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Making Video Keynotes Engaging

Updated: Apr 27, 2021

It's Keynote season for us, with our virtual user conference series scheduled to kickoff June 8-9. We start in Americas and rotate through global regions using local language speakers where possible. Our CEO and President kickoff the series, and this year we have more time to prepare for recorded keynotes. The key question: what do we do to make these virtual keynotes engaging?

I'm taking a bit of a risk writing this blog now, ahead of the event when our measure of success will be more clear. But let me give a glimpse into the way we are approaching this challenge.


The first rule in telling a good story is to have a good story. So most of our effort is collecting, organizing, and prioritizing the important messages and information we have to share. In this regard we enjoy an embarrassment of riches, as they say. There are so many interesting trends, challenges, and solutions, and the stakes are high. The economy is evolving, sometimes in unexpected ways. High tech is one of the beneficiaries of the business imperatives and wall street consensus. There are more $Billion valuation funding rounds than ever. Electronics innovation is a key contributor, changing what is possible in business and in our lives. We play a key role in making all that possible, so we have much to say.


In our planning, we keep coming back to the topic of audience engagement. That translates into the run of show, the multi-media details of the presenter, infographics, slides, guest vignettes, and intro/outro videos. While there are many variations available, we studied a few peers and customer industry luminary examples to generate ideas and guide key decisions.


First we looked at the Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon's keynote at IFA (International Funkausstellung) 2020. In this keynote the key datapoints were made with infographics to the side, with wipe animation. This is a very well done keynote, very dynamic content, lots of variations to retain attention. They used standard entry and transition videos and music. And intermixed video vignettes of key partners to tell the story of the end user experience. The keynote can be recorded in a simple green screen studio.


Next on the calendar was CES 2021, and AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su's keynote that was filmed on a stage. Another superb example, very poised and high caliber. Most infographics were displayed in the background and they used a boom camera to vary the angles, and mix with close ups of Dr Su or the slides.


And finally (in this blog) was the GTC 2021 keynote of NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. This was filmed in his kitchen! It's a fantastic keynote experience, filled with flair and fun and really reaching the audience. He famously announced "what NVIDIA's been cooking" in this same kitchen, lifting a tray of GPUs out of the oven to show what's hot.


Jen-Hsun has been nurturing the bad boy look for years, wearing his trademark leather jacket for his keynotes.


Each of these choices of venue and format has an impact on the executive brand, the production planning, and the storyboard.

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