but rather that a presentation is very often only prepared at the end of a process or project. Read more
Bullets kill – so do bullet points
6pm, Wednesday in the office! The day is almost over and you still haven’t started the presentation for first thing tomorrow. But now you’ve really got to step on it. So it’s open Powerpoint and off we go!
‘Insert title here’ and ‘insert text here’ shines radiantly on the screen. Well, if it’s there already, then let’s do it! You enter the title and ‘copy & paste’ the text into the slides from the various sources. Two hours later and it’s done. True, it’s not the best, but it’s got everything it needs.
The slides look something like this:
Bullet points as far as the eye can see and no end of text. If the first slide looks like this, you can assume that all the other slides will look the same.
And that’s why people also like to call this type of presentation ‘slide bombardment’. In English, we talk about ‘death by Powerpoint’.
Bullet points lead to ‘death by Powerpoint’ through the slide bombardment.
It all sounds very warlike – bombardment, death and so on. The ammunition for these bombardments aren’t real bullets though, but rather ‘bullet points’.
This killing isn’t actually people but the attention of the audience. But if you don’t pay attention, you won’t even notice anything.
In other words:
Attention gone => focus on other things => remember presentation = dead loss!
The aim of a presentation is obviously to not bore the audience. You want an attentive audience that is enthused with your presentation and that you can motivate to take action. If you literally ‘shoot’ them during the presentation, they will be unable to take action afterwards. So what do you do?
Kill the bullets before they kill you
The first step is to keep bullet points to an absolute minimum. The image below jokingly highlights how important this is.
And if you don’t want to ‘shoot’ your audience, then you need to aim to make do with as few bullet points as possible.
The best presentation has NO bullet points at all!
When creating your presentation, simply start thinking about the bullet points and your public, and you’ll soon find different ways to present your content!
If you can’t find any other ways, then we’ll help you with it – promise!
After all, our super powers are saving the world from dull presentations!
Check it out for yourself and get in touch with us today!
Image source: © dinostock – Fotolia.com
40 years since ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ – A Prezi tribute to Pink Floyd
British rock group Pink Floyd are celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the most legendary albums in music history.
‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is one of the best-selling albums of all time and still holds the Guinness record for 741 weeks in the US Billboard album chart.
This is why we are dedicating our own ‘Prezi tribute’ to this great work of music history. The tribute includes interesting facts about the origin of the album, all the lyrics and a full live recording of a concert from 1974!
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon! 😉 Read more
Prezi meets Pecha Kucha – E-Day 2013 request show
E-Day 2013 request show powered by Pecha Kucha
E-Day 2013 (www.eday.at), the largest event in e-business in Austria, was held in Vienna on March 7, 2013. More than 3000 visitors were able to explore five halls, providing an overview of the innovations and future prospects in this field.
The ‘request show’ was a new feature at E-Day, which allowed users to bring suggestions for presentation topics. The suggestions were then put to the vote: The top seven were chosen and then presented in Pecha Kucha style.
Pecha Kucha is a presentation style from Japan in which 20 slides can be shown for 20 seconds each, with the slides automatically skipping to the next after this time is up. This results in a maximum of 6 minutes and 40 seconds presentation time.
mcprezi at the request show – with Presentation 2.0 & Prezi
Thanks to the help of the users, we at mcprezi also took part in the request show. The presentation by Michael Sinnhuber at the E-Day 2013 request show of the Austrian Economic Chamber can be viewed below. Read more