As a member of Toastmasters I’m interested in improving my public speaking skills, so I have a keen eye for those who do this well and those who don’t. As such, Steve Jobs is well known for his “Steve-Note” keynote presentations. And Steve’s had thirty years of highlights as a public speaker. But none have topped the introduction of the iPhone at MacWorld Expo in January 2007.
Steve was really in the zone on this presentation. He knew he was going to blow people away with the product but his delivery had it all: effective gestures, dramatic pauses and vocal variety, and a killer multimedia presentation. Â He was well-rehearsed and didn’t fumble any lines. He had a great set of product demos as well. I love the part where Steve calls Starbucks live and orders 4,000 lattes to go.
If you ever want to see what great technical speeches look like then this is a great place to start. And be sure to see the guest speaker from Cingular (now AT&T), Stan Sigman. The guy was following Steve’s best keynote every and read his speech from large note cards! Â The guy is probably better know as “note card guy” than for being the President of AT&T.
There’s probably not a month or two that goes by when I don’t rewatch part of this presentation; it is truly inspiring and I am still in awe of how great it was. Apple has kindly made it available for download and replay.
Another great outcome of the speech was a remix from Simon Bachofen called “Who Wants a Stylus.” It plays off the part of the presentation where Steve says that Apple is releasing three products, an iPod, a Phone, and an Internet Communications device – only to reveal it is only one device! The remix was so great that someone made a music video out of it. Check it out!