Microsoft
PowerPoint would probably be considered as more of an emergent technology rather than emerging
technology these days. And unfortunately, since its introduction in 1990,
most of the upgrades/updates to this ubiquitous presentation software seem to
have been more evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

So, you may
ask, why am I writing about an almost 17 year old application when people are
talking about Windows Live and
Vista? Well it’s because,
while PowerPoint hasn’t really changed that much since it’s inception, it still
has become the most widely used
presentation tool in businesses and other organizations—though it’s probably
lost some market share recently to Apple’s elegant Keynote—but more importantly,
many third-party vendors have developed new and innovative add-on’s that truly
enhance and extend the use of PowerPoint “beyond bullet points” (to quote Cliff Atkinson).

For
example, I have to highlight two of the coolest, most-innovative
PowerPoint-enhancing tools (IMHO) that I’ve seen so far: (1) Turning Point’s ARS solution and (2)
Impatica’s BlackBerry
applications…

Anyone
who’s ever used an Audience Response System (ARS) will know what a powerful
tool it can be for audience interaction, identifying knowledge gaps, and
measuring learning. However, it can also be very cost-prohibitive to contract
specialized ARS vendors to run even a small event. So, something like this DIY
solution that integrates directly with PowerPoint could really open up this
option to a much larger market and have significant impact on ROI and ROE (Return
on Education).

And as for
the ability to (re)view and project a PowerPoint presentation via a
BlackBerry—well, I think that needs little explanation or justification. What a
great backup for times when the laptop goes south!

Anyway, a
recent article in the May 2006
issue of INC. magazine, “Making Your
(Power) Point,” features several applications “…that can help make your next presentation less of a snooze and more of
a blockbuster.” So following that lead, I thought I would mention a few of
these PowerPoint-augmenting technologies in this post and also add a few more that
I believe deserve a mention in this category as well.

Good
Resources
- Indezine
(a comprehensive list of add-ons, including reviews)
- Presenters University

Hardware/Projection Add-ons
- DigiSlide
(Miniature Projection Technology)
- Impatica: Viewing and delivering PPT via
BlackBerry
- Turning Point (Audience Response
System)

Converters
for Online Distribution
- Adobe/Macromedia Breeze
- Articulate Presenter
- Camtasia
- Impatica for PowerPoint

Charts/Graphs
- GlobFX Swiff Chart
- Fusion Charts
- Rich Chart
Builder

Presentation Management
- Freepath by Grassroots (presentation
manager)
- Ontra (PPT file management
system)

Others
- Ovation
(including Timekeeper
and Teleprompter)
- Thermometer (“progress bar”)

One other thing to keep in mind is that all the technology in the world still
cannot help a bad presentation/presenter. So here are some resources that
address the issue of delivering good presentations:

- Beyond Bullets
- Presentaiton
Zen
- “Stop your
presentation before it kills again!” (by
Kathy Sierra)
- The Work
of Edward Tufte
-  Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes