The art of the keynote

Over the past couple years, I’ve seen a fair amount of keynote speakers. I’ve realized that the keynotes that I remember the most are the ones where I was entertained along the way. if the speaker comes out and throws data and stats at me for an hour, first off, I’m probably going to stop listening about 10-15 minutes in. I’m also likely to forget anything and everything they’ve said by the time I get back home.

This morning at CJU I watched the keynote given by Guy Kawasaki. Luckily for me, and for Guy, he is an entertaining speaker. He talks about how he’s listened to thousands of different pitches from people who think they have the next huge product to hit the market. I’m sure it’s listening to all of these that has molded his speech giving in to the form it is today. He says he gives his speech as a 10 point list. This way, if he sucks, at least you have an idea as ho how much longer he’s going to suck.

I won’t recount his entire speech, but there were a few points he made that really stood out for me. The first was “Make a Mantra”. Your company should have a mantra, not a mission statement. He told a GREAT story about how companies go about creating mission statements by sending the management team on an offsite event where everybody has to get in at least 1 word. At one in particular, one of the members submitted a mission statement that was taken directly from the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator. It came in 3rd in voting.

The second point he made that I really liked was “Let 100 Flowers Blossom”. When you create a product, you have an idea of who your target audience is. But, when you get your product to market, it’s not always the people you think are going to buy your product that end up being your best customers. you may think it’s going to be Fortune 500 business men but find out it’s college students. If that happens, don’t waste your effort going to the Fortune 500 guys and asking why they don’t like it. Instead, go to the college students, find out how they are using it and what they like about it and then, give them more of it.

If you ever get called upon to give a keynote, I strongly suggest you check out a couple Guy Kawasaki videos before you do. The worst that will happen is that you’ll give an engaging talk and people will be entertained and blog about you when it’s all done.

Related posts:

1. CJU 2008 Recap
2. Why/How do you Twitter?
3. Blog World Expo 2008 – Day 2 Recap