Prezi - An Alternative to PowerPoint?

Have you seen enough PowerPoint presentations? By now we all know how to use PowerPoint but just because we use PowerPoint, does that mean that it is the most effective way to communicate complex ideas?

If you are ready for something different check out Prezi. This mostly web based presentation system provides some marvelous ways of enabling you to create compelling presentations. However, you need to be willing to change your thinking about how you organize and present ideas and concepts, which is probably a good thing. Of course some people would say that we have all had to change our thinking in order to get all of our ideas onto bulleted lists and into basic PowerPoint formats. I get the feeling that the people responsible for Prezi would say their system is a much more natural way of thinking.

The interface is mostly intuitive, once you get the hang of it. Additionally there are enough examples of Preszi presentations to provide some good ideas, on what you can do with this system and your seemingly limitless options on how it can be used which you will find to be very helpful.

Be aware there are some strange things in the system and I am still trying to figure out how to get that optimum level of creative, effective and quick with the system. But after a couple of hours of playing I was able to take our standard corporate overview and turn it into something which is potentially more compelling visually. Theoretically if we can get people to pay better attention, we should be able to convey our value more effectively, right? I know there is much more I can do but it is exciting to see the possibilities with this tool. Certainly the first couple of presentations created with Prezi will take longer to create but as you get more comfortable with this I am pretty certain this wouldn't take any longer than PowerPoint and the end result should be a more memorible presentation which effectively conveys our message.

There are some shortcomings which will hopefully be taken care of in the future such as the ability to group objects so they can be worked on all together and some more intuitive ways of controlling exactly some of the display during a presentations (probably my issue).

Overall I am going to continue to see if this can be used this for my corporate presentations. Certainly the next time I am asked to do a generic type of industry presentation Prezi will be the tool I turn to first.

Digsby is very cool

Just loaded up Digsby and this is something else that I wish I did earlier. This free utility makes it very easy to access and track all sorts of IM (instant messaging) clients, social media and some web based e-mail.

You can also add in Facebook and a load of other types of accounts. All these show up on your taskbar which makes it very easy to access and update whatever account you need. At work we had everyone on Yahoo IM but it looks like other divisions are using other systems and this will make it very easy to communicate with everyone with a single client.

Also I have a couple of Twitter accounts one personal account and one business account and this looks like the perfect way to keep up with traffic and messages.

I'll be playing with this a bit more but so far very impressive and easy to setup and configure.

The coolest technolgy ever - so far!

This 14 minute video showing Pranav Mistry talking about the thrilling potential of SixthSense technology is absolutely worth watching and considering.

Not only that but at the end he says he will be providing the code as Open Source.

This is a game changer. How long do you think it will take to hit the street?

Ice cream? Well maybe not

This list of the most unhealthy ice cream desserts would be almost funny if there wasn't such a massive obesity issue here in our country.

Hard to believe there is a milkshake with over 200 calories and 131 grams of fat (68 saturated)!

The best thing about this article is that it also provides some alternatives to the artery clogging calorie bombs.

I have been trying to eat a significantly more healthy diet over the past several years and the hardest food to pass on is ice cream. Thank goodness for frozen yogurt. My latest favorite "Cherry On Top" a price performer with all sorts of toppings and a pay by the ounce menu. Almost replaces ice cream. Almost guilt free.

What do we know about Motivation?

Think you understand what motivates people? Check out this 18 minute presentation by Dan Pink. Just as interesting are the comments and discussion below the video.

Looking back I think some of the best work our teams accomplished was due some of the motivators Dan outlines:

• Autonomy. Providing some sense of independence and control over their work.
• Mastery. Motivatation by opportunities to improve and excel.
• Purpose. Driven by what matters to themselves deeply and personally.

It would be great have an entire organization which implements these types of ideas. Can this be done company wide instead of department by department? Some are doing this.

If you are a manager, can you use this information to help you and your team be more effective?

Any thoughts or comments?

My Favorite Podcasts

Many years ago while watching the behind the scenes footage of the making of the Lord or the Rings trilogy, it showed the cast getting their daily makeup. They would sit in the chair for something like 60 – 90 minutes or more a day getting ready for filming. What did they do while sitting there day in and day out? Listened to music on their portable media devices.

I remember thinking, wow with 5 – 7.5 hours a week of sitting doing really nothing, you could learn a language, take a class or do something to expand your mind. Then I realized that for 30 minutes every morning while working out, what was I doing? Listening to a couple of random morning DJ’s prattle on about nothing interspersed with commercials. And I realized that I was wasting time just like the actors.

Within a couple of weeks I received an iPod and the same day a friend mentioned that I should check out all the podcasts that were available then he added magic words “for free”. I did and without trying to be overly dramatic, these podcasts have changed my life.

Every day while working out for 30 minutes, everywhere I drive one or more of the following podcasts are playing. These are my favorites, the ones that I regularly listen to. To get this list there were many others that were tried and discarded or that are just no longer in production.

Hope you find this list worthwhile. Here are my favorites and why:

Please leave your comments and thoughts on some which are worth listening to and why.

Business Casts

BusinessWeek – Behind this Week’s Cover Story
One of the casts I rarely miss. Keeps me current with the most important business thinking of the current week.
http://www.businessweek.com/search/podcasts/cover_stories.rss

BusinessWeek – Smart Answers
Generally good interviews with small business people who have interesting perspectives and thinking. Sometimes the interviewees are pushing their book but still there are a lot of good ideas in these casts.
http://www.businessweek.com/search/podcasts/smart_answers.rss

BusinessWeek – The Welch Way
It is too bad that with Jack Welch’s recent surgery these have been stopped for a while but it is worth anyone’s time to go back and listen to these short casts to hear Jack (and Suzie’s) thoughts and perspectives on business and current events. Facinating.
http://www.businessweek.com/search/podcasts/welchway.rss

Manager Tools
This is one I never miss and have listened for probably 80%+ of all there casts ever. These have made me a significantly more effective manager. These are a must listen for anyone working today.
http://www.manager-tools.com/premium/manager-tools-premium.rss

Career Tools
Part two of the Manager Tools podcasts which focus not on management skills but the individual’s personal career management. Important for everyone who has a job. I don’t know anyone else who is teaching this.
http://career.managertools.com/rss/rss.xml

Gartner Voice
Gartner has a lot of great research on a lot of topics. I pick and choose what I listen to on these casts. When there is an interesting topic to me I always find these worthwhile.
http://www.gartner.com/it/products/podcasting/rss/asset_137461_2635.xml

Harvard Business – IdeaCast
This is another cast I never miss. The topics are all over the board but always interesting.
http://hbsp.libsyn.com/rss

The Invisible Hand: Management, Economics and Strategy for the Thinking Person
This is a book review / interview podcast where the books are about the current thinking on economics. It may not sound interesting but Chris Gondek the host is a great interviewer and he almost always has interesting books and authors. He does a series of other podcast I have not listened to but could be worthwhile.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheInvisibleHandEnhancedVersion

Jenerous
Although there have not been any recent casts I have to put this down because I learned so much from these ~200 casts. I found this right when I took over the Marketing department and needed to understand what I was doing. Eric Mattson interviewed leaders in marketing, social media and more in these casts. There was so much information and he did such a great job with the interviews that I grew into an effective Marketer very quickly. Thank you Eric!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/marketingmongerpodcast

Marketing Voices
Jenifer Jones talks to all sorts of interesting people regarding the use of social media in marketing. I have learned a great deal from this podcast.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarketingVoices

Marshall Goldsmith
I just wish I found this earlier. Marshall is so filled with great perspective and he gives away what he offers his coaching clients. Absolutely a goldmine.
http://coachm.hipcast.com/rss/marshall_goldsmith.xml

McKinsey on Finance Podcasts
I can’t apply a lot of what is in these podcasts but they do help me change perspective and broaden my thinking. As this group influences companies all over the globe, why not listen to their perspective.
http://ksmediaserver.net/ftp/Podcasting/MoF.xml

Negotiation Tip of the Week
These casts are only 3 – 4 minutes long. Sometimes the sound quality are not great, but the host Josh Weiss is a very respected authority on negotiation and he packages little gems on the how, what and why of negotiation into great bite size pieces. Who couldn’t afford to be a better negotiator?
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ottergroup/negotiationtip

Technology

This Week in Tech (twit)
The granddaddy of technology podcasts. I learned a lot but eventually got tired of the length and the extended dialog about non tech items. They referred to BOL (Buzz out Loud) multiple times and so I eventually started listening to that Technology cast. One day I will try this again. But I did learn a lot with Leo and company.
http://leo.am/podcasts/twit

Buzz out Loud
My technology cast of choice right now. Although it comes out daily I only listen a couple of times per week. They generally stay on track and listening does keep me current.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/cnet/buzzoutloud

Personal Development and Other

43 Folders
Merlin Mann's show about finding the time and attention to do your best work. Based on his site, 43folders.com. Wow great stuff here. You have to find the right ones, but if you are looking to improve your time management and general organization skills do yourself a favor by listening and implementing Merlin’s suggestions. This certainly helped me. Another one of the shows I wish I knew about earlier. Some of the shows are several years old, but it does not matter one bit.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/43FPodcast

Stuff You Missed in History Class
Great hosts, great topics. These just make everyone who listens a more interesting person.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcasts/stuff-you-missed-in-history-class.rss

Stuff You Should Know
I pick and choose which casts I listen to. Again, these are topics which make us all more interesting people
http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcasts/stuff-you-should-know.rss

Pickup Podcast
I debated on including this. I can’t remember who introduced me to this but the topic was about meeting and talking to people especially in a sales situation. How do you walk into a room and make friends, get people to trust you? While this cast is all about pickup, there really are some gems about how to go out and make friends. The basis of what the hosts AJ and Jordon talk about are applicable to any sales person or to anyone who wants to make friends. There are a a lot of interviews which are way too much about pickup which you can skip but the early casts are filled with some good information about how to carry yourself and what type of attitude attracts people to you. All in all there is a lot to learn from these pickup artists.
http://www.pickuppodcast.com/podcast.xml

JapanesePod101
I travel to Japan and wanted to learn the language. It is possible. Although I have to listen over and over again. Additionally the hosts of this show have so much personality they were great to listen to. Too bad this show is still not on. Glad I downloaded a lot of shows prior to them going off the web!
http://www.japanesepod101.com/feed/

ChinesePod
John, Ken and Jenny do a great job with a very difficult language. They have gone to move of a pay model but if you want to learn Chinese this is a great way to do it. These hosts also have great personality. Very easy to listen to, just not easy to learn.
http://chinesepod.com/morganu/lessons/feed

Japanese SurvivalPhrases
Sort and sweet. Very helpful, but again, learning language takes huge amounts of time and effort.
http://survivalphrases.com/japanese/feed

Worst Cover Letter Ever?

Well maybe not the worst but it is pretty close. Although I have seen some poorly written letters this one really is in a class by itself. What makes this post especially interesting are the instered comments. A lot to learn from both the letter and the comments.

Click here.

Does anyone else have a great letter to share?

Enjoy.

Pearls before Breakfast - facinating article

My daughter turned me onto this wonderful article in the Washington Post.

Joshua Bell played a concert in a Washington D.C. subway station at rush hour. Pretty much no one noticed.

The article is so well written and the story is so interesting it just has to be shared.

You can access the article directly by clicking here or you can read what my daughter had to say on her blog by clicking here.

I would like to think that I would notice that the world's greatest living violinist was giving a concert in a subway station while I was racing to a meeting. Part of me says I would have noticed, stopped and appreciated because I appreciate beauty and music and I try to notice my surroundings. But part of me says that I would have barely noticed and would have kept walking, like the vast majority. Pretty sad. Guess that is just one more thing I need to improve on.

I Love my Kindle

Well maybe love is a little strong. But the Kindle 2 (www.amazon.com/kindle) has been a lifesaver for a road warrior who loves (yes loves) to read. But I am surprised at the other benefits this little device has provided over the last 5 months, other than getting me to purchase more books on Amazon over the last several months than in the previous entire year.

Invariably when leaving for the longest trips I am in the middle of a large heavy book. Halfway through the trip, the book is done and another is started. I can’t just leave a book somewhere, so it gets carted around taking up precious space and weighing down bags which get heavier and heavier as the trip wears on.

It’s not that the Kindle couldn’t be improved, yes there are a couple of little annoyances including poor image quality, not being able to easily find a glossary in the back of a book you are reading, not being able to go chapter to chapter easily, etc. but overall. It is a great device. The seamless connection to the Amazon store is especially nicely done.

But more and more I am finding that the Kindle isn’t just about being a great light, personal library of books which is great on a trip. It is becoming more and more about all the other reading which used to get saved up and gone through while traveling. For years I have cut out newspaper and magazine articles which look interesting but just not interesting enough to read, right now. All of these are put into a file which I would read while on planes, trains, hotel rooms or while eating a meal alone. However, more and more now these interesting articles are blog entries, or other online postings. But just like magazines and newspapers, I don’t always have time to read these “right now”. I am experimenting with ways of clipping these into little online libraries so when there is time I can get to a single location and read over everything I have marked. But I still don’t have a great system for doing that.

Well the Kindle pretty much solves this problem. It also solves the issue of my not wanting to spend any additional time in front of my computer other than what I am already spending. One thing about being in front of the computer at home is that my family assumes I am working and they are reluctant to talk to me. This is not the case while reading the newspaper or a book, but it happens when I am sitting in front of the computer. Sometimes this is just fine, but really, when at home, I shouldn’t put up any more barriers to talking with family than I already do!

How does the Kindle help solve these problems? When an interesting article appears somewhere, I print it to a PDF using a free PDF print driver, or copy it to a Word document and save it to a directory called “Upload to Kindle”. This way I can surf the web and find a number of articles pretty quickly and just save, save, save. I do this for several days and collect a number of articles or posts. When there are about a dozen or so I attach them to an e-mail and send them to [myname]@free.kindle.com

In just a couple of minutes Amazon sends a return message with the files all converted to Kindle format and it is easy to save them to the Documents directory on the Kindle. They are now ready to be read any time. Additionally once they are uploaded I move the PDF or Word files to another directory called “Already Uploaded” in case one is so good I want to send it to a colleague. This empties out the “Upload to Kindle” directory so there is never any confusion as to what was uploaded.

Also unlike purchased books, none of these articles are stored by Amazon so keeping them on the computer is a simple way of backing them up and I don’t feel strange about deleting them off the Kindle once they are read.

The other nice thing about the Kindle is the Clippings File. There are a lot of great articles our there but the fact is many times I really only want to remember a single section or a couple of ideas or links. Do you really need to keep the entire article for that? No, not with the Kindle. Just highlight the interesting section and the Kindle puts that selection into the Clippings File and it stays there even when you delete the original article!

You can also copy this clipping file to your computer where you can open it in Word or a text editor in order to navigate any links you may have clipped or send off information to anyone else.

I know it is possible to subscribe to blogs and even to surf the net with the Kindle. But I am cheap and don’t feel like paying to read blogs. It is cheaper, quicker and easier to use the computer to surf and it is easy to download only the articles which look interesting.

So now instead of carrying multiple books and loads of clipped paper articles, everything is all in one simple package. Plus the benefit of not spending as much time on the computer and getting at least at little more talk time with the family.