Why you should now rely on visual elements in presentations - more than ever

July 12, 2019

Industry 4.0, digitalization, social media - the world we live in is changing rapidly. Lukas Keller, CEO & Chief Presentation Officer of presono, explains why presentations are becoming more and more important and why visual elements are so central to this, in an interview.

What developments have there been in companies in recent years?

The topic of digitization occupies our everyday life and the whole world. This is particularly evident in industry: Artificial intelligence, new technologies and digitized products mean major changes for everyday working life. For employees, business partners and customers, this raises many questions. In addition, not only products and corporate structures, but the entire market is evolving. In the meantime, in most segments there is not just one or two, but numerous providers offering similar products and services.

How does this affect presentations?

In a working world that is becoming increasingly complex, it is essential to gather the relevant stakeholders in order to jointly pursue the path to digitization. Change always starts with doubt and skepticism - but mistrust should not lead to closing one's mind to progress. Instead, the necessity and potential of presentations are anchored here: Because the new conditions of the digitized world need one thing above all else: Explanation! With the help of presentations, the new developments must be explained to a company's customers and business partners, but also to its own employees, in a clear and understandable way.

The same applies to the ever growing market. The competition never sleeps and it is important to stand out at trade fairs or in sales. An appealing presentation design can not only attract attention, but can even be decisive when it comes to setting yourself apart from other suppliers.

How does presono meet the challenges of corporate presentations in times of digitalization and industry 4.0?

Studies show that many people are still critical of the possibilities of digitization. In order to meet this challenge and reduce mistrust, interactivity in presentations is a must. Because responding to questions in a concrete way ensures faster acceptance and approval. By moving away from a linear presentation structure with successive slides, presono presentations can be adapted individually and audience-oriented. In contrast to classic tools, such as PowerPoint, topics can be individually deepened and questions can be clarified during the presentation.

In addition, the correct presentation and a pictorial design is particularly important for particularly multilayered and complex topics. In today's industry, we are often dealing with products that require special explanation. A simple picture of the product is often not enough to explain it in its entirety. presono offers the possibility to integrate 3-D rendered product images or pdf documents natively into presentations. This helps to present even sophisticated content in an individual and understandable way and to pick up the audience in the right way.

You mention the growing importance of correct display. What developments have there been in recent years in terms of illustration and visualization?

Scrolling through the news feed in social media is enough to see it: The world is getting more and more colorful and one short, tasty visual stimulus chases the next. We are living in an "Age of Visuality", which is characterized by a turning away from text and a turning towards pictures, videos and visual representations. This change is also noticeable in corporate cultures: More and more emphasis is being placed on social networks, corporate websites and the like, while classic presentations are increasingly fading into the background. With regard to the "Age of Visuality", this is not an astonishing development, because the social network offers endless visual possibilities, which are exactly adapted to this focus on the sense of sight. And this phenomenon is not without reason, because in fact the appeal of the visual is anchored in us in terms of developmental psychology: it has been proven that 80% of what we remember is based on visual impressions. While, on the other hand, only 10 to 20% of all memories have a core that is based on text or speech.

How does presono react to the "Age of Visuality"?

Visual aspects are more easily remembered, are better processed and convey emotions. All this makes visuality so important for companies - and therefore also for presentations. Presono has recognized the potential of visuality and brought web technologies into the world of presentation. This means that multimedia presentations and menu structures, as we know them today from the world of web or apps, are now also possible in presentations.

What will presentations have to do in the future to keep up with the growing challenges in the industry?

Progress in industry and in everyday life knows no end. And it is precisely these new challenges that make presentations more important than ever before. Because in a world that is becoming more and more complex, a solution is needed that makes exactly that understandable. But the resulting growing need for explanation of products and content and the increasing turn towards visualization also make the innovation of presentation solutions necessary. Presono offers a digital presentation tool that is tailored to companies and their individual current needs. Interactivity, visuality and multimedia are the focus of the presentation design.