If you have spoken at a conference or meetup, you have probably received the email a week before the event: "Please send your slides as a PowerPoint file by Friday." For speakers who build talks in HTML, using reveal.js, Slidev, Marp or a custom setup, this request can feel a little old-fashioned. Yet organisers have good reasons for asking, and with a bit of preparation it is easy to give them what they need without abandoning your preferred tools.

Why organisers want a PowerPoint file

From the organiser's side, every talk needs to run smoothly on a shared machine in a room they may not control. A few practical concerns drive the request:

Venue laptops. Many venues provide a single presentation PC with PowerPoint installed and limited internet. A local file is far less risky than a URL.

Quick switching. In tightly scheduled tracks, the AV team needs to load the next speaker's deck in seconds.

Archiving. Conferences often publish slides afterwards on their website or share them with sponsors.…