If there’s one thing that we know, it’s presentations. We’ve seen some really good ones, and some really bad ones, too. The beauty of the presentation industry is that it’s always evolving. What looked good in 2017 probably doesn’t look good now. As experts in the field, we always have our finger on the pulse of presentation design. Beautiful.ai allows even the worst designers to create professional looking presentations, so there’s really no excuse for a bad deck, but we still see them. 

As we wrap up the year, we’re looking back at the highs and lows in the world of presentations. A year in review of sorts just in case you missed any noteworthy presentations or cringeworthy slides in the last 12 months.

We’re bad news first kind of people, so here are the three worst presentations of 2020.

1) Bad data visualization

We don’t know who made this slide, or where it came from, but we do know that they could really use a Beautiful.ai flowchart. We can probably assume that this particular slide wasn’t created in 2020, however that’s not to say there aren’t slides like this created on a daily basis. Data can be a hard sell, so it’s important to know how and when to use charts and graphs to help people view your data in a more easily digestible format. 

2) Information overload

Coronavirus is complicated enough, we don't need to add a busy slide to the mix to try to explain the pandemic. The world had to digest a lot of bad news this year. People were turning to media outlets, publishers, and presentations to find out all they could about Coronavirus and how it would affect the world as they knew it. When you’re trying to absorb the unknown, it’s important that the information is clear, concise, and easy to understand. That is not the case with this slide, which comes from what might be the worst presentation of 2020. Our photo grid slide template would be a great option here to share a mix of statistics, facts, and imagery in bite-size chunks. 

3) The 2020 presidential debate

Political views aside, I think we can all agree that the first 2020 presidential debate was a total nightmare. Sure, there were no decks involved, but a bad bit of public speaking is just as bad as a cringeworthy physical presentation. It’s to be expected that debates will get heated, but this presidential debate was something else. The interruptions and personal attacks distracted from the core issues being discussed, and it painted a very clear picture of what not to do in a speech. 

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Now, for the good. Here are the three best presentations of the year.

1) Startup pitch deck

If you’ve been here a while, you know that Beautiful.ai has a free library of pre-built presentation templates to use at your disposal. Each deck is carefully curated by industry experts, and templated by our in-house presentation designer, so that there is something for every industry, every team, and everyone. Our startup pitch deck happens to be our top trending template of 2020, so it only felt right to include it in this list. 

2) The Peloton pitch deck

It’s undeniable that Peloton blew up in 2020. As fitness studios closed across the country, workout enthusiasts were forced to get creative with at-home gyms. Insert: Peloton. The 2018 Peloton pitch deck is one of the better presentations we’ve seen companies develop. The slides feature vivid photos, a common theme and informative infographics to help tell the company’s story. Still, we had to try our hand at giving it a Beautiful.ai makeover— and we think it turned out wheel-y well (see what we did there?). Learn more about the redesign here. 

3) Beautiful customer decks

We love seeing decks made by Beautiful.ai power users. This year we’ve had the opportunity to connect with customers who know and love the product, to learn more about how they’re using it for their businesses. The team at Bluetree Network is using Beautiful.ai to help solve the marketing bottleneck and create professional-grade presentations, and it was worthy of a share. The only thing better than a Beautiful.ai presentation is a Beautiful.ai presentation made by you!

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