The Crowd Will Judge The Best PowerPoint Presentation

For modern business, the presentation has reached iconic status: we celebrate, debate, and decorate presentations -- elevate them to iconic status. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but how many contests do you see for spreadsheets or word processing? Flickering, projected images haunt our collective business conscious as we mouth the words "next slide" in unison. If you haven't thrown your latest, greatest presentation into the ring, you best hurry: the entry window for the World's Best Presentation Contest closes next week.Though this is not a contest smaller businesses per se and lacks the reality TV, "what can we get them to do next quality" that doesn't mean that it's not worth entering your presentation. By the same token, there's as much to be learned from bad presentations as good -- PowerPoint or otherwise. If you can't nail the presentation, it's going to be tough to land the funding or the client that will keep your business growing.

The judges on this are top notch, headlined by Guy Kawasaki -- recently named one of the best bloggers for smaller business -- along with Bert Decker, Garr Reynolds, and Nancy Duarte. But don't take their word for it, you can get on and cast your vote.

Today the leading vote getter in the business category is "The Gods of Business" author Todd Albertson's presentation of his next book "Vision Caster."

And the leader to date in the technology category is self-declared Social Media Evangelist and Online Marketing Marta Z. Kagan's "What the F**K is Social Media."

And what's on offer for the winners? A MacBook Air is the top prize, an Amazon Kindle goes to the runner up, and an iPod Nano for the third place entry. That's some white and shiny technology. Even the honorable mentions come away with a book -- Reynolds' "Presentation Zen." And every winner receives a certificate from SlideShare. That's a far cry from the monthly sales contest in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross: "first prize is a Cadillac Eldoradosecond prize's a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."

Unless Todd and Marta have scared you off there's still time to enter your slides (until July 31), not to mention cast your vote.