Michael Phelps

Type: Keynote

It has been a while since my last post. I have been on the road constantly the last month or so going from one event to the next. Lots of reviews and posts will follow.

I am excited about today’s post because it is a review of an exciting and very new person to the keynote stage: Michael Phelps. I had the pleasure to work with Phelps on what was one of his first keynote presentations.

Pros: The excitement and energy in the audience was obvious as soon as Michael entered the room. A prior VIP meet and greet where Michael took pictures (with a gold medal if the attendee wanted) was a great way to start the evening.

The keynote was done in an interview style.  The president of the company holding the event served as the moderator. A Q&A section followed.

The conversation covered Michaels rise to success with an emphasis on his work ethic. They also covered preparation for each Olympics, stories from the Olympics and background on the Not-For-Profit organization that Michael runs (Michael Phelps Foundation).

Cons:  The only thing to note is that Michael is not a polished presenter yet.  The interview style worked great for this event and I would expect that eventually a standard keynote will be something Michael offers. 

Bottom Line:  I would strongly recommend Michael Phelps: a very timely, energetic and fun keynote.  The meet and greet was a great feature and should be part of every booking with Phelps. 

Guy Kawasaki

Type: Keynote, Former Chief Evangelist at Apple

Pros: Guy Kawasaki is said to be one of the only people in the world to have worked for Steve Jobs twice and survived. Stories and anecdotes about the early days of Apple like this are mixed in throughout Guy’s presentation. These stories alone may make him a good keynote, but his messages on innovation and entrepreneurship are very interesting as well.

Cons: Guy is a little eccentric and needs to be reined in on Q&A if timing is an issue at your events. When we worked together he did a great job with Q&A, but if we didn’t keep him moving toward the door I think he would still be in the ballroom answering questions.

Bottom Line: For a conference with a theme around innovation or creativity, Guy would be a good speaker choice.

David Marquet

Type: Keynot, expert on leadership and organizational design

David is an energetic speaker whose claim to fame is his success as a Navy Captain. During his time in the Navy, he took over the lowest ranked submarine, and through superb leadership skills, turned it into the highest performing sub in the US Navy.

Pros: Very entertaining speaker who engages the audience and uses a few interactive polling questions to involve the audience in the presentation. The presentation I saw was a combination of leadership topics and interesting stories about his time as a Navy Captain.

Cons: His presentation is a little bit like Mike Abrashoff, whose presentation is about the Captain who turns around the ship.

Bottom Line: Entertaining speaker who was informative and entertaining. Fits well with any military or nautical theme.

Rating: 8              Crew Member: Video Lead

Mark King

Type: Keynote

Pros: Mark is not someone who we see very often at events. There always seem to be a couple of “hot” speakers every year who either present at the meetings we produce or are on the short list to be a presenter. Our client identified Mark as a presenter with a good message who they thought would resonate with their audience, and they were right.

The talk was on leadership where he presented his steps for turning around TaylorMade golf.  The history and back-story about the growth of TaylorMade was an interesting story as well. He discussed the success he had with abandoning the traditional methods of building a golf brand and instead focused specifically on the golfer who bought equipment annually.

One big hit with the audience (and I am not sure if he does this at all events) was at the end of the presentation he gave away a number of TaylorMade golf clubs and bags.

Cons: None.

Bottom Line: He was an interesting speaker and the golf connection definitely seemed to connect with the attendees in the audience. The growth of the company through non-traditional methods seemed to resonate with the audience, who were very engaged with his story.

Note: TaylorMade has now been sold to Adidas and Mark is serving as President.

Sugar Ray Leonard

Type: Keynote

Pros: He is an energetic speaker who entertains the audience with fascinating stories about his life as an Olympic and professional boxer. He also tells a number of “behind the scenes” stories about his life and fights.

Ray uses a number of videos to create a visual timeline of his successes in both the Olympics and the professional boxing ring. Not only does this remind the audience of his success but these short videos serve to motivate and keep the audience engaged.

He also had a fun jump rope activity with the audience, which took place in the middle of the presentation and did a good job of keeping the energy up in the room.

Ray took questions from the audience and based on the number of questions it’s fair to say the audience was very excited to hear and talk with Ray. Ray took all of the questions and would often add a story or additional interesting points to the topic of the question.

There was also a motivational spin to the presentation that I saw. I would expect that he can do some minimal customization based on the theme of the conference, but in the end the audience is there to meet and hear about Sugar Ray Leonard.

On a fun note, we were visited by the fire marshal right before Sugar Ray’s speech. A visit by a fire marshal in the middle of an event is usually not a good sign, but as it turns out the fire marshal is a big Sugar Ray fan and asked if he could stand in the back and watch the presentation.

Cons: A younger audience may not know or remember Sugar Ray Leonard but his video highlights do a good job of telling his story.

One note: The videos files are not the best quality and should be pre-loaded into a playback device. There is no specific script as to where the videos play, Ray’s representative sits at front of house control and calls the roles. A rehearsal the day or evening prior to the presentation would be strongly recommended.

Bottom Line: I would strongly recommend Sugar Ray Leonard as a keynote speaker. The audience was interested and energetic throughout the presentation.

John Foley

Type: Keynote

Pros: I have to admit that I didn’t know who John Foley was before his keynote, and had never seen him on any of our clients’ keynote lists. After seeing his presentation I have to wonder why I haven’t seen him before.

John mixes stories with leadership insight into a high energy, entertaining and informative keynote. One very unique aspect of John’s presentation is his use of videos from his time as a Blue Angel. The most interesting was a video showing the training and ongoing evaluation that each pilot goes through as part of the Blue Angels team.

John was a lunch speaker at the conference where I saw him speak. Even in this difficult time slot, the audience quickly became actively invested and interacted well with John’s presentation.

Of particular note, John stayed and took pictures with attendees and answered questions for at least 45 minutes after his presentation.

Cons: None.

Bottom Line: Great speaker who should be on everyone’s short list.

For More Info: johnfoleyinc.com