hello everyone marco montemagno here
digital domination summit 2013 and the
next guest is piotre RV co-founder and
CEO of Prezi hi Peter how you going I’m
doing great how are you everything
phenomenal we were talking a little bit
before to start this interview and I I
say to Peter look at you from Sweden
because often looks like you from hungry
because that we will see Prezi started
from hungry and it’s got a branch in
Hungary but you originally from Sweden
right yeah I was born and raised in
Sweden but my parents are actually from
Hungary so I actually speak Hungarian
myself and because my two co-founders
are from Hungary as well we started this
company in Budapest so back in two
thousand I left Sweden moved to Hungary
and yeah have a company nowadays of a
hundred and thirty people but eighty
percent of the company is actually based
in in Hungary he keep representing 22
different countries but still yeah
amazing by the way if i’m not wrong i
just try to remember I think you stream
is from Budapest or did they loaned you
from your email and and log me in as
well a lot of people don’t know this but
yeah hungary has actually quite a
virtual ground for startups to go from
yeah and as I told you before when I
know that someone is from Sweden I
always think that Sweden is a country
that born talents you know and I read
this book from taliban saw me a few
years ago the Black Swan I think was the
title and it was talking about how
suddenly someone or something can come
out from the middle of nowhere and
create amazing things as I told you it
was a table tennis player in Sweden got
some of the best table tennis players in
the history from nothing they came out
and wow they were amazing so also ready
you know they are you coming from Sweden
it for me you have this DNA Peter so
this is the well it’s not just in terms
sports but you know in terms of startups
and a lot of global brands are actually
coming from Sweden so everything from
Volvo to ericsson to a BB hmm Mikey like
API is the one that most people know
about you know these are global brands
that are being built from a tiny country
of northern Europe so per capita there’s
a lot of global companies being built
from from Sweden and skype by the way is
as another example but they have spotify
right I and many others I would like to
say yes also from Italy we have uh
nothing still nothing but we arrived
Italians you know arrived later but I I
know that my fellow Friday dire threats
will will come sooner or later with a
great start up so Peter if you came to
me okay i think was 2008-2009 that preds
start more or less bright and if in that
year you would come to me an imagined
that i was an investor and you come to
me and say alright Marco we want to do a
presentation platform that will attack
power point and we change the way of
presentation I would say Peter change it
up do another job because is it looks
little bit too difficult market is too
difficult competitors do stronger
everyone use only powerpoint and so on
and but you did it and now praise god i
think 20 million users unbelievable 93
yeah all right 23 so the big question is
how you did it because I I really can’t
believe how how you could do that also
in a very short period of time yeah I
think it’s a combination of at least two
things one a very unique approach and
looking at how ideas can be organized
you know in many ways Prezi you know
shares some qualities with whiteboards
what you see behind me here and also
slides because Prezi enables you to
connect your topics and in if you zoom
out to kind of see the big picture of
how
the ideas are related but you can zoom
in and focus on a particular topic and
when you do this combination of things
you kind of create a visual journey
that’s much more engaging and fun for
users than just the ordinary slideshow
so I think that unique approach really
captivates people and and if you look at
the users that we have today Prezi has
been spreading word by enough so we have
almost zero spending on marketing and
and it’s essentially the experience of
our product that you know enables us to
spread on a global level but having said
that you know we we had a good timing as
well because the the internet was just
mature enough to start doing more
advanced services in the browser
directly right and we started Prezi
maybe 10 years ago this wouldn’t have
been the case so so there was this very
particular point in time when when
advanced services something that could
really compete with you know the office
package could be put into a browser and
and not you know we were lucky very
lucky with that okay well London 23
million is a huge number so and you say
just a word of mouth created this kind
of phenomenal success yeah yeah price
yeah today you know today we’re adding
it one and a half million users per
month and and again this is happening to
people creating prezzies and showing
prezzies to other people if you like
what you see then you know you might get
interested in in in doing your own Prezi
and that’s how I isn’t keep spreading
right so this is one thing I’m reading a
book called the contagious that it is
starting the and researching how things
go viral basically but I also remember
an old book viral loop inside and so I
think one killer feature from form Prezi
is that is is viral by default because I
mean to use it you have to to show to
people and if you show to people you
immediate
say this is a Prezi presentation so if
you see it then if you liked you when i
use it so this is very yes very smart
right the other point is that i have to
say also yeah powerpoint was very strong
but also people hate powerpoint i have
to be honest i mean i do presentations
for 12 15 years now and I don’t use
PowerPoint I don’t remember the last
time I used PowerPoint because it’s
really really painful when you use it a
bit people all over the world we were
bombarded with the with powerpoints
ballots and said it’s so far from how a
real presentation is so this is also
another point that you you find the pain
and you solve the pain by telling a
story so that was very interesting but
also I think the overviews that you you
focus on ideas so instead of selling a
software because a lot of people sell
software to do presentations may be
different from preds about you know if
you focus on software people say okay
good is a software I use it if I need it
I think you going more on this idea
economy i would like to elaborate on
that for the motivation for us actually
many ways to build this company is
because we believe that the world is
changing this is not controversial we
also believe that the world is changing
in a positive direction now that would
be probably more disputed but it’s
interesting that when you look at the
charts of how the world is changing
almost any number you find on the big
picture level if you zoom out and take a
look at several hundred years everything
is pointing in a very positive direction
so we’re living longer and healthier and
in fact even more respectful lives so so
you know with life expectancy we can of
course measure our our health and that
most people know that we live longer and
healthier lives but then in addition
once you start looking at how people are
treating each other the same numbers
keep appearing homicide rates in the
last eight hundred years have been
you asleep going down so I would
recommend you to check out the book by
Steven Pinker for example a Harvard
professor that describes this very very
well and essentially the conclusion is
that even though we might live with the
idea that we’re in a terrible world and
there’s a lot of conflicts and friction
left I will be the first one to admit
that it seems like we’ve never lived in
such a peaceful and healthy and happy
time is today and the way we you know
change our behaviors is essentially by
people sharing ideas no so humans are
very very different from for example
animals you know this if you tried to
teach a dog various tricks for example
it takes a lot of time to you know just
transfer one idea but God we humans we
have this capacity incredible capacity
to share a lot of ideas and change our
behaviors extremely rapidly and that’s
kind of the explanation behind why you
know our economies are changing so
quickly all the time as well we went
from you know the agricultural to an
industrial now we’re probably going into
what i would call very much an idea
economy where we spend more time just
sharing ideas using tools like the
internet then we spend time on you know
growing food or manufacturing objects
right so because we believe that you
know idea sharing is becoming such a
central part of what we do and also
because we think that there at the heart
of improving the world we have Prezi we
essentially want to contribute to
accelerate that positive trend so how
can we inspire people to share more
ideas how can we make the ideas that
people share stick better and make it
easier to understand that’s what we’re
concerned with why that’s what in
essence motivates us and also better in
this way i would say doesn’t really
matter that of course technology matters
and softwares that you in the end sell
because the business
Indiana has to sustain itself but you
will adapt if this is the vision you
know you just learning what what in what
better inspire people will allow you to
change technology and adapt technology
to go in that direction right I guess
you know I think there’s a lot of other
you know really smart entrepreneurs that
have expressed this desire before that
how can you make the technology
invisible right and make the experience
and most important and for us the
experience that we’re dealing with is
enabling idea sharing yo so how can we
make the technology disappear but make
the idea come from the center yeah my
feeling Peters I would like to have your
opinion on this that because it is a
chance to talk with you and I’m thinking
I always thinking about presentations
because I’m forced to think about
presentation so for instance I I had to
do a presentation ten days ago in a
place where the average age was 85 years
old and I had to talk about internet
opportunities to people who don’t know
it not in turn about how to use a
computer so is you know difficult to
relate and you try to figure out what’s
the best way to connect with these
people if is showing a video or giving
an object or so and when you think about
presentation you really think what’s
next what really works how is the
context and and so on so I was trying to
understand what is the right direction
of presentations in this moment because
we have Ted for months now for
presentations for instance that is also
invest right thinking I in Prezi and and
there is a strong connection with the
with Prezi so which is basically a
person giving a talk with showing images
or text or videos with whatever cells or
they use so this is a format or I don’t
know we have can academy where there is
the kind of this guy you know on a dark
or
dashboard explaining writings and this
is another format that one some people
like some people don’t like so what’s
the do you think the way to go because I
feel that you know this is not
connecting with the audience yet it’s
still something where there is someone
who too is very like television for me
where you talk in front of a camera and
that’s it but the audience is little bit
just they’re listening what’s next we
don’t think well well i think you know i
just want to preface and say i think a
lot of TED Talks actually does a good
job with connecting but but but let me
let me suggest that actually science can
help us to understand the future
direction a lot nowadays there’s all
sorts of really exciting research being
done in terms of understanding how our
brains work young and and you know what
essentially is becoming clearer is what
makes information possible to penetrate
our thick skull and and it turns out
that you know if you package information
in certain ways it’s much easier for us
to both understand and remember it so
for example visual and spatial
information leaves a much deeper imprint
on our brains then your textual this is
very clear so I’ll give you an example
of this if I asked you right now to tell
me what are the kitchen appliances that
you have prime and probably what you’re
doing right now is imagining yourself in
your kitchen looking around and naming
the different things now what you’re not
doing is equally important you’re not
creating a list neither bullet point
neither alphabetize but the reason why
you’re not creating a text is because
it’s just a very very small portion of
your brain that’s dedicated for textual
understanding whereas if you didn’t have
this visual spatial part of your your
brain then you couldn’t find your way
between your office and your home right
so if you can tell a story and actually
put it out in in a visual spatial format
and people are more likely to both
understand and remember what you have to
say and by the way there’s a very funny
kind of insight here even the old Greeks
when they memorized their talks you know
too in the very early stages of
democracy they would use something
called math after the low key yo which
is the word for place because they would
place out there talks in the room and as
they would stand up to talk on the
podium they will do essentially a mental
walkthrough of that room right now this
can be used by presenters as well so if
you can map out your story and take
people on a visual journey and they are
more likely to understand and remember
what you have to say and this is
actually many ways a part of what’s
inspired us at crazy as well so if you
can if you think about price it’s kind
of a spatial metaphor instead of a
paginate in metaphor yeah so you know
slides are essentially like books in a
page but the Prezi zooming world is much
more like a room that you step into and
then you kind of step back to look at
the big picture and you go in to see a
certain part of the room in very many
ways similar to what you’d expect you
know when you imagine your kitchen you
know you step in your kitchen you see
the big part of the base over to the
desk and then you look there well my
point being that it’s clearly so that
certain types of information is more
engaging than others for our brains
because we have on an evolutionary basis
in developing to consume certain types
of information more than others right
and and and what I think will be the
future of presentations but also the
future of human-computer interaction
will be a very physical
very responsive metaphor that will
resemble always more real-world than it
resembles a very artificial world of
books for example okay and and so you
can almost think about this even in the
in in the way that web pages are built
up you know a hyperlink is essentially
an ability for walk to walk to a
different part of a room where as you
know if you’re reading a book you’re
essentially forced to go through this
long long sequence without the ability
to change direction and and and that’s
that’s I think what these spatial
metaphors affords us the Challenger um
Peter one important thing to go with
tips for entrepreneurs or business
watching this video and often I I think
the problem when you do a presentation
whatever you pitch I mean if you picture
startup if you are doing a presentation
your boss with your new idea whatever
what what sort of presentation you’re
doing is that you start from from zero
and I give an example sometimes I see
presentations from very famous people
and they just go on the stage and say hi
and people oh that’s amazing reaction is
immediate it’s like if you go to a
concert and there is a very famous
Italian concert that always start to a
concert by saying oh and people oh you
know a crazy they go crazy for just you
know if I do it people throw at the
objects so the problem is with
businesses that often you have to
inspire your partner your boss your
client whatever but you talk with people
who really don’t want to listen to you
you have no that authority so it’s very
difficult because you start from zero
you don’t have a clock or below zero
yeah or below
zero so in your experience what are your
suggestion how can you can you deliver a
great presentation even when you start
in such a difficult situation yeah yeah
so in in this situation people are kind
of wanting to find the silver bullet
solution but the truth is there is no
silver bullet solution every situation
is unique and if there’s one thing that
I would recommend this to really try to
understand the situation that you’re
going to end up before you start
thinking about you know how am I going
to deliver my idea right so
understanding your audience
understanding what frame of mind they
are in why are they even coming to the
meeting what are they hoping to leave
after the meeting with understanding all
of those parts is kind of essential even
before you start thinking about okay
what should I talk about and then of
course you always have your own agenda
you know you might want to you know
explain to them why internet is
important as in your case or or whatever
but right but if you can’t understand
why the people are coming to listen to
you then it’s a very high risk that you
know you start talking about things that
are not relevant or interesting right so
I think framing things in a way that
actually generates value for the
audience is the way that you generate
enthusiasm and interest because then
people feel like you’re not doing this
to serve yourself but you’re doing that
to actually read them on to them help
them and that’s true young right and if
you take the effort to really understand
them and and and why you’re doing this
then you know you can actually provide
inspiration and insight and knowledge to
detail and often you have to adapt and
you discover based on the audience that
when you when you meet them then you you
discover it like sometimes i think is
like
with cakes you know you decide to may
before but you should give the name of
your baby when you sing or when you sear
you know because only when you see him
you think I gosh this name it doesn’t
really work so probably something
similar representation and there’s
research on what you say as well
actually so a lot of people if they are
skeptical to your idea actually it helps
a lot to be very responsive to their
concerns so one of the worst things that
you can do if people are kind of you
know not really interested open-minded
about what you’re about to say you need
to kind of include their opinions and
their thought somehow yeah you know a
lot of people say that some of the best
salespeople are not the sales people who
know how to talk for 15 minutes in a in
a in a beautifully engaging way but that
is equally capable of listening right
and actively listening not just you know
pretending to listen but we may think
about okay what does this mean and i can
put myself in your shoes and you know
how can then I be of help no rival
situation I like this point Peter is it
i think is very very important include
the Dubs the criticisms that audience at
already have and you have to you know
talk about it and take find the right
way to go to your to your point in yet
very important do you have any case
history that you think wow they really
did an amazing job using prezi or or
doing a presentation that you think
would be a good role model for for
people willing to do a great
presentation in business yeah i think
that so for for recently you know just
last week this company or the phone
launched their product this is a quite
cool company they do an iphone based
instrument and they built you know they
put your iphone in essentially in in a
wooden
structure and then it turns into an
instrument so you use the iphone to kind
of the keys about them you have extra
keys also on this wooden structure is
very cool so what’s interesting about
them is is in many ways they use Prezi
in how we see with many of our users
which is a use Prezi really not just to
present ideas with but also to develop
the ideas with so I mentioned to you
that you know it we have some things in
common with white boards and some things
in common it’s light and and what we see
in the example of RT phone is a they
created three rapid prototyping with
with Prezi and them essentially designed
the product using Prezi they were
distributed in in various cities across
the u.s. and then they kind of have this
large canvas where they were putting all
of their ideas to see how they match up
and discover new connections that they
didn’t know existed so they were
developing their story by working
together and not just you know taking a
story making it beautiful and then
selling it right and when in fact what
what we see a lot is this kind of if I
would say the old-fashioned way of
thinking around presentation is probably
okay I’m going to do a great
presentation and I’m going to do it the
hundred times or whatever it takes to
get the investment or come into the
audience or whatever and what we see it
right now I think is that ideas
developed constantly so how can you
facilitate you know the evolution of an
idea rather than making one perfect ID
and then just doing that a hundred guys
right and and if you can help them the
kind of the cycle time between thinking
and booing then you
actually a competitive advantage this
goes back to actually the reasoning
around the idea colony because in a
world where we have 2.5 billion people
connected to the Internet you’ve never
been able to have such a huge audience
available to you with the click of a
button right but to stay original in
this world we requires you to think
creatively and develop your ideas fast
all the time because there’s probably a
few hundred thousand other people who
are thinking about the other things
right now yeah so how can you kind of
keep evolving your idea constantly while
you how beautiful and inspiring stories
that I think is the challenge that’s the
challenge for a lot of people and not
just intrapreneurs by the way even the
biggest companies as well yeah I mean I
me name a very interesting fact on that
sewing that time that my parents have
been around the average life lifes ham
of the most successful companies here on
the US market the top 500 companies had
gone from 61 years to 18 years Wow a
drastic reduction in another life center
and and I think this is a great way of
illustrating of just how quickly the
market is developing in how the need for
speed and creativity is becoming the
central part of any business cell in
Iraq tell you what would happen because
I you know I research on this is finite
interesting iBM has 1500 seals what was
the most crucial competency of the air
and the companies to be able to survive
in the future and sixty percent of them
said creativity all right oh so
presenting you know in any ways it is
going to be yes more conversational as
you see yes but all so much
evolving and the demand of you coming up
with something creative is going to be
higher and higher yeah I’m so creative
thinking is going to be really something
that will help you to stand off and it
will help you through in the multi
billion market eventually ah but the
competition will be much much happier
than ever before yeah Peter we just have
to close the interview but I want to
have your three favorite tools mobile
apps or 23 website that you use for
business to be more productive more
creative if you have any top three will
be much appreciated to share it with you
with the viewers here yeah sure so I use
of course my email okay oh that’s what
I’m my top one to go to and my calendar
so these are these are pretty like
working like a gmail google yeah yeah i
use google calendar on my phone I have a
lot of trouble with it though I have to
admit and then to you know inspire me to
think creatively I like Spotify okay
that’s interesting so music listening
music around and stay in touch with
sweet and at least in your heart yes all
right Peter are ye thank you so much
which I like co-founder and CEO of Prezi
preziosi few never use Prezi it’s time
to start using it good luck for
everything when Peter thank you so much for your chatting thanks thanks Marco
digital domination summit 2013 and the
next guest is piotre RV co-founder and
CEO of Prezi hi Peter how you going I’m
doing great how are you everything
phenomenal we were talking a little bit
before to start this interview and I I
say to Peter look at you from Sweden
because often looks like you from hungry
because that we will see Prezi started
from hungry and it’s got a branch in
Hungary but you originally from Sweden
right yeah I was born and raised in
Sweden but my parents are actually from
Hungary so I actually speak Hungarian
myself and because my two co-founders
are from Hungary as well we started this
company in Budapest so back in two
thousand I left Sweden moved to Hungary
and yeah have a company nowadays of a
hundred and thirty people but eighty
percent of the company is actually based
in in Hungary he keep representing 22
different countries but still yeah
amazing by the way if i’m not wrong i
just try to remember I think you stream
is from Budapest or did they loaned you
from your email and and log me in as
well a lot of people don’t know this but
yeah hungary has actually quite a
virtual ground for startups to go from
yeah and as I told you before when I
know that someone is from Sweden I
always think that Sweden is a country
that born talents you know and I read
this book from taliban saw me a few
years ago the Black Swan I think was the
title and it was talking about how
suddenly someone or something can come
out from the middle of nowhere and
create amazing things as I told you it
was a table tennis player in Sweden got
some of the best table tennis players in
the history from nothing they came out
and wow they were amazing so also ready
you know they are you coming from Sweden
it for me you have this DNA Peter so
this is the well it’s not just in terms
sports but you know in terms of startups
and a lot of global brands are actually
coming from Sweden so everything from
Volvo to ericsson to a BB hmm Mikey like
API is the one that most people know
about you know these are global brands
that are being built from a tiny country
of northern Europe so per capita there’s
a lot of global companies being built
from from Sweden and skype by the way is
as another example but they have spotify
right I and many others I would like to
say yes also from Italy we have uh
nothing still nothing but we arrived
Italians you know arrived later but I I
know that my fellow Friday dire threats
will will come sooner or later with a
great start up so Peter if you came to
me okay i think was 2008-2009 that preds
start more or less bright and if in that
year you would come to me an imagined
that i was an investor and you come to
me and say alright Marco we want to do a
presentation platform that will attack
power point and we change the way of
presentation I would say Peter change it
up do another job because is it looks
little bit too difficult market is too
difficult competitors do stronger
everyone use only powerpoint and so on
and but you did it and now praise god i
think 20 million users unbelievable 93
yeah all right 23 so the big question is
how you did it because I I really can’t
believe how how you could do that also
in a very short period of time yeah I
think it’s a combination of at least two
things one a very unique approach and
looking at how ideas can be organized
you know in many ways Prezi you know
shares some qualities with whiteboards
what you see behind me here and also
slides because Prezi enables you to
connect your topics and in if you zoom
out to kind of see the big picture of
how
the ideas are related but you can zoom
in and focus on a particular topic and
when you do this combination of things
you kind of create a visual journey
that’s much more engaging and fun for
users than just the ordinary slideshow
so I think that unique approach really
captivates people and and if you look at
the users that we have today Prezi has
been spreading word by enough so we have
almost zero spending on marketing and
and it’s essentially the experience of
our product that you know enables us to
spread on a global level but having said
that you know we we had a good timing as
well because the the internet was just
mature enough to start doing more
advanced services in the browser
directly right and we started Prezi
maybe 10 years ago this wouldn’t have
been the case so so there was this very
particular point in time when when
advanced services something that could
really compete with you know the office
package could be put into a browser and
and not you know we were lucky very
lucky with that okay well London 23
million is a huge number so and you say
just a word of mouth created this kind
of phenomenal success yeah yeah price
yeah today you know today we’re adding
it one and a half million users per
month and and again this is happening to
people creating prezzies and showing
prezzies to other people if you like
what you see then you know you might get
interested in in in doing your own Prezi
and that’s how I isn’t keep spreading
right so this is one thing I’m reading a
book called the contagious that it is
starting the and researching how things
go viral basically but I also remember
an old book viral loop inside and so I
think one killer feature from form Prezi
is that is is viral by default because I
mean to use it you have to to show to
people and if you show to people you
immediate
say this is a Prezi presentation so if
you see it then if you liked you when i
use it so this is very yes very smart
right the other point is that i have to
say also yeah powerpoint was very strong
but also people hate powerpoint i have
to be honest i mean i do presentations
for 12 15 years now and I don’t use
PowerPoint I don’t remember the last
time I used PowerPoint because it’s
really really painful when you use it a
bit people all over the world we were
bombarded with the with powerpoints
ballots and said it’s so far from how a
real presentation is so this is also
another point that you you find the pain
and you solve the pain by telling a
story so that was very interesting but
also I think the overviews that you you
focus on ideas so instead of selling a
software because a lot of people sell
software to do presentations may be
different from preds about you know if
you focus on software people say okay
good is a software I use it if I need it
I think you going more on this idea
economy i would like to elaborate on
that for the motivation for us actually
many ways to build this company is
because we believe that the world is
changing this is not controversial we
also believe that the world is changing
in a positive direction now that would
be probably more disputed but it’s
interesting that when you look at the
charts of how the world is changing
almost any number you find on the big
picture level if you zoom out and take a
look at several hundred years everything
is pointing in a very positive direction
so we’re living longer and healthier and
in fact even more respectful lives so so
you know with life expectancy we can of
course measure our our health and that
most people know that we live longer and
healthier lives but then in addition
once you start looking at how people are
treating each other the same numbers
keep appearing homicide rates in the
last eight hundred years have been
you asleep going down so I would
recommend you to check out the book by
Steven Pinker for example a Harvard
professor that describes this very very
well and essentially the conclusion is
that even though we might live with the
idea that we’re in a terrible world and
there’s a lot of conflicts and friction
left I will be the first one to admit
that it seems like we’ve never lived in
such a peaceful and healthy and happy
time is today and the way we you know
change our behaviors is essentially by
people sharing ideas no so humans are
very very different from for example
animals you know this if you tried to
teach a dog various tricks for example
it takes a lot of time to you know just
transfer one idea but God we humans we
have this capacity incredible capacity
to share a lot of ideas and change our
behaviors extremely rapidly and that’s
kind of the explanation behind why you
know our economies are changing so
quickly all the time as well we went
from you know the agricultural to an
industrial now we’re probably going into
what i would call very much an idea
economy where we spend more time just
sharing ideas using tools like the
internet then we spend time on you know
growing food or manufacturing objects
right so because we believe that you
know idea sharing is becoming such a
central part of what we do and also
because we think that there at the heart
of improving the world we have Prezi we
essentially want to contribute to
accelerate that positive trend so how
can we inspire people to share more
ideas how can we make the ideas that
people share stick better and make it
easier to understand that’s what we’re
concerned with why that’s what in
essence motivates us and also better in
this way i would say doesn’t really
matter that of course technology matters
and softwares that you in the end sell
because the business
Indiana has to sustain itself but you
will adapt if this is the vision you
know you just learning what what in what
better inspire people will allow you to
change technology and adapt technology
to go in that direction right I guess
you know I think there’s a lot of other
you know really smart entrepreneurs that
have expressed this desire before that
how can you make the technology
invisible right and make the experience
and most important and for us the
experience that we’re dealing with is
enabling idea sharing yo so how can we
make the technology disappear but make
the idea come from the center yeah my
feeling Peters I would like to have your
opinion on this that because it is a
chance to talk with you and I’m thinking
I always thinking about presentations
because I’m forced to think about
presentation so for instance I I had to
do a presentation ten days ago in a
place where the average age was 85 years
old and I had to talk about internet
opportunities to people who don’t know
it not in turn about how to use a
computer so is you know difficult to
relate and you try to figure out what’s
the best way to connect with these
people if is showing a video or giving
an object or so and when you think about
presentation you really think what’s
next what really works how is the
context and and so on so I was trying to
understand what is the right direction
of presentations in this moment because
we have Ted for months now for
presentations for instance that is also
invest right thinking I in Prezi and and
there is a strong connection with the
with Prezi so which is basically a
person giving a talk with showing images
or text or videos with whatever cells or
they use so this is a format or I don’t
know we have can academy where there is
the kind of this guy you know on a dark
or
dashboard explaining writings and this
is another format that one some people
like some people don’t like so what’s
the do you think the way to go because I
feel that you know this is not
connecting with the audience yet it’s
still something where there is someone
who too is very like television for me
where you talk in front of a camera and
that’s it but the audience is little bit
just they’re listening what’s next we
don’t think well well i think you know i
just want to preface and say i think a
lot of TED Talks actually does a good
job with connecting but but but let me
let me suggest that actually science can
help us to understand the future
direction a lot nowadays there’s all
sorts of really exciting research being
done in terms of understanding how our
brains work young and and you know what
essentially is becoming clearer is what
makes information possible to penetrate
our thick skull and and it turns out
that you know if you package information
in certain ways it’s much easier for us
to both understand and remember it so
for example visual and spatial
information leaves a much deeper imprint
on our brains then your textual this is
very clear so I’ll give you an example
of this if I asked you right now to tell
me what are the kitchen appliances that
you have prime and probably what you’re
doing right now is imagining yourself in
your kitchen looking around and naming
the different things now what you’re not
doing is equally important you’re not
creating a list neither bullet point
neither alphabetize but the reason why
you’re not creating a text is because
it’s just a very very small portion of
your brain that’s dedicated for textual
understanding whereas if you didn’t have
this visual spatial part of your your
brain then you couldn’t find your way
between your office and your home right
so if you can tell a story and actually
put it out in in a visual spatial format
and people are more likely to both
understand and remember what you have to
say and by the way there’s a very funny
kind of insight here even the old Greeks
when they memorized their talks you know
too in the very early stages of
democracy they would use something
called math after the low key yo which
is the word for place because they would
place out there talks in the room and as
they would stand up to talk on the
podium they will do essentially a mental
walkthrough of that room right now this
can be used by presenters as well so if
you can map out your story and take
people on a visual journey and they are
more likely to understand and remember
what you have to say and this is
actually many ways a part of what’s
inspired us at crazy as well so if you
can if you think about price it’s kind
of a spatial metaphor instead of a
paginate in metaphor yeah so you know
slides are essentially like books in a
page but the Prezi zooming world is much
more like a room that you step into and
then you kind of step back to look at
the big picture and you go in to see a
certain part of the room in very many
ways similar to what you’d expect you
know when you imagine your kitchen you
know you step in your kitchen you see
the big part of the base over to the
desk and then you look there well my
point being that it’s clearly so that
certain types of information is more
engaging than others for our brains
because we have on an evolutionary basis
in developing to consume certain types
of information more than others right
and and and what I think will be the
future of presentations but also the
future of human-computer interaction
will be a very physical
very responsive metaphor that will
resemble always more real-world than it
resembles a very artificial world of
books for example okay and and so you
can almost think about this even in the
in in the way that web pages are built
up you know a hyperlink is essentially
an ability for walk to walk to a
different part of a room where as you
know if you’re reading a book you’re
essentially forced to go through this
long long sequence without the ability
to change direction and and and that’s
that’s I think what these spatial
metaphors affords us the Challenger um
Peter one important thing to go with
tips for entrepreneurs or business
watching this video and often I I think
the problem when you do a presentation
whatever you pitch I mean if you picture
startup if you are doing a presentation
your boss with your new idea whatever
what what sort of presentation you’re
doing is that you start from from zero
and I give an example sometimes I see
presentations from very famous people
and they just go on the stage and say hi
and people oh that’s amazing reaction is
immediate it’s like if you go to a
concert and there is a very famous
Italian concert that always start to a
concert by saying oh and people oh you
know a crazy they go crazy for just you
know if I do it people throw at the
objects so the problem is with
businesses that often you have to
inspire your partner your boss your
client whatever but you talk with people
who really don’t want to listen to you
you have no that authority so it’s very
difficult because you start from zero
you don’t have a clock or below zero
yeah or below
zero so in your experience what are your
suggestion how can you can you deliver a
great presentation even when you start
in such a difficult situation yeah yeah
so in in this situation people are kind
of wanting to find the silver bullet
solution but the truth is there is no
silver bullet solution every situation
is unique and if there’s one thing that
I would recommend this to really try to
understand the situation that you’re
going to end up before you start
thinking about you know how am I going
to deliver my idea right so
understanding your audience
understanding what frame of mind they
are in why are they even coming to the
meeting what are they hoping to leave
after the meeting with understanding all
of those parts is kind of essential even
before you start thinking about okay
what should I talk about and then of
course you always have your own agenda
you know you might want to you know
explain to them why internet is
important as in your case or or whatever
but right but if you can’t understand
why the people are coming to listen to
you then it’s a very high risk that you
know you start talking about things that
are not relevant or interesting right so
I think framing things in a way that
actually generates value for the
audience is the way that you generate
enthusiasm and interest because then
people feel like you’re not doing this
to serve yourself but you’re doing that
to actually read them on to them help
them and that’s true young right and if
you take the effort to really understand
them and and and why you’re doing this
then you know you can actually provide
inspiration and insight and knowledge to
detail and often you have to adapt and
you discover based on the audience that
when you when you meet them then you you
discover it like sometimes i think is
like
with cakes you know you decide to may
before but you should give the name of
your baby when you sing or when you sear
you know because only when you see him
you think I gosh this name it doesn’t
really work so probably something
similar representation and there’s
research on what you say as well
actually so a lot of people if they are
skeptical to your idea actually it helps
a lot to be very responsive to their
concerns so one of the worst things that
you can do if people are kind of you
know not really interested open-minded
about what you’re about to say you need
to kind of include their opinions and
their thought somehow yeah you know a
lot of people say that some of the best
salespeople are not the sales people who
know how to talk for 15 minutes in a in
a in a beautifully engaging way but that
is equally capable of listening right
and actively listening not just you know
pretending to listen but we may think
about okay what does this mean and i can
put myself in your shoes and you know
how can then I be of help no rival
situation I like this point Peter is it
i think is very very important include
the Dubs the criticisms that audience at
already have and you have to you know
talk about it and take find the right
way to go to your to your point in yet
very important do you have any case
history that you think wow they really
did an amazing job using prezi or or
doing a presentation that you think
would be a good role model for for
people willing to do a great
presentation in business yeah i think
that so for for recently you know just
last week this company or the phone
launched their product this is a quite
cool company they do an iphone based
instrument and they built you know they
put your iphone in essentially in in a
wooden
structure and then it turns into an
instrument so you use the iphone to kind
of the keys about them you have extra
keys also on this wooden structure is
very cool so what’s interesting about
them is is in many ways they use Prezi
in how we see with many of our users
which is a use Prezi really not just to
present ideas with but also to develop
the ideas with so I mentioned to you
that you know it we have some things in
common with white boards and some things
in common it’s light and and what we see
in the example of RT phone is a they
created three rapid prototyping with
with Prezi and them essentially designed
the product using Prezi they were
distributed in in various cities across
the u.s. and then they kind of have this
large canvas where they were putting all
of their ideas to see how they match up
and discover new connections that they
didn’t know existed so they were
developing their story by working
together and not just you know taking a
story making it beautiful and then
selling it right and when in fact what
what we see a lot is this kind of if I
would say the old-fashioned way of
thinking around presentation is probably
okay I’m going to do a great
presentation and I’m going to do it the
hundred times or whatever it takes to
get the investment or come into the
audience or whatever and what we see it
right now I think is that ideas
developed constantly so how can you
facilitate you know the evolution of an
idea rather than making one perfect ID
and then just doing that a hundred guys
right and and if you can help them the
kind of the cycle time between thinking
and booing then you
actually a competitive advantage this
goes back to actually the reasoning
around the idea colony because in a
world where we have 2.5 billion people
connected to the Internet you’ve never
been able to have such a huge audience
available to you with the click of a
button right but to stay original in
this world we requires you to think
creatively and develop your ideas fast
all the time because there’s probably a
few hundred thousand other people who
are thinking about the other things
right now yeah so how can you kind of
keep evolving your idea constantly while
you how beautiful and inspiring stories
that I think is the challenge that’s the
challenge for a lot of people and not
just intrapreneurs by the way even the
biggest companies as well yeah I mean I
me name a very interesting fact on that
sewing that time that my parents have
been around the average life lifes ham
of the most successful companies here on
the US market the top 500 companies had
gone from 61 years to 18 years Wow a
drastic reduction in another life center
and and I think this is a great way of
illustrating of just how quickly the
market is developing in how the need for
speed and creativity is becoming the
central part of any business cell in
Iraq tell you what would happen because
I you know I research on this is finite
interesting iBM has 1500 seals what was
the most crucial competency of the air
and the companies to be able to survive
in the future and sixty percent of them
said creativity all right oh so
presenting you know in any ways it is
going to be yes more conversational as
you see yes but all so much
evolving and the demand of you coming up
with something creative is going to be
higher and higher yeah I’m so creative
thinking is going to be really something
that will help you to stand off and it
will help you through in the multi
billion market eventually ah but the
competition will be much much happier
than ever before yeah Peter we just have
to close the interview but I want to
have your three favorite tools mobile
apps or 23 website that you use for
business to be more productive more
creative if you have any top three will
be much appreciated to share it with you
with the viewers here yeah sure so I use
of course my email okay oh that’s what
I’m my top one to go to and my calendar
so these are these are pretty like
working like a gmail google yeah yeah i
use google calendar on my phone I have a
lot of trouble with it though I have to
admit and then to you know inspire me to
think creatively I like Spotify okay
that’s interesting so music listening
music around and stay in touch with
sweet and at least in your heart yes all
right Peter are ye thank you so much
which I like co-founder and CEO of Prezi
preziosi few never use Prezi it’s time
to start using it good luck for
everything when Peter thank you so much for your chatting thanks thanks Marco
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