As research director at Gartner, Bill Keyworth was consistently rated as one of the top presenters. Which is a good thing, because his job depended on it. I talked with Bill recently about cloud computing and technology marketing for an article in TechRepublic magazine. He also described some of the underlying beliefs about why his largely technical presentations have always been so well received across a variety of audiences:
"One primary thing is keeping the visuals a support mechanism and not letting them become the presentation. People are going to remember a very small percentage of what you say even two or three hours later. So what is it you want them to remember? You want them to do something differently. Everything you do should be driven by that, including your visuals.
When I was at Gartner, every presentation got a feedback score that was posted, and not being in the top twenty percent was not good. If you weren't in the top half, you should start looking for another job. At first I had no idea why I scored so well, and then someone told me my strength was my credibility. I believed in management technology and processes, and I believed it would make a difference.
Some presenters can tell a great story but can't answer the basic question of how things are run, managed or controlled. They'll explain that those details are 'coming out in the next version.' For me, non-managed is an unacceptable answer. So even when people don't remember everything I said, my belief in the importance and necessity of those management answers comes through in the credibility of my presentations. It has to come from the heart."
You can read the full interview with Bill Keyworth in today's TechRepublic article here.
Bill's newest venture, the BSM Review, features a complete panel of experts from across the IT spectrum blogging on business service management.
