| As told to J.J. McCorvey

My Favorite Tool for Making Presentations

Entrepreneur Maureen Carroll explains how she uses Prezi to make presentations.

 
Maureen Carroll

Courtesy subject

My consulting company helps businesses and educational institutions develop problem-solving techniques related to the design process. I've never been a fan of traditional slide presentations, because they encourage linear thinking. When I first saw Prezi in action a year ago, I was blown away by its ability to facilitate new ways of thinking. My partner and I have been using it ever since.

Prezi is a Web-based tool that lets you map out a presentation, including text, graphics, and embedded PDF files and videos, in one large layout. Instead of clicking through slides during a presentation, you zoom in on relevant information in the layout, then zoom out. Prezi is especially helpful during Q&A sessions, since it lets me quickly zero in on a relevant talking point rather than plod through 20 slides. Prezis are created and stored online, so I can share them with clients by sending a link via e-mail. I also hold real-time presentations with clients online. I like the fact that I can download the presentations to my desktop as well, so I always have them on hand.

We pay $59 a year for our Prezi account, which lets us create unlimited presentations and store up to 500MB of data online. Unlike the free version, it does not require us to make presentations public on Prezi's site.

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J.J. McCorvey is a reporter at Inc. magazine, where he covers a wide range of topics, including technology and business research. He has covered metro news for The Detroit News, and his work has been featured in Men's Fitness. @jmccorvey