Scouring the nation’s talent for producing best-in-class presentations and encouraging effective, expressive delivery using Pocket Projection

Bracknell, UK, 11 April 2011 – The Mobile Interactive Solutions Division (MISD) of diversified technology company 3M has launched a new initiative with SlideShare, the world's largest community for sharing presentations. To celebrate the UK availability of the 3M Pocket Projector MP180, the campaign was designed to expose the crème de la crème of SlideShare’s community in a bid to prove to the nation that presentations are not what they once were – that the age of convoluted statistics and cheesy clipart is over and we can now get excited by the inspirational to the beautiful, the creative to the powerful.


3M Pocket Projector MP180“People’s expectations are becoming more sophisticated and, for many, long, uninspiring and badly formatted presentations are no longer acceptable,” said Nick Hughes, Marketing Manager, 3M MISD. “A good presentation delivered ineffectively can potentially tarnish brand image, but we see new standards being set as people inject energy and creativity into the making of presentations. Through this campaign we can raise awareness of this new era, reward people with recognition for their work and encourage the concept of effective delivery. This is where pocket projection comes into force.”

The 3M United Kingdom plc blog on SlideShare recently encouraged users to participate in “Good Business Communication Delivered Effectively: The Contest” where they could tag their presentations in one of four categories and be accredited with a 3M Pocket Projector MP180 seal of excellence. The finalists from the competition are available on the Slideshare blog at http://www.slideshare.net/3MUKPLC/blog.

The categories were:

Creative genius (tag: 3MGenius)
Less about substance and more about style, this category is a celebration of beauty and innovation.  Media rich presentations that make the most of video, imagery, animation, typography, graphics and colour are what 3M is looking for - Behold! Generation Y presenting at its best.

Inform. Educate. Inspire (tag: 3MInform)
Presentations are perfectly set up to educate, but over the years people have become complacent. This category is looking for the fresh angle, the innovative slant on informing an audience. Whether it’s a product, a brand, an idea or concept, the challenge here is to teach something new in an inspirational way.

The Power Pitch (tag: 3MPitch)
In this category 3M is seeking the perfect elevator pitch. The key words here being ‘clarity’ and ‘concise’ - presentations that clearly do the job that they were intended to do in as few slides as possible.

Making the Boring Beautiful (tag: 3MBeautiful)
We’re talking stats, stats, stats! Very few of us like them, but can’t live without them. Innovation with data visualisation is the key to this category – the art of making the dull and complicated seem exciting and engaging. Any budding presentation-Picasso’s please head this way.