10 New Year Resolutions for Your Presentations in 2021

This past year was trying in every sense of the word. Companies were forced to pivot in the face of the unknown. Businesses had to adjust their business plans to survive the pandemic. Employees everywhere adopted a new work-from-home environment. And video calls and presentations became an essential part of communication in the workplace. Everything we thought we knew about efficiency and collaboration changed. Nailing remote communication came with a learning curve, but it helped us create a better version of Beautiful.ai. Our 2020 releases make it easier for any teammate to create stunning presentations remotely and consistently. But, of course, there’s always room for improvement. Our goal for 2021 is to make presentations, and virtual communication, even more beautiful. As such, we’re here to help you create something you’re proud of in the new year.

Here are 10 new year resolutions to help you up-level your presentations in 2021. 

1. Ditch PowerPoint

First thing’s first: if you’re still using PowerPoint what are you doing? We challenge you to ditch the dinosaur tool in 2021 and try something new. Sure, that may be outside of your comfort zone but that’s where the real growth happens. A more modern and beautiful (see what we did there) presentation maker is exactly what you need to put your best foot forward in the new year. 

2. Get inspired

Feeling inspired is the first step to creating something brilliant. If you’re presenting something you’re passionate about, you’re halfway there. Tap into that passion when you’re structuring your story. If you need a little nudge to get your creative juices flowing, we made it easy for you to start your presentations inspired. We filled Beautiful.ai with a catalog of pre-built presentations templates curated by industry experts so it's easy to start, finish, and impress in no time.

3. Collaborate more

Collaboration is an important part of the presentation process. It helps facilitate new ideas, designs, or solutions that you may not have thought of otherwise. You can kiss lengthy email chains full of attachments and revisions goodbye in 2021. Comments and notifications, and our Team Plan, all make it easy for teams to sync up and sign off faster, from anywhere. It’s the future of collaboration, and it starts here, with you. 

4. Make an impact

Let’s make more slides that pack a punch in 2021. How? Bring your presentations to life with animations. Using tools like animations, videos, and rich icons will help you better illustrate your story and engage your audience. Our animations are subtle, and add just enough pizazz to the screen without being distracting. We give you the power to decide how your animations will build on each slide so you have full control of your story. 

5. Stay on brand

Branding has never been more important. As such, all of your presentations in 2021 should align with your business's brand standards. It’s easy to lock in the right logo and brand elements across your organization with our Team Plan. Shared slides and shared themes give teammates guardrails to stay visually consistent from pitch to pitch. You can even control who can create templates, so the power never falls in the wrong hands.

6. Get creative

Explore your creativity in 2021. We have intentional restraints in Beautiful.ai to help both designers and nondesigners create something they’re proud of, but we realize that sometimes those limit your flexibility. Elements gives you more creative license to add that extra piece of information or an additional graphic to better tell your story. In 2021, try adding Elements to your slides to craft your message in a new, unique way. 

7. Be efficient

Time is money, and we’re here to save you time in 2021. Beautiful.ai helps get rid of all things that kill productivity. Our secret sauce? Smart slide templates. With Beautiful.ai’s smart slide templates, you’ll organize your content quickly and watch your presentation design ideas come to life in minutes (not hours). Our smart slides use design principles from the experts and automatically adapt as you add in your content so even nondesigners can create something brilliant in half the time. Here’s to new efficiencies in 2021!

8. Make it beautiful

Leave the frankendecks in 2020. Less is more when it comes to presentation design. In fact, some presentation trends to watch in 2021 include minimalism, muted color palettes, iconography, and simpler (put powerful) data. If you’re still not sure where to start, let us help you make your story beautiful in 2021. 

9. Tell your story in a new way

We challenge you to think outside the box in 2021. Our smart slides help you restructure your thoughts and rethink your story. Using a less obvious slide template might help you spark new ideas and provoke more creativity. Instead of settling because you're tired and frustrated with wrestling with an outdated tool, Beautiful.ai allows you to toggle between different layouts and templates without losing your work so you can discover which format best suits your story. 

10. Be proud of what you present

The most important resolution of all: be proud of what you present in 2021. When you’re passionate about your message, that shines through in your presentation. But feeling good about the physical deck is important, too. Create something beautiful, practice the narrative, and nail your presentations this year. 

We speak for everyone when we say, “see you never, 2020.” Happy new year from the Beautiful.ai team!