Prezi is web-based presentation software, created in Hungary.
This freedom of movement enables “conversational presenting,†a presentation style in which presentations follow the flow of dialogue, instead of vice-versa.
The company that develops Prezi, also called Prezi, was founded in Budapest, Hungary in 2009, and has additional offices in San Francisco and Mexico City. As of March 2017, Prezi had reportedly over 75 million users, who had created more than 260 million prezis.
The company launched Prezi Business in 2016, with a suite of creation, collaboration, and analytics tools for teams. Prezi Business is an HTML5 application that runs on JavaScript.
The word Prezi is the short form of “presentation†in Hungarian.
History
Prezi was founded in 2009 in Budapest, Hungary by Adam Somlai-Fischer, Peter Halacsy, and Peter Arvai.
The earliest zooming presentation prototype had been previously developed by Somlai-Fischer to showcase his media-art pieces. Peter Halacsy, an engineer, saw one of these presentations and proposed improving the software. They were joined by entrepreneur and future CEO, Peter Arvai, with the goal of making Prezi a globally recognized SaaS company.
The company incorporated on May 20, 2009 and received its first major investment from TED two months later. In November 2009, a San Francisco office was opened and the first US employee was hired.
In early 2011, Prezi launched its first iPad application. That same year, it received $14M in Series B venture capital funding led by Accel Partners. A Prezi iPhone app was launched in late 2012.
In March 2014, Prezi pledged $100M in free licenses to Title 1 schools as part of the Obama administration’s ConnectED program. November of that year saw the announcement of $57M in new funding from Spectrum Equity and Accel Partners.
Prezi for Android was launched in 2015, and in June 2016, the company launched Prezi Business.
Products and features
Prezi
The company’s flagship platform is a visual storytelling software alternative to traditional slide-based presentation formats. Prezi presentations feature a map-like, schematic overview that lets users pan among topics at will, zoom in on desired details, and pull back to reveal context.
Prezi Business
Built especially for professionals, the Prezi Business platform combines Prezi’s core features with business-focused productivity tools, including real-time data analytics, integration with the business collaboration platform Slack, commenting and co-editing features, and the Live Prezi feature, with virtual meeting rooms for hosting remote Prezi presentations.
Platform compatibility
Prezi is developed in Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR and built on top of Django. It is compatible with most modern computers and web browsers. Prezi Next does not support Internet Explorer.
Prezi Business is an HTML5 application which runs on JavaScript. It also is compatible with most modern systems.
Uses
Conferences
Prezi’s visual storytelling capabilities make it a popular choice for speakers at large functions. The platform has been used by the Clinton Foundation, Lufthansa, IBM, The Independent, and is a staple at both SXSW and TED.
Business
Prezi Business is designed specifically for sales and marketing professionals. The platform couples non-linear presenting with business-focused features such as collaboration, Slack integration, and analytics that let presenters see how their content performs after it is shared.
Education
Prezi’s interactive nature makes it a popular classroom tool. The company has worked closely with the ConnectED initiative since its inauguration by President Barack Obama in 2013, providing free Prezi licenses to hundreds of thousands of Title 1 high school teachers across the nation.
Conversational Presenting
The term “conversational presenting†was coined by the company in 2015 to describe the organic flow of information Prezi enables. By letting presenters adapt the order of their content delivery, this method allows questions and concerns to be addressed as they arise, rather than according to a scripted path.
Revenue model
Prezi uses the freemium model. Presentations created using the product's free Public license type appear on the Prezi.com website, which is publicly viewable. Customers who pay for an Enjoy, Pro, or Pro Plus license can control their presentations’ privacy settings. Pro and Pro Plus users have access to the Prezi desktop app, which enables offline editing. Prezi also offers an educational license for students and educators, as well as Prezi Business, which is designed specifically for teams.
Criticism and accessibility
Some elements of Prezi presentations cannot be read aloud by means of a screen reader for users with disabilities. (It is not possible to add alt attributes to images and iframes used for the page design, and templates have been built to work without accessibility options.) American educators have been advised that Prezi is not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA/508). The company has created a set of tips on making Prezi presentations ADA-compliant.
To combat early criticisms that the “zooming user interface (ZUI)†had the potential to induce nausea, Prezi added built-in motion guideposts to all later iterations, including Prezi Business.
See also
- Data visualization
- Presentation program
- Productivity software
- Scientific visualization
References
External links
- Official website