My prezi principles.

Presenting is not easy. Over the years various media have developed to aid us with presentations but it's important to remember that it is only an aid. When I was a masters student at LSE our Econometrics lectures were delivered on blackboard in an exhilarating fashion by an excellent lecturer and we all sat there, week on week, writing down all he said and wrote. This was a very important lesson in communication for me and, as librarians are doing more educating, it is worthwhile remembering that the medium is not the be all and end all, rather an aid to what you say.

I think people are too hard on Powerpoint, it strikes me that we are often too eager to damn the medium rather than the presenter when our concentration wains. Slideshows can still be innovative, one of my favourite bands when I was at university was the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who crafted songs to go with vintage slides picked up from carboot sales. Jennifer Egan's A visit from the Goon Squad features an entire chapter in powerpoint (you can find Egan's tips on using the medium for telling stories here).

Prezi combines the "canvas" approach of the blackboard and the slides of Powerpoint. While it's good at making presentations spin and swirl I think its strength lies in the ability to arrange the information on a canvas and draw connections between them. I'm a rather dull chap when it comes to presentations; I only like the motion between prezi "slides" when it is used to carry out a narrative - for example the zoom in function is great if used to emphasise a detail and if the panning movements represent a logical train of thought from start to finish - otherwise it's pointless and makes me feel a bit seasick. In other words, I want as few things between the information and me as possible.

If I were to use Prezi for presentations I would try to stick by some rules:

1. Zoom to focus on detail and pan out to generalise, to cover a wider issue, or overarching point
2. Twist and swirl to demonstrate conflicting arguments
3. Use left to right movement to construct a narrative or a sense of progression
4. Never do something for the sake of it
5. Always make sure you are the main focus of the presentation

I have put some effort into thinking of an interesting prezi but at the moment I am without inspiration. Luckily, when my sister was taking a course in teaching english as a foreign language I suggested that she use Prezi to liven up her classes, which I think is a good simple example of using its strengths without becoming nauseating.

Fashion Victims 2 on Prezi