Heidi Genoist

Choose Your Keynotes Carefully
March 11, 2008

Hey, you know who’d make a great keynote speaker? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg!

That must have been what organizers of the South by Southwest, or SXSW, interactive media conference March 7-16 in Austin thought. And to draw out the notoriously tight-lipped 23-year-old who’s behind of one of the hottest technologies going, they enlisted the help of journalist Sarah Lacy, who was to interview him on stage. After all, the BusinessWeek reporter on the Silicon Valley beat has written a book on Web 2.0 (to be released in May), which includes a portion on Zuckerberg.

What could possibly go wrong?

In case you haven’t heard, everything. Media blogs and the twittersphere were aflutter Sunday, March 9, with reports of the keynote interview, often described as a train wreck. Summarizing accounts from the scene, it seems Zuckerberg wasn’t too open, and Lacy didn’t handle it well. Audience members heckled the reporter, who eventually gave up and turned the mic over to them to ask the questions – which they did.

What can tradeshow organizers learn from this fascinating case of star power-gone-wrong? That it takes more than star power to make a great keynote, for starters. That your conference planner must have a keen sense for who would be good on stage, and who wouldn’t. That when it comes to interviews, chemistry is everything. And that if there’s even the slightest outside chance that things could go wrong, have a plan B in your back pocket.

Frankly, I’m surprised organizers didn’t give Lacy a hand – or the stage hook – before the keynote turned really sour (at one point, when Zuckerberg turned on Lacy, the audience reportedly applauded). I wonder if they’d ever seen her conduct a live interview, as it sounds like this might not be the writer’s strong suit. I also wonder if they were aware of Zuckerberg’s tendency to retreat behind boring corporate-speak when faced with uncomfortable topics.

Despite SXSW attendees’ disappointment, in the final analysis, the train wreck keynote yielded some positive results: It generated lots of discussion and hits on sites with content about the conference.

Still, if you prefer not to see your keynote and “disaster” in the same headline of a future blog entry, take my advice: Interview your interview participants thoroughly before putting them on stage.

Posted by Heidi Genoist on March 11, 2008 | Comments (0)