Exclusive Interview with Art Holden of Presenter Media
PresenterMedia is a company located in Sioux Falls, USA and created by a group of artists. Art Holden is president at PresenterMedia.com and now we are pleased to announce that we have the opportunity to interview him exclusively for FPPT. PresenterMedia.com has a diverse clientele including Fortune 500 companies, home offices, educators, students and even religious organizations who trust in their premium presentation templates and services. Here you can learn more about the company, their success and future plans.
We have prepared some questions to which Art kindly agreed to answer.
Q. Can please tell us what are your services and products, when did you get started with the business and what was the business opportunity you see in the market?
A. PresenterMedia features royalty-free PowerPoint templates, 3D animations, video backgrounds and clipart to allow people to easily design their own professional presentations. My partners and I were once the creative staff for Animation Factory. After changes in Animation Factory ownership in 2009, we were afforded the opportunity to start PresenterMedia. We had a lot of experience building PowerPoint designs and animations. PresenterMedia just naturally grew out of that expertise.
Q. Was chance or coincidence that your first name is Art and you became an artist by profession?
A. It is ironic. Maybe my parents knew something I didn’t? I actually went to school to study botany, but I ended up getting inspired by visual effects and animations when my father gave me a video camera when I went to college.
Q. We can see you have a lot of 3D Presentations and 3D backgrounds in your website. What do you think are the benefits for a presenter to use animated 3D designs instead of using just static 2D illustrations or plain slides?
A. PowerPoint by design is a visual multi-media platform. Animations and 3D graphics are a natural extension of PowerPoint’s abilities. Animation has the power to capture attention and convey a higher impact than text or static imagery alone. I like to compare animations in PowerPoint to salt. A dish without salt is bland and boring, but too much ruins the meal. Using a small bit of animation can elevate a bland presentation to a whole new level.
Q. Nowadays there is a general discussion and anti-PowerPoint campaigns but we all know that PowerPoint is just a tool that can be used in good or bad ways. However, what are your thoughts about anti-PowerPoint campaigns? Can we blame PowerPoint for any bad presentation?
A. PowerPoint gets a bad rap. It is actually a very powerful visual tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. Too often PowerPoint becomes a crutch instead of the brilliant communications tool it actually is. Presenters too often simply read from over crowed, bullet point riddled slides. That’s a sure path to ‘Death by PowerPoint.’ With a little planning and preparation along with some eye-catching animation and design, the same presentation can inspire or educate. PresenterMedia’s goal is to help our subscribers elevate their presentations and reach their audience.
Q. If you have to recommend us a page on your site, what would it be and why?
A. Certainly the most popular section of our service is the pre-designed animated PowerPoint templates. There are several designs for a variety of industries and subjects. Starting with right template is a quick, easy, and effective way to add professionalism to your final presentation.
Q. We have seen that PresenterMedia has had a very significant growth since its inception. What to do you envision for the company in the long term?
A. In addition to continuing to grow our library of presentation content, there are several exciting features we are adding to our services. We are about to release PresenterMedia as an Microsoft Office add-in which allow all our features to be accessed directly inside PowerPoint. Plus we are looking at increasing our customizable graphics and animations. We are also working on expanding our services on mobile devices like the iPad.
Go to PresenterMedia.com
