Prepare for lift off

Open a new prezi, choose a blank template, and delete all the objects on the canvas. Make sure your canvas is completely empty before you start brainstorming as shown in the next screenshot:

Of course, you can delete the frame by clicking on it and deleting it, but you can also use the key combination Ctrl + A and press Backspace on your keyboard.

Engage thrusters

We will start our brainstorm by putting our first idea on the canvas. So, click on the canvas and type The Future. Make sure the text style is Body.

A few ideas will probably start popping up in your mind immediately. Type these ideas on the canvas. It doesn't matter where you put these ideas on the canvas. However, it is preferable if you don't put them too close to each other and definitely not in a straight line.

It's important to know that everything that pops up in your mind is okay. It's okay to put everything on the canvas. It's not yet the time to decide if a word is okay or not. The word popped up in your mind, so it's okay. It's that simple and no one should judge that, not even you.

Make use of the infinite canvas of Prezi. The canvas is larger than you think. If the area looks full, pan the canvas (click on the canvas and drag it) to create more room.

At a certain moment, one word may attract your attention. Zoom in to that word (using the plus sign at the right side of the screen), forget the first idea, and start brainstorming about that word—just that word. We zoomed in to the word history. When you're done, zoom out by clicking on the small house at the right side of the screen and continue brainstorming, or you can zoom in to another word and start brainstorming about that word.

Let this process continue for as long as you want. It's okay to stop for a while or to continue a whole day.

You shouldn't go looking for images or videos as that would break your creativity. If you think of an image, just put the word that the image describes on the canvas.

One last important thing: make the important words big and the details small. You can play around with this and just follow your feeling. The words of the main topics don't have to be of the same height. If one main topic is a bit more important than another main topic, make that first main topic a bit bigger. People will immediately understand that because they see it. They might not be aware of it, but their eyes (actually their brains) see what's more important.

Your final brainstorm could look like the following screenshot:

Objective complete – mini debriefing

In this task, we made our first brainstorm in Prezi. First, we put our initial idea on the canvas and then we just started typing words that popped up in our mind. The most important thing of this process is that everything you type is okay. Later on, you can decide which words will stay and which words need to be removed. Sometimes, you zoom into a word and continue brainstorming on just that word. The bigger a word, the more important that word is to you. The main goal of this task is to let the words flow.

Classified intel

When people are creating their presentation, they try to do all things at the same time: think of the content, fill in the content, design the presentation, think of the story to tell, and create the presentation. That doesn't work. These are different processes. You should handle one process at a time. When you are thinking of the content, don't try to design your presentation; similarly, when you are thinking of the story to tell don't try to fill in the content. So, when you are brainstorming, just brainstorm. Don't try to think about how the presentation should look like; that's a different process.