Rice Business Plan Competition

Last night, the +SlideStacks team received some exciting news: we were selected to be one of 40 participating teams (out of 400+ applicants) in the 2012 Rice University Business Plan Competition!  This is the world's largest and richest graduate level business plan competition and has over $1.3M in prizes at stake.  We are honored to have been selected and are very much looking forward to the opportunity to share our vision of better presentations to a large audience in April.


Congrats to the team - we put in a lot of work to get here and have plenty of hard work ahead of us to take the next step.

Making an Impact with Adaptive Communication

In the March issue of the Harvard Business Review, Stacey Childress contributes an article titled 'Rethinking School' that discusses the failure of US education to keep up with the progress of other countries over the past 40 years.  However, despite the United State's dip in form, the author optimistically touts advances in adaptive learning technologies that have generated improvements in educational achievement for elementary school students in New York.  Ms. Childress describes the School of One's strategy of adaptive learning as tailoring educational content to the exact needs of each student using a combination of software of personal attention.  The preliminary results are very positive, with students in adaptive learning environments performing better than 98% of their traditionally taught peers. The logic is simple: technology-based and personalized lesson plans free teachers "from the demands of large-group instruction, a single teacher can tailor his or her efforts to the individual needs of dozens of students."  Although the idea of using software might suggest that the value of a teacher becomes smaller, the pilot programs find just the opposite.  By using software to cover more rote topics (such as arithmetic), teachers are then free to work with students on more advanced and dynamic skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. 

So what does this have to do with online presentation software?  A lot.

The SlideStacks strategy for creating more effective communication between a presenter in the audience is very similar to the adaptive learning techniques being used in these New York schools.  With SlideStacks, we make it easy for presenters to customize each presentation to the exact needs of the audience -sort of like a personalized curriculum for an individual student.  The personalization of content creates deeper audience understanding and connection to the materials, therefore fostering a more memorable and impactful presentation experience.  This strategy is in contrast to a common approach to presentations in which presenters deliver their message the same way to everyone, regardless of who is in the audience.

In short, adaptive learning has the potential to change the way our children learn in school.  Adaptive communication has the potential to change the way we communicate in business.  

Marc Siegel

Founder/CEO of SlideStacks

www.slidestacks.com

Development Update

Yesterday we received the first build of +SlideStacks! The team is in the process of testing things out and so far, everything looks GREAT. 


What does this mean for you? 


Well, it means we are inching closer to making SlideStacks available for beta testing. Stayed tuned for more information and look for a blog post in the near future with some screen shots of the soon-to-be greatest slide delivery software on the market!


~Marc


P.S. If you haven't done so already, sign-up to be a beta tester today: www.slidestacks.com

Development Update

Today the SlideStacks team had a chance to check out the progress of product development and we can happily say that things are really starting to take shape!  A good portion of the core functionality has been completed (new informational website, registration, file upload, creating stacks, organizing slides, etc) and soon Epic River, our development partner, is getting to move on to the broadcast functionality that will allow presenters to share their materials over the web.  After that, we'll move on to a graphic design/user experience clean up phase.  This is really exciting news because it means we are that much closer to bringing SlideStacks to life and into the hands of users!  Thank you for all of your support this far, and stay tuned for more updates and announcements in the coming weeks.

~Marc
www.slidestacks.com

Welcome to the SlideStacks Blog!

Happy New Year, and welcome to the SlideStacks blog!

SlideStacks is a Chicago-based start-up company that was founded in the fall of 2011 by me, Marc Siegel, while attending the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  I'm joined on the team by my colleague and trusty CFO, Jacob Jones, and together we are working to reinvent the way visuals are presented to an audience.  It's our belief that by lifting the linear constraint imposed by traditional slideware, we can not only revolutionize how we use technology during a presentation, but also make meetings more fun and enjoyable for both the speaker and the audience.  We're in the early stages of making this vision a reality, and over the next few weeks and months, you can expect a flurry of activity as we bring SlideStacks to the market.  If you're interested in becoming a beta tester, visit www.slidestacks.com and submit your email address.


We'll be using the SlideStacks blog for lots of things: product updates, presentation tips, as well as general technology, entrepreneurial, and business musings, so we encourage you to visit us often and leave comments, thoughts, and ideas.  


While you're at it, please take a moment to follow us on your preferred social network or subscribe to this blog so you can be notified of all updates and announcements:

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Thanks again for taking time to visit the blog, we look forward to sharing SlideStacks with you in the coming weeks.

Marc Siegel

Founder and CEO

SlideStacks

About SlideStacks


Founded in 2011, SlideStacks is a new online presentation software that allows presenters to match visuals an unpredictable conversation.  In contrast to traditional slideware like PowerPoint or Keynote, SlideStacks lets presenters organize their content visually by topic and then provides navigation tools that allow the audience and the conversation to dictate which materials are shown and when during the presentation.  The resulting experience is a more conversational, interactive, and productive transfer of information between two parties.  SlideStacks is currently in product development and we anticipate a release in early 2012.  We are planning an initial launch in early 2012, so sign up to be a beta tester today at www.slidestacks.com.