ShowTime by Zoho

Zoho today launched ShowTime, a web and mobile app that brings interactivity into presentations by connecting speakers with audiences. With ShowTime running on their computers or mobile devices, audiences can view and participate in presentations as they interact with presenters. Presenters, meanwhile, can assess participant engagement and view reports on attendee activity to help improve their presentations. A video overview of Zoho ShowTime is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dILGhys6Cw.

“Presentation software for decades has focused exclusively on creating pretty presentations,” said Vijay Sundaram, chief strategy officer of Zoho. “The focus has been on graphics and special effects rather than on tools that engage. Who needs yet another twist-and-turn animation?”

That traditional approach misses the goal of most presenters, who don't just want to create presentations. They want to talk with their audiences—not at them. They want to understand the messages that worked and those that didn't, so they can improve their material and tactics over time. However, the disconnect between vendor offerings and presenter objectives leaves audiences in a slideshow stupor and presenters in the dark.

“ShowTime promotes engagement,” added Sundaram. “During a presentation, attendees use ShowTime to ask questions, vote on slides, and even go back and revisit slides to cement their understanding. Presenters can step out from the confinement of the lecture, roam the room, and connect with people. Later, they can examine audience activity, like ratings and questions, to assess what worked and what didn't.”

Zoho ShowTime: How It Works

To turn a presentation into a conversation, presenters upload their PowerPoint or PDF files into ShowTime. Presentations can also be created using Zoho Show, the cloud-based presentation software. At the start, the presenter assigns a key that audience members use for secure access from their computers or mobile phones.

During the presentation, ShowTime gives audiences many ways to remain engaged. They can go back slides, “like” individual slides, pose questions, and rate the presentation at the end of the session. The speakers can leave the podium, interact with the audience, and control the presentations from a smart phone. ShowTime ensures that the speaker is always in control and not interrupted by all this engagement. Speakers, at their discretion, may select questions, project them on the screen, and drive interaction whenever they choose.

After the presentation, ShowTime provides the speaker with a dashboard of detailed analysis of the presentation with insights into audience engagement. For example, speakers can observe the slides that received the most likes, those where audiences spent the most time, look at overall ratings, and more.

ShowTime is transformative presentation software. It restores the engagement between speakers and their audiences that robotic presentation technology has robbed.