The Macworld Keynote speech has become one of the most anticipated speeches over the past few years that it draws in stars to the event (the video on the Apple website showed Al Gore in the audience). A big part of this was the way that Apple presented their new products and how good of a speaker Steve Jobs was. Steve Jobs was so good that even presentation guru's such as Garr Reynolds in his blog Presentation Zen used him as an example to emulate.
However, in 2009, because of some health issues, Steve Jobs wasn't able to give the Keynote speech. Instead, Phillip Schiller, the Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, was given the task of following the high standards that Jobs has set in his speeches. What I wanted to do was to see if it was Jobs who was a great presentor or if it was just because he had some smart people working with him to create some great slides and help him with his speeches (if you want to watch the keynote, click here).
I'm not sure if I am being biased, but it seems that Phillip Schiller doesn't seem as comfortable as Steve Jobs was. That is key to presenting, you have to be comfortable being in front of an audience. However, his start wasn't too bad and he didn't appear to be in over his head giving this keynote. Unfortunately, he kept looking back at the slides instead of focusing on the audience. He almost wanted to be a part of the audience and enjoy the presentation. One thing that I did notice is that the slides themselves were still clean, simple and had good design. This was not surprising, Apple has always prided itself on having good design. Another area that Phillip needs to work on is his fidgeting. A lot of times when he changed slides, he looked down to his clicker or was moving his hand forward like he had to touch a mouse, which was a little distracting. He also liked to fidget with it while he as speaking, which is something we should all try to avoid.
His voice was okay, but he seemed to be like the little brother who just got the keys to the car, saying things like "this is cool" and "I'm so excited to tell you about these things." While it is good that he is excited about the new products like face recognition with iPhoto, you could really tell the difference between Steve Jobs and Phillip Schiller.
Overall, I thought that Phillip Schiller did a good job with the Macworld Keynote speech. He was not as effective or engaging as Steve Jobs, but I don't think he fell on his face either. It is a tough spot to follow and there are some things he needs to work on if he is going to continue giving this speech. The good news is that he doesn't have a long way to go.
One note, I really want a new mac after watching all of the, as Schiller would say, "really cool things" on iLife '09.
Travis
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