PowerPoint Math: When in Rome, do as the Romans do

In my previous post, I mentioned an article by BBC Magazine that contains some interesting information about PowerPoint. Here are two figures from that article worth pondering:

  • It is estimated that businesses make around 30 million PowerPoint presentations every day.
  • Including time for starting up and shutting down, the average PowerPoint session lasts 250 minutes.

Those figures, if accurate, are incredible. Let’s break down the PowerPoint math a bit more.

In order not to be sensationalist, let’s assume that the above figures wildly overestimate the reality. Let’s assume that instead of 30 million PowerPoint presentations a day, there are only 1 million per day (i.e., 3.3% of the given figure). And let’s assume that the average PowerPoint presentation lasts exactly 60 minutes and not 250 minutes (i.e., one quarter of the given figure).

Let’s now add one final factor and assume that the average PowerPoint presentation involves 15 people (audience, presenter and technicians all included). Fair? OK. Let’s see how the math works out.

1,000,000 presentations x 1 hour x 15 people

= 15,000,000 hours of people’s time each day

So far, so good. But 15 million is a big number to get our heads around. Let break it down further.

15,000,000 hours = 625,000 days = 1,712 years

1,712 years!? The Roman Empire didn’t last that long!

PowerPoint Math

That figure – 1,712 years of people’s time devoted to slide presentations every day – is breath-taking. Don’t forget, that’s a conservative number! But the PowerPoint math doesn’t lie.

Now, many of those presentations are interesting and worthwhile. But you and I both know that a significant number of them are a waste of time. That is a shame.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; likewise, your PowerPoint presentation shouldn’t be cobbled together in haste. Put some effort into it. Make it stimulating and useful for your audience. If you don’t, and if you present often, your reputation as a public speaker will, like the Roman Empire, suffer its own Decline and Fall – and it won’t take nearly as long.

Like this article?

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin
Share on Pinterest
mannerofspeaking

mannerofspeaking

  1. Thanks for giving the piece I did last year for the BBC website another plug!
    And congratulations on coming up with even more alarming numbers than I managed a few years ago – when I calculated that the cost of boring presentations to the UK economy was in excess of £7.8 billion a year, mainly because of PowerPoint. http://bit.ly/cb3FQv
    If only more people would read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the history and analysis of the pros & cons of PowerPoint in my book ‘Lend Me Your Ears’ (http://bit.ly/9VPZLb) companies and organizations could simultaneously save billions and improve the quality of life of audiences!

    1. Cheers, Max. Happy to do it. I encourage all of my readers to check out Max’s blog and books. They are chuck-full of useful information on presentations and much else besides.

  2. Brought a great smile to my face, did this, particularly the map caption! Well worked out from the original figures, John. I’m still amazed even with your conservatism.

    1. Chris, thanks much for the comment. I try to keep the posts balanced between informative and entertaining, so feedback like yours is much appreciated and a great motivator to carry on. As for my conservatism, I think that, subconsciously, I was too afraid to deal with the real magnitude of the problem! John

  3. John:
    It’s probably a coincidence that you came up with the same 15 million man-hours per day that Dave Paradi estimated back in 2003. However, Dave took it one step further and also put a dollar value on it.
    See: http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/wasting_250M_bad_ppt.htm
    Also, the 250 minutes refers to the session time for using the software to prepare a presentation, rather than the time for giving it. See Slide 3 here: http://www.comit.dk/Files/Billeder/c10_campaign/DK%20Introducing%20Exchange%20Server%202010-u%20demo.pdf
    Richard

    1. Richard, thanks for the comment and the links. I had not seen the article by Dave Paradi. It is interesting that he started with the same 30-million-presentations-per-day figure that I got from the BBC and then applies different conservative factors to arrive at the same number of hours.
      Adding a financial cost was a great idea. (I note that Dave wrote another post to help organizations figure out just how much they are losing – http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/real_cost_presn.htm.)
      The scary thing is that Dave’s article was written in 2003 so with inflation that figure is bound to be higher today. An even scarier thought: that both of our conservative projections are too conservative!
      Cheers!
      John

    1. Richard, thanks for taking the time to write the article. I like the construction-of-the-pyramids anaology. With luck, this dialogue will not only lead to a few more useful PowerPoints, it will stimulate interest in ancient history. Cheers! John

  4. John,
    I loved how you recalcuated those hours into years and put that into use humorously by saying that’s longer than the existence of the Roman empire. I bet some people at PP presentations think very much the same thing — or even longer. Like the Big Bang.
    Keep it up!
    John

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

five × 1 =

Testimonials

John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.

Karsta Goetze

TA Leader, Gore and Associates

I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.

Andy Yen

CEO, Proton Technologies

John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.

David Lindelöf

Senior Data Scientist, Expedia Group

After a morning of team building activities using improvisation as the conduit, John came on stage to close the staff event which was organised in Chamonix, France. His energy and presence were immediately felt by all the members of staff. The work put into the preparation of his speech was evident and by sharing some his own stories, he was able to conduct a closing inspirational speech which was relevant, powerful and impactful for all at IRU. The whole team left feeling engaged and motivated to tackle the 2019 objectives ahead. Thank you, John.

Umberto de Pretto

Secretary General, World Road Transport Organization

I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.

Thuy Khoc-Bilon

World Cancer Day Campaign Manager, Union for International Cancer Control

John gave a brilliant presentation on public speaking during the UN EMERGE programme in Geneva (a two days workshop on leadership development for a group of female staff members working in the UN organizations in Geneva). His talk was inspirational and practical, thanks to the many techniques and tips he shared with the audience. His teaching can dramatically change our public speaking performance and enable us as presenters to have a real and powerful impact. Thank you, John, for your great contribution!

Sara Canna

HR Specialist, World Health Organization

John is a genuine communication innovator. His seminars on gamification of public speaking learning and his interactive Rhetoric game at our conference set the tone for change and improvement in our organisation. The quality of his input, the impact he made with his audience and his effortlessly engaging style made it easy to get on board with his core messages and won over some delegates who were extremely skeptical as to the efficacy of games for learning. I simply cannot recommend him highly enough.

Thomas Scott

National Education Director, Association of Speakers Clubs UK

John joined our Global Sales Meeting in Segovia, Spain and we all participated in his "Improv(e) your Work!" session. I say “all” because it really was all interactive, participatory, learning and enjoyable. The session surprised everybody and was a fresh-air activity that brought a lot of self-reflection and insights to improve trust and confidence in each other inside our team. It´s all about communication and a good manner of speaking!"

Jon Lopez

General Manager Europe, Hayward Industries

Thank you very much for the excellent presentation skills session. The feedback I received was very positive. Everyone enjoyed the good mix of listening to your speech, co-developing a concrete take-away and the personal learning experience. We all feel more devoted to the task ahead, more able to succeed and an elevated team spirit. Delivering this in a short time, both in session and in preparation, is outstanding!

Henning Dehler

CFO European Dairy Supply Chain & Operations, Danone

Thanks to John’s excellent workshop, I have learned many important tips and techniques to become an effective public speaker. John is a fantastic speaker and teacher, with extensive knowledge of the field. His workshop was a great experience and has proven extremely useful for me in my professional and personal life.

Eric Thuillard

Senior Sales Manager, Sunrise Communications

John’s presentation skills training was a terrific investment of my time. I increased my skills in this important area and feel more comfortable when speaking to an audience. John provided the right mix between theory and practice.

Diego Brait

Director of the Jura Region, BKW Energie AG

Be BOLD. Those two words got stuck in my head and in the heads of all those ADP leaders and associates that had the privilege to see John on stage. He was our keynote speaker at our annual convention in Barcelona, and his message still remains! John puts his heart in every word. Few speakers are so credible, humble and yet super strong with large audiences!

Guadalupe Garcia

Senior Director and Talent Partner, ADP International