Today we’re thrilled to launch our new, free SlideRocket EDU offering available exclusively through Google Apps! SlideRocket and Google Apps have always been a huge hit with colleges and universities, and the introduction of SlideRocket EDU free educational software helps students to be creative, work together, communicate and embrace the digitally rich technologies they encounter every day.

“SlideRocket EDU provides educators and students with a unique opportunity to use online presentations to launch new, imaginative ideas in a way that is fun, creative, collaborative, and accessible by literally millions of students.”

- Chuck Dietrich, SlideRocket CEO

SlideRocket Free Presentation Software

Our students’ educational experience now extends beyond the rote memorization, lectures and linear lesson progression that many of us remember from college. And technology has become a critical component of learning, allowing easy access to a wealth of educational resources and tools. SlideRocket and Google are proud to be major contributors in helping millions of students explore these new learning opportunities.

“With the new SlideRocket EDU, groups of professors can build a library of interactive web-based presentations together in lesson planning, and students can easily collaborate on class projects.  Better yet, professors can watch and engage throughout the creation process, which can be more important than the end result.”

- John Kuglin, Sr. Educational Consultant, Retired Assoc. Dean, U. of Montana.

SlideRocket is helping students on their learning journey by nurturing the collaborative, participatory, and digitally rich learning experience that often extends beyond the walls of the classroom to wherever students, professors, and educational resources are located.

Unlocking Collaboration, Creativity, and Fun for Students

The introduction of computers and the Internet into the classroom changed forever the manner in which students learn. SlideRocket opens a new horizon to increase the level at which students can work together on projects, share ideas, be creative and have fun doing it. With SlideRocket free educational software, students and educators can:

• Collaborate on projects and presentations inside or outside the classroom
• Interact with educators via instant feedback and sharing of resources
• Explore and combine creative mediums including photography, video, text, music, and voice
• Share projects with educators, researchers and other students via Twitter and Facebook
• Make projects available for professors and parents to monitor progress on projects

SlideRocket, Google and Education – A Natural Fit

Both SlideRocket and Google have for years been supporters of educators and students. In fact, Google boasts over 13 million educational institutions in the Google Apps marketplace, and over ⅓ of SlideRocket users are educators and students.

SlideRocket is thrilled to have the opportunity to grow significantly our involvement in education. Our recent acquisition by VMware enables SlideRocket to expand our free educational software offerings, and make available this new offering to educators and students.

Delivering presentations on iPad is a personal, live, interactive experience. You couldn’t be closer to your audience – this is an amazing opportunity to be heard, and understood.

Presentations on iPad have become a core presentation method. At conferences, client offices, or even commuting, the experience of presenting with SlideRocket Player for iPad is unmatched. (more…)

This is SlideRocket’s first year participating in VMworld and the sharing of cloud best practices and introduction of new technologies is impressive. VMworld clearly demonstrates how cloud computing is impacting the way each and every one of us works.

Work is no longer defined by office space, cubicle partitions or even geographic boundaries. A dramatic shift in the business software industry from a PC-centric era to a cloud-based, mobile and social media era of computing have made work possible anytime, anywhere and on any device. Business applications in the cloud have powered a new way to work that has transformed not only where we work but how we work, communicate and collaborate. (more…)

Designers, and Developers, and Workflow! Oh My!

There’s nothing to be afraid of at this year’s D2W conference because SlideRocket has been selected as the official presentation platform for the conference!

Just watching Dee Sadler work the D2W social media airwaves has been a fun experience, so we’re looking forward to a fantastic event and all the amazing presentations that will come out of it! Not to mention the much talked about KC breweries… (more…)

Check out this great infographic from our recent Death by PowerPoint survey!

New survey data confirms, death by PowerPoint is a national epidemic and we need a presentation revolution. Check out the SlideRocket summary of our findings:

According to survey data, PowerPoint ranks among the most dreaded applications, with respondents claiming they would rather go to the dentist or work on a Saturday than face the dreaded software, and too much text and boring graphics topping the list of frustrating and uninspired features. Fortunately, death by PowerPoint is completely avoidable with SlideRocket’s fabulous online presentations, presentation resources, iPad presentations, and social presentations. Oh my!

Four years ago almost to the day, SlideRocket founder Mitch Grasso launched SlideRocket from this blog with these words:

“This is SlideRocket Mission Control. We’re counting down to launch. SlideRocket will blow away your expectations of what can be done with web applications.”

SlideRocket Has Been Acquired by VMware

Today, we are thrilled to announce that SlideRocket has been acquired by VMware, marking a dramatic acceleration in SlideRocket’s mission to reinvent presentations and change the way businesses and individuals communicate. VMware and SlideRocket share an affinity for seizing big opportunities to reinvent how people work, and we are aligned in our vision for the future of cloud applications – it’s a future where work becomes collaborative, social, mobile, and even fun! (more…)

In 1997 IBM coined the term e-Business which helped define a decade of change in the way we use technology to conduct business. This concept caught on like wildfire and soon everything became prefaced with an “e” e-New York, e-fiction, e-ciao (see below), e-thwack etc. but over time e-Business just became business, or rather that which was new and different became the norm. Now it’s just business as usual.

e-ciao. Vespa is an IBM e-business.

Today SlideRocket is helping define a new category of communication technology known commonly as online presentations. Just like e-Business we believe that over the next few years online presentations will become the new norm and what was once typified as an online presentation will be just a presentation. The reason this will happen is that online presentations represent significant advantages in the way that you experience presentations and deliver stories (story = strategy + value).

To understand those advantages we first have to understand what an online presentation is. Enter the 8 Principles Of Online Presentations, a list we’ve devised to serve as a guideline for our category. It’s a work in progress so feel free to comment and add your own thoughts below.

8 PRINCIPLES OF ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

#1 Available – Access anywhere you have an Internet connection and a browser, nothing to install, upgrade or (more…)

Bill, you were right all along. Our bad.

Today we’re excited to announce the most massive SlideRocket makeover in history.
In order to better compete with PowerPoint, we’ve slashed our interface, removed nearly all our interactive features, mercilessly stripped out flickr and youtube integrations, and gutted our gallery of themes and inspirational presentations.

We’ve simplified the heck out of SlideRocket so that users can make the same old, boring presentations they’re used to making in PowerPoint. (more…)

SlideRocket’s here at SXSW powering the Accelerator program – where news-related, social media, social networking, entertainment, music, and innovative web technology startups showcase their products for the chance to win big. This year, over 400 startups applied for the Accelerator competition, and 32 were accepted, and 12 moved to the final round.

Over the course of the last few days, each of the finalists pitched their web-based products using SlideRocket, and we’re pretty fired up about the final presentations. Here’s a roundup of the finalists and winners: (more…)