What if your best friend had two minutes and a slide deck to convince a room full of strangers to date you?
That is the idea behind Date My Mate, a London event where friends take to the stage and present their single mates using holiday photos, personal stories, affectionate jokes and the sort of details that rarely fit neatly into a dating profile.
It sounds like a comedy night crossed with an office meeting. It is also proving remarkably popular. Reuters reported that all 150 tickets for one event at a north London pub sold out in under five minutes. Organisers said they planned to take the format around the country, aiming to run an event every week.
The PowerPoint is funny. The bigger story is where the introductions happen: in a real room, with other people, on the same night.
PowerPoint dating is really about borrowed confidence
A conventional dating profile asks you to sell yourself. Choose the right photos. Write something interesting but effortless. Be honest, but not too honest. Somehow compress a whole personality into a few prompts that hundreds of people may judge in seconds.
Date My Mate hands that job to somebody who already knows you.
A close friend can talk about the qualities you might feel awkward claiming for yourself. They can tell the story behind a photograph, make fun of your harmless habits and explain why you are worth meeting. Their presence adds warmth and a little social proof. You are not just a collection of carefully selected pictures. You are a real person who matters to somebody in the room.
The joke gives everyone permission to relax. Nobody has to pretend the process is completely natural, because a PowerPoint presentation about your love life obviously is not. That shared absurdity becomes an icebreaker.
The decline of the swipe is only part of the story
Reuters connected the popularity of these nights with growing frustration around dating apps. The report cited a 16% fall in usage across the UK's ten largest dating platforms between 2023 and 2024, along with polling in which nearly half of users described negative experiences.
Official figures point in the same direction. Ofcom reported that one in ten UK adults used an online dating service in the year covered by its 2024 Online Nation report, but major platforms had lost users. Tinder was down by 600,000 and Bumble by 300,000.
That does not mean people have stopped wanting dates, friendships or unexpected conversations. It suggests that many are tired of the process around them. The repetitive swiping, delayed replies and matches that never become meetings can make dating feel like administration.
We looked at that pattern more closely in our article on dating app fatigue in Britain. PowerPoint dating offers one answer: remove the long digital runway and begin with people who have already chosen to turn up.
The pub is doing more work than the slides
Strip away the projector and Date My Mate has a simple structure. Put a group of people in a welcoming social space, make it clear that introductions are encouraged and give them something to talk about.
The pub is not just a backdrop. It is part of the mechanism.
People can arrive with friends, move around naturally and continue their evening even if no romantic connection appears. A presentation might start a conversation, but it does not require two strangers to decide immediately whether they are compatible. The room can hold uncertainty without making it awkward.
That is what a good third place does. It sits between home and work and allows small, unplanned interactions to happen. You can have a meal, join a quiz, catch up with friends or speak to somebody new. The evening still has value even when it does not produce a date.
This matters because a dating event can feel intimidating when every conversation carries a visible objective. A pub softens that pressure. It gives people somewhere to be, not just somebody to evaluate.
What PowerPoint dating gets right
The format reveals three things that many online dating experiences struggle to provide.
First, context. You learn about someone through stories told by a person who knows them, not only through a short bio.
Second, timing. Everybody is available in the same place on the same evening. There is no uncertainty about whether a match will agree to meet next Thursday.
Third, permission. The event makes it clear that people are open to an introduction. That removes some of the guesswork that makes approaching a stranger feel difficult.
The slides are a creative way to supply all three. They are not the only way.
Where Ember fits
Ember starts from a similar belief: the most useful people to see are often the people already in the room.
When you enter a participating venue, you can join its Ember room and see who else is open to meeting someone that night. You choose your intention, whether that is flirting, making friends, hanging out or simply having a chat. If somebody catches your attention, you send a private wave. They only discover it if they wave back.
If the interest is mutual, you match while you are still in the same building. A match can unlock a match reward for the two of you to claim together, creating a natural reason to walk over and say hello. The night clears within 24 hours, so it does not become another permanent feed waiting for your attention.
You can read the full flow in how Ember works.
There is no stage, no public pitch and no need for a friend to prepare a deck. Ember is quieter than that. It adds a private signal to an ordinary night out, then steps back once the introduction becomes mutual.
That difference matters. PowerPoint dating turns introductions into the evening's entertainment. Ember lets introductions sit alongside the evening you were already having. One is an organised event. The other is a light layer inside the room.
Both point in the same direction: away from endless browsing and towards meeting people who are actually present.
Your friends can still be part of the story
One of the nicest details in the Reuters report is the role of coupled-up friends. Dating apps often make being single feel like a solo project. Date My Mate gives friends a useful and entertaining way to help.
Ember works just as naturally with a group. You can arrive with friends, join the room and carry on with your normal evening. A private wave does not pull you away from the people you came with. It simply makes it easier to find out whether somebody nearby would welcome a hello.
Your friends might not need to build twelve slides about your best qualities. They can still give you a nudge when a match appears.
London does not need fewer ways to meet online. It needs more reasons to meet offline
PowerPoint dating may remain a niche format, or it may become a regular fixture in pubs across Britain. Either way, its popularity is useful evidence of something larger. People are willing to show up, laugh at the awkwardness and try a more human route to connection.
Technology can help, but it does not need to become the whole experience. Sometimes its best role is to create a little context, reduce the fear of rejection and make the first hello easier.
The real shift is not from one app to one presentation format. It is from browsing people elsewhere to noticing the people who are here.
That is the idea behind Ember. One night, one venue and the possibility that somebody worth meeting is only a few tables away.
Join Ember Night Round Two at Royal Star on 27 August, or download Ember before your next night out.
PowerPoint dating FAQ
What is PowerPoint dating?
PowerPoint dating is an in-person event format where friends present their single mates to an audience using a short, humorous slide deck. The aim is to introduce the person with more context and personality than a standard dating profile can provide.
Is Ember a PowerPoint dating event?
No. Ember does not use presentations or public pitches. It helps adults in the same participating venue signal interest privately. A wave is only revealed when it becomes mutual.
Is Ember only for dating?
No. Guests can choose intentions such as flirting, making friends, hanging out or being open to a chat. Ember is about making real-life introductions easier, without forcing a particular outcome.
#dating-apps #meeting-people #london #ember