Much has already been written about BlogWorld at which, for the most part, I had a really great time. While there have been a ton of recap posts, here are some from Arik Hanson, Justin Goldsborough and Chuck Hemann to get you caught up.
The session that probably generated the most chatter was the much-hyped “New Media LIVE!” Talk Show closing keynote panel.
I couldn’t have been more disappointed with it. Here’s why (and it’s probably not what you think):
That evening, I sat down at one of the front tables (because I hadn’t seen Chris Brogan in person before this, and I didn’t want to have to watch him on the screen) to witness this extravaganza of “the latest in innovative content creation” and to “kick back, cut loose and enjoy the irreverent, humorous, off-beat, entertaining, insightful, edgy ‘New Media LIVE!’ Talk Show!” The band warming up and live music certainly lent an air of festivity to the evening.
But I wasn’t surprised when Marcus Sheridan, writing about this panel shortly after, asked, “What were they thinking?”.
Actually, he put it even more bluntly than that. Here are a few excerpts:
Without going into a long-winded explanation of the entire keynote, let me just point out a few moments that seemed, should we say, out of place…..
-Andrew Breitbart’s segment, although interesting, was almost entirely centered upon politics, not blogging.
-Shauna Glen’s segment was initiated by a ”˜spoof’ video she made of her trying to mix cake batter with a woman’s vibrator (yes, you did read that correctly), and references to sex and female organs continued to come up during her time speaking.
-Sara Benincasa started her segment with a stand up ”˜comedy’ routine. By creatively re-wording the blogging seminar titles of the week, she managed to drop an F-Bomb in every other sentence, along with another slew of vulgar terms about female organs.
and
As I sat in the front row, blinking and cringing my teeth over and over again in utter disbelief at what I was seeing and hearing at ”˜Blog’ World, I literally felt like I had entered into a twilight zone…
But I was not the only person in the crowd who was in total shock and awe. Two women from my table alone got up and left. Many other people throughout the crowd, with a sheer look of confusion and disappointment on their faces, got up and exited as well.
I was one of the two women at Marcus’ table who got up and left. And I’ll tell you why.
It was boring.
The closing keynote panel was short on content; it wasn’t entertaining (outside of the band); the videos that were played early on were way too long; Mr. Brogan, who I’m told is a very nice person and has made quite a remarkable name for himself, tried too hard to get laughs where none were originating; and the X-rated jokes/videos were just … sad.
It was really boring! And made me think:
1. When we’re presenting, humor is a great way to put our point across. But more than that, it’s the content our audience is interested in. If the content doesn’t deliver, the humor is pointless.
2. When we’re presenting, we need to be aware that more often than not, we’re going to be speaking to a cross-section of people, some of whom may/may not be familiar with who we are, what we do, or the pulse of the industry in general. It’s our job to make those people most comfortable, because those are the ones we are trying to bring into the fold, as it were. It’s also our job to make sure the people who are already inside that fold get something out of it, hence #1 above.
3. Comedy is really really tough to do. If you’ve ever tried your hand at it, you know it, and if you’ve ever watched a comedy show, you know it. If you can’t do it well, stay away from it.
4. We are not professional entertainers. We are professional PR/marketing/social media professionals. If we’re good at entertaining, then that’s icing on the cake. But that’s not our raison d’être. And we need to remember that.
5. There are many ways to set a presentation on fire. Dropping F-bombs is not necessarily one of them. And if that’s your tactic, you’d better make sure it really works.
So if you’re trying to figure out a new angle to your presentations or speeches, please do yourself a favor and don’t go for the shock value.
Because there’s nothing worse than a shock jock who’s just … boring.
[…] attract attention, for me sharing should bring value. Not just shock value, like Marcus Sheridan or Shonali Burke experienced on the last day of Blog World New York, but a real personal experience from which […]
Hahaha John. You’re quite the funny expat, aren’t you ;)
Yes all for the shock, make your audience uncomfortable and watch them walk out..
Of course!
@ginidietrich Right on, exactly!
@LucretiaMaddenPruitt @Shonali @ginidietrich blogworld blogworldexpo
Lucretia,
I really enjoyed your comments here (as always). And as important as it is for us to continue to preach “know your audience” the fact is, we and many others really ARE Monday-morning quarterbacking this one – almost to death.
Rick and Deb did a great job putting this conference together. The speakers were fantastic (and many of them great friends) and it was, after all, the inaugural NYC event of this conference. Brogan disappointed. It happens. The others disappointed, it happens. They probably won’t be asked back – nor, after all this, would they want to be. Everyone learned some lessons.
Let’s give all those parties a break and maybe agree that we’ve discussed this one thoroughly.
@Shonali @ginidietrich I do know that we’ve seen elsewhere that Sara wasn’t sure that her style of humor was going to suit the audience and that she was assured it was by seeing some of Jenny’s session from a previous event. I know that Rick & Dave also have spoken at length about the fact that they believe that it was appropriate for the audience.
But I think we have to give a little bit of leeway here because the audience at BWENY was considerably different than it has been in past years in Las Vegas. Even though there were many of the same faces (including Chris Brogan) from past years, there was a very different feel to the audience in NY – at least from my perspective. It’s not always possible to know what kind of audience you will get in advance, is it? I wasn’t there – so I don’t know how similar it was in tenor to previous closing keynotes blogworld, but if it was? Then they had very good reasons to believe it was fitting.I think it’s probably hard to pivot -during- the session. But I don’t think we can expect the organizers to be psychic either. If this format was appropriate for the first BlogWorld 3 shows – why wouldn’t they expect it to be appropriate for this one?
I have to say, it’s hard to know who your audience sometimes, especially when it’s a new show. Yes, blogworldexpo was having it’s 4th show – but it was the 1st show in New York and I think it’s been pretty established that it rolled out differently than the previous shows in Las Vegas.
I agree that knowing your audience is crucial to success – but we are kind of Monday-morning Quarterbacking this one. It’s okay to be disappointed. But I’m not sure it’s useful to say “they should’ve known!” when what we probably really mean is “we hope they take this into account for future events.” :
@Marcus_Sheridan I think I’ve been very blessed in the amazing caliber of people I’ve had the fortune to know in my life. I suspect I’m far more likely to be that one person who seems to know so many people who do great things. It makes for good dinner parties! ;)
But thank you! I knew you’d be at Danny & Gini’s session in NY, but so wish I’d had time to meet you there! We’ll have to figure it out down the road… maybe we can share a table at one of Sonali’s sessions someday soon!
@Shonali I’m in that weird place where I wish more people would give me actionable, candid feedback… otherwise I’ll be stuck at the same level. It was really useful the way it was worded, too. Kind of made me wonder if it wasn’t also applicable to the closing at BWE – she said “you know, these people were on day 3 of witty, clever slides and presentations – at that point? They really just wanted to know what you were there to tell them.” I’m incorporating that thinking into future sessions – not just knowing the audience, but incorporating where you are in the program into your thinking. I suppose “closing keynote” is a different event. Personally, it’s not one I think I’m up to nor liable to be all that soon. There’s a lot on your shoulders at the closing keynote – because you’re supposed to both end the event on a high note AND supposed to wow an audience who should already be on information overload if the rest of the conference was good.
Yeah, clearly, I’ve been thinking about this whole thing way too much since it happened. But I’m kind of prone to over-analysis. ;)
@LucretiaMaddenPruitt I really am impressed with this comment Lucretia. First of all, props to your friend for caring enough to give you great feedback. Second, props to you for taking it constructively, and drawing strength from it. That takes a strong person, but that also means you’re on your way to great things. :-)
Some where in this social media sphere we went from being authentic to posturing, presenting what we thought people wanted, entertainment. I would offer that the lack of authenticity is what killed this keynote. The canned entertainment seems like a bad Oscars event as opposed to a discussion of these media in a non canned way.
@Shonali I get that – it’s hard to know your audience when it’s a wide mix. I guess, then, you have to have the confidence to stand up and say, “You know, I’m not comfortable with what you’re asking me to do” and be ready to turn away the speaking fee.
@bdorman264 Oy vey.
@Shonali Totally with you on that, Shonali. I’m not saying that one shouldn’t use information, slides, anecdotes and content from other/previous presentations. What gets my goat (or in the case of @bdorman264 , wolf) is when there is barely a change in inflection, tone or content from one presentation to the next. When I speak of customization, I mean it in the same sense as your post, and @ginidietrich ‘s comment: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE:)…and adjust and tailor accordingly. Cheers! Kaarina
@LucretiaMaddenPruitt I think it’s great that this person gave you honest feedback and even more, that you took it in the spirit it was given (even though you requested it, you could easily have tossed your hair at her…!). That’s awesome, Lucretia.
Yea, the “start with a joke” thing has to be done very carefully, I think – what if it bombs? I don’t even try, unless the situation is such that a joke comes naturally to me. I remember when I presented at the 2009 PRSA conference in San Diego. One of the big keynotes – I think it was the opening one – had some people from the zoo there, along with live animals, etc., so there was definitely a “zoo” theme going that was fresh in people’s minds. A couple days later, when we were setting up for my session (which was on measurement), I found that there was no wireless mic/lavalier available, so the mic they gave me had this enormously long lead… and since I was wearing a skirt-suit, I looked as if I had a long tail behind me. When I started my session, I made a comment to that effect, but it was completely off the cuff yet fit in with what people had been talking about – so that got a big laugh. But if I’d planned that, I’m 99% sure it wouldn’t have worked!
Thanks so much for stopping by, I really appreciate it!
@SaraJBenincasa I wasn’t upset. I was disappointed, and made that pretty clear in my post. I really wanted to hear more from Chris, as many other people did, and in that context, the panel didn’t deliver.
@johnfalchetto I LOVED the social aspect of BWENY and getting to meet you IRL was definitely a highlight for me, as I was telling @hackmanj ! Thank you so much for stopping by, John.
@johnfalchetto And now you can fill @bdorman264 in on raisins and grapes too. :)
@bdorman264 I think the live interactions part was the best part of BlogWorld too, and I’ve found that increasingly to be the case. And believe me, you no longer have your cloak of invisibility, Harry Potter took it away from you a long time ago. :p johnfalchetto @Marcus_Sheridan
@JGoldsborough Exactly – which goes to @ginidietrich ‘s point about knowing one’s audience. I didn’t find it a presentation so much (which would have been fine) as rather… confused. Now, if they’d managed to actually pull off a “talk show” properly, that would have been very cool.
Thanks for stopping by, Justin!
@danperezfilms Yes, thank you @ShellyKramer ! And Dan, for stopping by.
@bdorman264 It’s ALWAYS about you, Bill! @KDillabough @ginidietrich
@KDillabough I do spend time on customizing my presentations too, and I think most of us do. But there are instances where sometimes I’ll use a similar case study, or a few similar slides, though I always customize it – simply because they’re good, relevant, and this particular audience hasn’t seen it before. And many of the speakers/presenters I respect do so as well. It doesn’t devalue them or their content in my eyes, as long as there is something new there. I think customizing, as you mention, Kaarina, is the key.
As far as the presenter you mention goes, I can see how that would be tiresome… but I guess if I found that person were presenting near me, and I knew s/he was going to do the same thing over and over, I just wouldn’t attend – why waste my time on it, right?
Thanks for stopping by, Kaarina! Now I’ll be looking for your blog post!
@ginidietrich I think the “knowing your audience” part is implicit in a few different points, Gini, and when I wrote this, I really wanted to express how disappointed I was with this specific panel, which was probably one of the most anticipated sessions of the entire conference. It disappointed me that we could potentially have learned from Chris et al, and instead were left feeling confused as to what exactly was going on.
I agree that knowing your audience is a big part of speaking. To be fair, though, it’s also tough when there can be a wide cross-section of people coming to hear you speak. So to some extent, it’s also how the session is billed, how the organizers work with the speakers beforehand, etc., that can make a difference; because if the session description is clear, then at least attendees have an idea of what they are going to (or should) get.
I have no way of knowing which, if any, of those elements were in play in this specific instance. This was billed as a “talk show” – and that was my point. Not everyone can do talk shows. Not even blogging gurus.
@Marcus_Sheridan Hey, Mufasa! I love how you use yourself as an example. A lot of the people I know, who present regularly in the PR/SM area have a great sense of humor, and sometimes they can get laughs pretty easily… I’m pretty good at doing it too. But I honestly don’t know if I would be able to parlay the content of my presentations into a comedy format successfully – and that is coming from a former (professional) actress…! Because unless the people watching/listening get what they need from a content point of view… what’s the point, right?
It was really great to finally meet you in NYC as well and I’m sure our paths will cross IRL soon too. And I hope YOU have a great weekend, after being so kind as to stop by here on a Saturday!
@ShellyKramer Aw, thank you!
@KenMueller I’d love to be able to spend some time with Howard Stern, just to see how he functions… people like that fascinate me. I thought “Private Parts” was a terrific book/movie… but much as you say, though I really enjoyed that insight into his life, his show is not for me (the first time I saw it, I was like… people really LIKE this stuff?!). But there is an audience for that kind of thing, and he taps into it really successfully.
Thanks for being the first to comment, Ken… on a Saturday, too!
Yes. This! :)
Less about the closing keynote and more about the key component of your post tho? You are spot on about people who aren’t professional comics not trying to use humor to make a presentation passable – Jordan Cooper had commented on that on one of these posts (Marcus’s?) and was spot on with his advice too.
I had to miss the keynote left BWENY early to go to Portland and speak in an entirely different environment to an audience that was totally unfamiliar to me at the same time that was happening. Someone who I really respect was in the audience of my session at Webvisions and afterward gave me requested feedback that I requested & truly valued – she said “quit trying to be funny – that part felt forced.” Apparently my enthusiasm, knowledge and passion are sufficiently compelling to get people interested in the topic which they showed up for. (Who knew?) She told me that I while I am occasionally funny in casual situations, pushing that into my presentation just made me look like I was trying too hard.
I took that feedback to heart. Combined with Jordan’s candid advice last year that whomever said “always start with a joke to break the ice” was giving out horrible advice? I’m definitely listening.
After all – if it’s not about reaching the audience? Then why do we need to be there?
@KenMueller It is my fault really, I had to cancel as on them at the last moment. They were so angry they took my name off of all of the literature. Kind of disappointed in that, because I was looking forward to the extra publicity. Now, I am practically invisible.
Would have made a great keynote speaker too. Sigh.
Jesus, people are still upset about this? Hilarious.
@bdorman264 Mr Dorman, New York more outrageous than when the show is in Vegas?
I am not sure they really gauged their audience properly, as @ginidietrich said, they didn’t really understand their audience.
Hi Shonali,
I wasn’t a speaker at BWENY, I was a paying ticket holder. I flew 10 hours and spent a few grands to go there. I actually had to leave before the last night and I felt a bit sad that I didn’t get to hear Brogan, who I respect for his authority in social media.
Reading Marcus and now your account of the last keynote speech I am not sad anymore. I am really angry. If I wanted to watch some cheap X rated show, I could just go down to the local red light district bar.
I came to BWENY to learn something, and this doesn’t mean learning new ways to use 4 letter words.
I didn’t go to the second night’s keynote because I was already a bit disappointed by the first night. To invite GaryV to speak about publishing at a blog conference seemed to be off topic to me. But then I realized BWENY was put together as a side show for the book expo.
Saying that, I LOVED the social aspect of BWENY and the fact aht I got to meet you IRL. Being able to sit down with other awesome bloggers made it all worthwhile for me. Even though I wouldn’t hire the organizers of BWENY to organize drinking games in a brewery….
Thanks for sharing your side of the story here, and yes shock jocks who don’t make us laugh are lame.
@Marcus_Sheridan Ok, Seinfeld………………..
@KDillabough @ginidietrich shonali Know your audience? I thought it was all about me; if you can tell you are losing them, just start talking louder. Works wonders for me………….:)
@ginidietrich Speaking of over and over; you just can’t help yourself can you? I’m sure you used the ‘tooled’ reference because it was not a good presentation, huh?
What about raisins? Oh, raison d’être (do I need to get johnfalchetto to tell me what that means)? And I’m guessing you got up from @Marcus_Sheridan table because he was the one boring you to tears…..just sayin’………….:). You know I love both of you guys…………….
What I see in this social media arena are some incredibly talented, generous, somewhat famous people; but I sense a huge void full of opportunity for truly talented, creative leaders. I see so many struggling to be ‘that guy (person)’ but I sense it is very fragmented. Hmmmmm, maybe I need to be ‘that guy’; kind of hard to do w/ the cloak of invisibility, huh?
Having read some of the comments from blogworld it appears to be a matter of perspective. I have read some that actually loved it but I think it was because they were able to meet and interact in person with people who they had online relationships with. I would have gone just for that opportunity, but I’m social like that…………:)
This is just my opinion, but I also thing since the venue was New York then they felt they had to be outrageous. Who knows…………
Hope your day is well.
Unfortunately, I missed the final keynote because of a client call. But from everything I have heard, it seems like a classic case of a presentation that would have worked fairly well last year in Vegas, but not so much at this year’s NYC BlogWorld. It was definitely a different, more corporate feel with less diverse audience, IMO. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all…just a fact. Good perspective here, @Shonali .
Don’t wanna beat a dead horse or chime in with the obvious but like @ginidietrich said, it’s about knowing your audience. This one seemed like a no-brainer. The same crowd that Andrew Dice Clay attracted wouldn’t think Jerry Seinfeld’s act was all that funny. I’ve read a lot about this incident at Blogworld and I, too, would’ve been disappointed by the poor taste of the closing keynote. If I wanted to see appalling human behavior, I’d have stayed home and watched Jerry Springer. Bad move.
Thanks to @ShellyKramer for sharing this post on facebook :)
@KenMueller Muelleriffic as always Ken!
@ShellyKramer Ditto that Shelly:)
@ginidietrich Gini, I could hug you for this comment! KNOW THY AUDIENCE indeed! But the point you make about the “same presentation over and over again” is the one that really hits home for me.
There’s a person on the speaking circuit right now that’s garnered near “idol” fame, and they present the IDENTICAL presentation, regardless of location, audience, time or place. It makes me crazy to think that they get paid HUGE bucks for this. Granted, the audience they’re presenting to (notice my crafty use of the word they to avoid indicating gender:) doesn’t know the difference, and maybe it’s just green-eyed jealousy on my part but…
I spend hours crafting each presentation I make to the audience I’m going to deliver to. I make sure I do my homework: learn as much about the group/history/culture/interests et. al. My husband thinks I’m nuts…”why don’t you just use what you used the last time?” That’s not how I roll. I, like you, believe in customizing every time.
Worse still: when the content is sooo off base,but the presenter walks away with their big fat cheque anyways…crazy-makin’!
Can you tell that my blood is boiling over this topic? shonali You hit it spot on: shock value is really only for the presenter who thinks their stuff is all that and a bag of peanuts, and humour’s a tough thing to pull off. And as you said: it’s CONTENT we’re interested in.
Wow…I better stop here cuz I could go on and on about the “add water and stir” identical presentation model. Hmmm…I think you’ve inspired me to do a blog post on just that! I think I’ll call it “Identicalbot talk”. Cheers! Kaarina
I think you glossed over the most important point: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. A couple of years ago, I saw a big name PR pro speak. His presentation was tooled for small business owners, not for PR pros. Everything he talked about, we already do. It was really awful.
I speak. A lot. And I know how much easier it is to use the same presentation over and over again. But that’s not what earns you respect or provides value to your audience. You must customize to the audience every time.
Hey Shonali, I’m really glad to have read your take on this, especially considering you were there and attended for the same reason I did– namely Chris Brogan.
I thought your 5 main points here were perfect. In fact, in many ways they represented exactly how I felt about the event and what we need to watch out for as presenters.
As an example, I’m a pretty funny guy on stage. Making people laugh comes very easy for me. But I’d never do a comedy show. Comedy is a subcomponent, not the anchor of the presentation.
Like you said, the content must carry the day in an event like this, and the rest is a bonus.
Anyway, it was great meeting you in NY Shonali and I’m sure we’ll see each other again at future events.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Marcus
Perfectly said, Shonali. Perfectly.
@shellykramer
In many ways it comes down to something we preach all the time regarding marketing, PR, Social Media, blogging, and the like: Know your audience. I am not a fan of “shock” jock kind of humor. I’ve worked in radio, and have spent a bit of time with people like Howard Stern. He’s an incredibly nice guy. But his humor isn’t for me. On the other hand, he is VERY successful. Why? Because he has an audience and he knows his audience and what they want.
I can imagine the people who planned this were thinking “Hey, let’s surprise people and do something edgy. Yeah, that’s a great idea!” and they didn’t think it through fully.
Know your frickin’ audience!