How to make your presentations and lightning talks more interesting

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

As someone who has been attending Lightning Talk events as a listener and as a speaker, creating a visually appealing presentation is just one of the components to keep listeners interested in making a talk.

Among the most popular and widely used tools are Microsoft PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides. But its basic features are too plain and too boring, and adding visually entertaining components could take a certain learning curve to implement.

With the rise of AI tools in tech, there’s even more chance of increasing productivity when using an AI-powered tool to create presentations.

Instant, for example, can be installed as a browser extension to power Google Slides with AI. But there are tons of available resources nowadays that do not limit us to add-ons to existing software.

Here are a few tools that I would recommend to power-charge your lightning talks with the help of AI

1. Gamma - I’ve started using Gamma since its public beta started last year, and I’ve been using it ever since. I initially started using it because of its markdown support and beautiful pre-made themes, but now it also makes use of AI in the form of a Design Partner and image generator.
   At the moment, Gamma is available as a web app and as a Windows app.
   Gamma is available for free but can be upgraded to Pro to get rid of the Gamma logo on the presentations and get more credits to generate images using the image generator.
   Note: the provided link is an affiliate link. Signing up using the link may give me some compensation.

2. Beautiful AI - This is probably the most popular tool I’ve come across when looking at AI-supported presentation tools. It has a Designer bot to help generate presentations, outlines, and images. Beautiful AI is a paid service that requires a monthly subscription starting at $12 a month.

3. Tome - Tome makes use of a collaborative AI partner that can generate presentations based on entered prompts. It can also rewrite the text, adjust the tone, reduce the text, or extend it. Tome does not show its pricing model on its main page so I could only assume it’s available for free but also upgradeable to premium.

4. Decktopus - Aside from being a presentation generator, Decktopus also offers solutions for link-in-bio, microsite, sales funnel, mail signature link, portfolio, form, proposal, and lead generation.
   Decktopus has a slide notes maker available to serve as a guide during presentations, as well as form inputs, a voice recorder, a custom domain, and a webhook.
   Decktopus is a paid service that starts at $ 14.99/month for Pro AI. Currently, they are offering a 50% discount on all plans for students.

5. Slides AI - Unlike the previously mentioned applications, Slides AI is an installable add-on in the Google workspace and can be used directly with Google Slides.
   With the basic plan, 3 presentations can be generated for free but it can be upgraded to a Pro or Premium Plan. Some upcoming features in Slides AI include an add-on for PowerPoint, document upload, and video export.

6. Pitch - Pitch lets users directly take video recordings to create video presentations. Aside from that, it also provides presentation analytics, engagement analytics, presentation embeds, and PDF and PowerPoint exports. It’s made available for teams to seamlessly interact with pitches and easily collaborate.
   Pitch can be downloaded as a desktop application for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android.

7. Deckify - Deckify makes use of a short, intuitive questionnaire to guide the user through the process of generating and customizing their presentation. It doesn’t look like it has completely customizable themes available aside from the range of color themes provided. There’s not enough information provided on the website regarding any available app integrations.
   Deckify starts with a Free plan that has 2 presentations available but can be upgraded to a monthly or yearly plan at $10/month and $99/year respectively.

Summary