PHIL SIMON
For years I’ve railed against ugly and inefficient slides and decks.
I’m talking about monstrosities such as this one:
Somewhere in Vegas no one is listening.
If you think that few people in attendance were paying attention to this speaker, trust your instincts.
Many people tolerate awful slides because they’re used to them.
That’s not to say, though, that you can’t can spruce up your slides. I’m a big fan of simple animations. You can use fewer bullet points. Videos are also easy to insert. If you really want to present in a different way, then Prezi is an interesting option—although I have found that it can cause motion sickness. For its part, Loom lets people record simple videos like this one.
I’d wager that, for people of a certain age, the types of presentations that they give haven’t changed much over the past 20 years.
Enter mmhmm
The possibilities are limitless. I’m frothing at the mouth.
Against this backdrop, I’m particularly excited about mmhmm. I envision being able to give talks, presentations, and lectures à la John Stewart, John Oliver, or Hasan Minhaj. Professors can engage their students far better than they currently do, especially when giving remote classes. (To be fair, I expect many if not most of them to resist mmhmm and its ilk.)
On a personal level, I could see redoing a few of my Udemy courses. I’d use it for training purposes. The possibilities are limitless. Think Zoom virtual backgrounds on steroids. I’m frothing at the mouth.
Check out a preview of it below.
Oh, and mmhmm works with Zoom, YouTube, and other videoconferencing services.1
Simon Says: Thanks to mmhmm, we will be able to create more engaging presentations.
I’ve been searching for a tool like this for years. Even if mmhmm sputters, expect Microsoft, Cisco, Facebook, Zoom, and other heavyweights to take notice.
This. Is. A. Big. Deal.
This looks amazing! I hope it’s as easy to use as they make it look in the video.
Can’t wait to get my invite to mmhmm. Question given you mentioned Loom: Is using Loom better or the same as having a single-person zoom meeting where you share your screen and record? I’ll share one I bet you know — having a set of Zoom backgrounds lined up such that you can switch the the background to match the section of the material your covering (think of me as a Weather-guru). That’s what I’ll be doing until I get mmhmm…unless I do the deep dive on OBS (not to stream, but just to get the over the should capabilities. Thanks for this. Looking forward to what you do with mmhmm.
They fundamentally serve the same purpose, but Loom allows me to record my face as well as the screen. I suspect that Zoom will be adding some very cool features know that it has addressed the security concerns.