Prezi announces Google Slides integration

Prezi users can now import presentations from Google Slides directly into Prezi Video, the company announced Thursday. This is the latest in a series of integrations with online video and collaboration tools. 

This change makes it easier for people to use existing presentations built in other formats with Prezi Video.

“We’ve seen so many users come on board and use a cloud-native platform like Google Workspace,” Prezi CEO Jim Szafranski said. “They’ve been able to use Prezi Video with workarounds and now they can do it directly.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, businesses have turned to video conferencing to keep daily operations running. Most video conferencing platforms have seen a spike in use and Zoom has become a verb as well as a very profitable company. In February 2020, Zoom added more users than it did during the entire previous year. In Q1 2020, Zoom’s revenue was $122 million. In Q1 2021, that number went up to $328 million.

Prezi Video allows users to present videos, GIFs, presentations, images, and type text on-screen of a live or recorded video. In addition to Google Meet, Prezi Video works with all major video streaming platforms, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoToMeeting. Prezi announced an integration with Google Workspace earlier this year. 

SEE: Zoom videoconferencing: A cheat sheet (Free PDF) (TechRepublic)

“In newscaster mode, now I can very quickly have me and my content side by side without having to author a new presentation in Prezi,” he said. 

Presenters see the same content that audience members see during a video session. The Prezi video app runs alongside Zoom. Prezi Video uses a virtual camera to merge the presenter’s content and camera feed and present the combined information back to the video streaming platform. 

Szafranski said he has seen a new trend among business users of using Prezi Video to change how meetings are run. Business leaders record their remarks and send out the presentation before the scheduled meeting. Colleagues can watch the presentation ahead of time and then use the scheduled meeting time to discuss the content.

Prezi records presentations for board meetings ahead of time and posts the recordings in the company Slack channel.

“People like to have the flexibility around time and place by mixing live and recorded meetings,” he said. “If you give employees tools like this, they’ll find creative ways to connect with customers.” 

Szafranski said he has seen much more use of the asynchronous approach in education but expects to see this tactic expand among business users.  

“Remote employees feel way more included with this format and people are starting to get more comfortable with having the follow-up conversation in Slack,” he said.

He said that people also are using Prezi Video to record short snippets to promote upcoming meetings. 

“We’ve seen people record the agenda slide or send a three-minute clip the day before a meeting to show that they are prepared for a meeting and have interesting content,” he said. 

SEE: Prezi Video introduces live editing tool for video calls (TechRepublic)

He also has seen more people use Prezi Video to experiment with an asynchronous approach to meetings. 

“If you’re doing a one-to-many lecture, you can record it and let people consume it on their own time,” he said. “When people start recording meetings, they don’t have to crowd calendars.”

Szafranski said that these recordings also are a good way to introduce new team members to a project.  

Szafranski said that the company has 100 million users in education and business. Prezi Video launched in November 2019 as the company anticipated an increase in more online presentations. 

“We were able to really help our users when the pandemic hit and we saw our education base start recording their lessons and sending it out to students,” Szafranski said.

According to the company, Prezi Video is used in 150,000 organizations around the world and half the school districts in the US.

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