Chelsi Nakano
September 11, 2015
The invariability of a slide-based rundown of tools and features can make it difficult to sell an audience on a single product, let alone a handful. However, when the same information is turned from a list to a story, the likelihood of grabbing attention—and keeping it—is infinitely higher, no matter how much there is to tell.
Visual Storytelling and Collaboration
Inhi Suh, IBM’s VP of Big Data, found this to be true when she used Prezi at IBM Insight, the largest big data and analytics conference in the world. Tasked with introducing a new suite of solutions, she and her widely-divided team worked across geographies to come up with a story that tracked a day in office life. The result was a visually compelling prezi that revealed the company’s new tools and features as they became relevant to the overarching narrative.
Just as importantly, each team member was able to contribute their ideas and feedback, regardless of location, as well as actually see changes being made to the presentation in real time. In the end, nothing barred Suh and her team from completing a project intended for thirteen thousand people in just two weeks.
Powering Modern Thought
While the presentation was a clear success, for Suh, the big win was the way Prezi empowered change despite company size and long-established practices. While traditional tools would have likely yielded traditional output, Suh’s focus on visually collaborative methods facilitated a new way of thinking about work and process.
“Prezi allowed us to try new things and experiment in ways we wouldn’t have been able to with the tools we’re used to,” she explained. “We literally couldn’t translate our typical way of working into the platform; we had to consider every facet of the project from a fresh angle, and it made such a wonderful difference.”
