Mary Jo Foley writes about Bill's keynote at CES yesterday.
One of the cooler parts of my job is that I occasionally get to work with Bill's staff to pick technology demos from MSR that would work well within one of his keynotes. Sometimes other execs too (like my boss Rick Rashid). And, of course, I go on the road and gives talks too -- something I really enjoy -- which is the most fun because I get to pick my own demos :-)
I never quite know how people are going to react to a demo. I try to go for the right balance between "good theater" and real substance. I personally hate talks and demos that are all glitz and no substance -- I'm not a marketing guy, really. There needs to be a fair amount of protein in the diet. Sometimes I get completely surprised by the reaction, like Rick Rashid's keynote at the PDC. I knew that the photorealistic water rendering would get a good gasp from the audience, and I figured that people would like the "Student tablet PC" demos, but the reaction to Wallop caught me completely off-guard -- and particularly the feverish speculation that followed about Microsoft's theoretical short term plans for blogging products. We go to great lengths to emphasize that our research projects are just that: research. Some days that doesn't seem to be enough.
Ah well, it's all fun.
10:58:48 PM  ; ;
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