How Many Remote Meetings Use PowerPoint Every Day?

Category: Technology

I wanted to understand how many of you were suffering from endless PowerPoint presentations every day! As economies slowly open back up and we move into the new normal, of hybrid meetings and more remote presentations, what is the true toll of ‘death by PowerPoint’? It turns out that Microsoft cited a number, 30 million PowerPoint presentations per day, in 2003. This is before COVID and SARS, before Zoom, before VOIP and before everything we take for granted today. So, what is the true number today? Most articles about remote meetings talk about lighting and cameras, and I wont harp on that as these subjects as they have been beaten to death already. I want to talk about the things that no one else is thinking about and some of my learning from years of watching people present using existing video conferencing tools. The importance of presence during an online meeting Yes, you must portray a good image during any online presentation. Human brains are wired to respond to faces and people – not PowerPoint decks. If you want to build any trust and make your customers gain confidence, this is essential. A good light and a decent camera is a low bar now. But not a lot of people are talking about how video conferencing apps minimize your presence and prioritize your screen sharing data. Most video conference apps minimize your audience to the size of a tiny postage stamp in the corner of your screen and reduce your image on your audiences’ screens as well. That means that neither of you can maintain eye contact anymore! This dramatically reduces the effectiveness of any virtual meeting regardless of the remote meeting tool that you are using.