I'm finally willing to admit that multimedia has a place in business. And since I'm a project manager with marketing duties there seems to be a place for it in my business life. Multimedia has matured in the last year or two and has become an invaluable tool for almost any business executive.
January 8, 1997
I used to be able to get away with delivering presentations in black and white on paper. Then I had to move to overhead transparencies and then I had to get an artsy type here in the office to make fancy color overheads for me on his Mac. Now I need an even geekier guy to help me prepare full-blown multimedia presentations I can take on the road to show with my laptop. The title of the book and the fact that the author, Jeff Burger, is a big name in multimedia journalism (he wrote The Desktop Multimedia Bible) lead me to believe Multimedia for Decision Makers, a Business Primer would fit right in with my needs for more information about how to get out first class multimedia presentations. The book is definitely aimed at people in business situations like myself but is disappointing because it spends too many pages talking about the "why" of multimedia and the "how" coverage is a little too basic and superficial for my particular use.
I need multimedia and don't have the time or inclination to prepare my own presentations. I need an in-house geek to do it for me and Multimedia for Decision Makers, a Business Primer pretty much describes the process of getting that done. The book is designed for use by mid and upper level managers that need to know more or less how multimedia presentations are put together and which tools are used so they can intelligently help design their own presentations. My opinion is that most managers in that position either already know which types of computer equipment they will need to do the job or do not care and will rely on their geek to know what they need. I already know and I don't care. There is a lot of space in this book that is wasted on me. "Few managers or business professionals would consider the actual multimedia production process to be an effective use of their time even if they possess the interest and skills." This is a true statement. I possess neither the interest nor the skills so why waste so much printed space on what type of computers will be needed or which program to buy? I want my geek to tell me how much money he needs to spend to get ready and how long it will take to produce presentations of varying levels of complexity. Then I want him to teach me how to run the program on my laptop so I can thrill clients with multimedia facts and multimedia figures about what my company can do.
I sell GIS services and short, whiz-bang demos of what we have done and can do with GIS lend themselves well to multimedia presentations. My geek needs to know GIS and multimedia. I need to know what he can and can't do with a multimedia presentation (you can't include copyrighted material like the theme music from 2001). Don't get me wrong. Multimedia for Decision Makers, a Business Primer is a fine book. It's way too basic for my geek and only a little too superficial for me. I must humbly admit that I learned things from it but I was hoping for something a little more along the lines of tips about how and when to use multimedia presentations. I've already heard about kiosks! Why must all the latest multimedia writing go on and on about kiosks? We've all seen them at airports and such for years. I want some new ideas. Everybody already knows you need lots of RAM, a huge hard drive and a sound card. I, personally, don't need a bunch of talk about buying a sound card. I'm already on my fourth or fifth one and I suspect most "managers or business professionals" are too. Tell me how to keep my geek happy (buy all the expensive toys he wants). Tell me how to use his time most effectively. Tell me how I can use him or his equipment for other projects when he's not busy structuring presentations for me. Tell me how to get in the prospective client's door with my presentation. Tell me how to prepare a presentation so the client will stay interested. Tell me where I can find some (royalty free) music to accompany my presentations that doesn't sound like the cheap, sickly sweet music that comes bundled with most multimedia software.
