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My Thoughts on Lacy/Zuckerberg at SXSW. Learn From It.

There’s been a ton of comment on the Sarah Lacy / Mark Zuckerberg keynote at SXSW, but probably the best two comments I’ve seen on it so far are from Ian Schafer (”the reporter became the story”) and Allen Stern (”When you screw up or your customers believe you have screwed up, apologize. (my emphasis)”).

I would like to bring up two points. The first is to do with multi-skilling, the second with how to react to an event like this for the long term.

Lacy died on stage.

By that I mean a comedian’s death, where nothing is working, the crowd hates you, and for the life of you, you have no idea why. All you can think is “this worked last night!” and it’s the most lonely feeling in the world during it, and hits you in the stomach afterwards. I know, I’ve been there when doing stand-up. Except, rather unusually in this case, for 45 minutes Lacy did not know she had died. She wasn’t watching the audience for feedback, she wasn’t picking up on the mood.So when it hit, it was a double whammy.

I’ve no doubt that Lacy’s interview technique is perfect for getting the story out for print journalism - what she got Zuckerberg talking about on the SXSW stage proves that, and would have made a great print article/biography. But this was not a find information session, this was a performance. This was a show. And the rules are subtly different. In this Web 2.0 world, many of us are expected to wear a number of different hats, even traditional journalists in news rooms, but there are some times when you need practice and build up before going on to the stage. Sarah, if you do get these opportunities again, can I recommend you go to a local comedy club, pick up an open spot or two, and understand a bit about reading a crowd? At the very least read this.

The second point is what to do now, after it has all happened. Picture a conference, in Paris, in 2006. The organiser has made what he thinks is a pretty damm spectacular coup, and put the Presidential Candidates on stage. The crowd think otherwise, and rather strongly let him know on their blogs (and the five people using Twitter at that point in time agreed).

What did Loic Le Meur do? Drew breath, explained why, said sorry, and listened. Listened big time. He listened so much that not only did the next conference, Le Web 2007, hit a home run out the park and become the leading European conference, it also changed his entire business/start-up strategy - which I think has made the alpha of Seesmic the success that it is.

I think this was the biggest mistake… Posting “seriously screw all you guys” on Twitter. Not only did it show a serious misjudgment, but it failed to show any contrition, or ability to take on criticism and learn from the experience. Attending conferences should be a learning experience, if you can spot the opportunities. Unfortunatly, Lacy has shown in the last few days that she’s not open to change.

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PS: These thoughts could easily be reflected on quite a few SXSW Interactive panels and moderators, but I’m going to post about that in a bit more depth shortly, along with some comments on daytime programming at SXSW.

March 15, 2008; SXSW 2008;

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Comments

One Response to “My Thoughts on Lacy/Zuckerberg at SXSW. Learn From It.”

  1. David Spark on March 15th, 2008 23:40

    Hey Ewan:

    David Spark here. Thanks for linking to my post about dealing with rough crowds and my “More Schmooze, Less Snooze” article.

    Yesterday, I hosted a podcast roundtable where we discussed whether or not Twittering at a show is rude, and with the explosive response to the Zuckerberg-Lacy fiasco will that put more panelists and moderators on their toes? Take a listen here:

    http://www.sparkminute.com/?p=281

    David

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