Zeetings Acquisition by Canva: Conversation with Robert Kawalsky

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Robert Kawalsky is the CEO and Cofounder of Zeetings, a software company changing the way people present their ideas to the world. Zeetings was founded with the simple idea that presentations could be transformed from one-way monologues into two-way conversations, giving everyone in the room an opportunity to participate. Launched in 2015, Zeetings has been used by 1 million people in over 50 countries.

In 2018, Zeetings was acquired by Canva. Robert previously held the position of Portfolio Manager at Keybridge Capital where he grew and managed a portfolio of assets across shipping, aviation, renewable energy and real estate. Robert began his career at EY, holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of NSW and is a CFA Charterholder.

Geetesh: What does the Zeetings acquisition by Canva mean for your users and presenters worldwide? Also, what synergies do you see between Canva and Zeetings?

Robert: Canva is an amazingly easy to use tool for designing anything from social media graphics and invitations to postcards and presentations. The thing I love most about Canva is that anyone can simply and quickly produce a presentation that is of professional quality. Zeetings is all about taking a presentation you’ve already created and making it interactive. Naturally, by combining the two tools, people will be able to do everything from creating impactful presentations through to get their audience to engage interactively.

Our users will not experience any change in the way they are used to experiencing Zeetings. Zeetings will continue as is and our users can keep delivering the amazing interactive presentations they’ve become used to. That said, as part of Canva, we’re introducing some additional benefits for our users. The first of these is the ability to create presentations using Canva from directly within Zeetings. This is already live and we’ve had great feedback.

Robert Kawalsky with Canva Cofounder and CEO, Melanie Perkins

Will Zeetings continue to work for PowerPoint presentations? Also, what new can we expect in the next few months?

Robert: Zeetings will continue working for PowerPoint, Google Slides and PDF presentations. We think people should be able to access all the interactivity and analytics Zeetings provides with whichever presentation tool is best for them. That said, I would definitely encourage all those PowerPoint users out there to give Canva a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to use and how beautiful the presentations you create will be.

One exciting thing we’re working on at the moment is making Zeetings more accessible to the educators and non-profits doing important work in our communities. We loved watching the innovative ways teachers have used Zeetings to engage their students and inspired by the way non-profits have used Zeetings to advance their causes. We’ll be making an exciting announcement for these groups in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!