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Archives for February 2021
How to Create an Incredible Virtual Keynote – A Look at One Year of Reinvention!
It’s been almost a year since I walked off stage from my last in-person keynote. With clients like NASA, the World Bank, Disney, and Pfizer, I’d been busy for 25 years providing future-oriented leadership insight to some of the most admired organizations in the world.
I walked off the early last March, stage, and into my basement. Knowing the world had changed, I looked at my existing studio setup which I’d been using to film pre-event client videos – and knew I had to build something better. So I did.
Today, it looks like this (with a few annotations as to what all this gear does!)
All that gear allows me to do things like this:
And this – some short clips to help understand the scope of the opportunity!
In essence, this happened.
As signs begin to emerge that within a year and probably less, we’ll be getting back to some weird sort of normal – not a ‘new normal,’ but a ‘weird normal’ – I believe I’m well positioned not only to offer insight on the biggest stages in the world to the fastest moving organizations – but I will also be able to offer them the world’s best virtual keynote speaker product as an alternative.
I defy anyone to show me someone who is doing anything better. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve looked.
So what goes into creating a great virtual keynote?
First and foremost, it’s the content. That hasn’t changed. I’m represented and booked by many of the top speaker’s bureaus in the world because they have the confidence that I deliver highly engaging, content-rich trends keynote based on some pretty advanced research capabilities. Over 25 years, I’ve been booked by a vast range of the global Fortune 1000 because they know I deliver very detailed insight based upon massive amounts of pre-event research, consultation, and preparation.
You aren’t asked to go in and talk to a bunch of astronauts about the future and leadership unless you know what you are doing. You aren’t invited in by Disney for a talk on creativity – unless they need the insight of your creativity.
All of this insight is based on very detailed research for each engagement – often, thousands of articles from a very advanced online research service. Discussions with the client and industry experts. And more. I’m known for the quality of the work I do.
In other words, I don’t; deliver canned crap. That much has not changed.
And it hasn’t changed for the virtual world. What has changed is that rather than having an AV team of 30-50 people behind the scenes at one of my Las Vegas keynotes, I’ve moved much of that gear in-house, into a truly world-class production studio.
This includes:
- 3 high-end digital cameras that provide for 3 different live camera angles
- 5 other cameras providing for a virtual “behind-the-scenes’ view
- one large screen monitor for Zoom or other webinar interaction
- 1 powerful iMac 2020 used as the main production machine
- 4 other Mac computers used for enhancing the production with additional scenes, content, and backup/redundancy – with 2 of them also acting as live ‘stage monitors’
- 2 professional, wireless lavalier mic sets, similar to what I ‘used in Vegas’, for crisp, clear sound
- 3 green walls!
- 9 high-intensity lights that blend my virtual sets and cancel out the green, letting me put myself in a spaceship if I like (and I have!)
- a pretty amazing software program that lets me pull together a presentation with multiple scenes, advanced camera angels, and context-sensitive multimedia
- this includes over 500 virtual stage set scenes that let me mix and match the backdrops to the client/topics /issue/trends that are being covered
- insight is enhanced through the use of two stock video/image/music services that let me bring professional production quality inlays into my virtual keynotes
- interview and panel discussion technology that lets me go beyond the keynote
- interaction provided by advanced text message polling software, Q&A tools, and other software
It’s not just the gear – it’s the effort I’ve put into mastering the delivery of virtual insight.
I estimate that I’ve put in almost 3,000+ hours of virtual presentation rehearsal – going live with small shows, longer events, and full-on keynotes. I’ve been going live every day or second day, simply to go live – because I know developing the comfort to deliver world-class insight from a small space is critical.
I’ve mastered that. Simply watch some of my clips. Hit the ‘Home Studio” button over on the left!
It’s not just what I can do – it’s the role that my overseas video producer can play in helping me enhance my work with advanced post-production. Taka a look at the video we released just this morning!
It takes a lot of work, effort, and gear to develop the world’s most advanced virtual keynote speaker product. I think I’ve done it.
I documented my voyage in a video that examined my progress, month by month. It’s painful to watch the early months!
But I must admit, it’s pretty weird when you show up for work one day with the wrong shirt on.
Take a look! Contact me!
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Video: Your Post Covid Reality – The Trends that Define Your Future!
The ultimate impact of Covid-19 on your future? Beyond the fact that we will be living in a somewhat surreal and unusual future, another fact remains – every organization is entering a new future in which a new era of massive acceleration defines everything you will do.
I hit the virtual broadcast studio in my basement, and with the assistance of my fantastic overseas video producer, outlined what has happened – and what you can expect!
We’ve broken down the video into 3 shorter segments: here’s the intro. Take a look at the statistics I cover. That’s the reality you will find yourself operating within.
Your future is now shapped by the emergence of a variety of very contradictory trends – I take you on a tour of what has happened and what it means.
Where does it lead to? Future oriented leadership – your ability to align to this new era of acceleration will define you.
Daily Inspiration: “The secret to figuring out the future? It’s not the headline: it’s the trend it represents!”
“The secret to figuring out the future? It’s not the headline: it’s the trend it represents!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
I launched a new series yesterday – Ask.A.Futurist – via ask.jimcarroll.com – gives me a structure to take the many questions that I get from people and work them into a series of short, fast video clips.
One of the first questions I took on was along the lines of what was up with all this Gamestop stuff.” I love taking apart the headlines and taking a look at the trend behind the headlines. The result was this quick little video:
To me, the current GameStop / Reddit issue is just symptomatic of a bigger trend.
As I explain in the video, the next generation, weaned on video games, accelerated by technology, driven by the fspeed of interaction, has discovered a new form of collaborative online power. They’re currently using it to their advantage to disrupt and challenge existing business models and established orthodoxies.
In my view, the current situation is just symptomatic of a larger trend at work – and that is the disruption of everything driven by a generation at speed. We will see many similar GameStop initiatives in every other industry from agriculture to healthcare, transportation to manufacturing. I believe that by and large, today’s younger wired generation has little patience with the slow, pondering, bureaucratic pace of whom they dismissively refer to as the ‘oldsters.’ (That would be me, I suppose!)
The headlines? They make that impatience known, or exploit it to their advantage, by moving at speed.
I’ve long explained that the future belongs to those who are fast. This next generation is faster than fast, and it is pretty clear that they own the future. If you don’t understand and work within the context of that trend, you will find yourself suffering from collateral damage.
By the way, the video clip was the result of a new initiative that I rolled out at blinding speed yesterday.
Ask.A.Futurist is a new vehicle by which I’ll put some structure around the many questions I get related to the future and trends. User-input originated, I’ll take the most interesting or challenging questions, and will film a short video that addresses them. I anticipate doing one or two a week.
Here’s what happened:
- 9 pm 2/24. Someone asks a question
- 9:02 pm I ponder
- 9:05 pm I create https://ask.jimcarroll.com
- 3:00 AM 2/25 Thinking, thinking – whoah, I can do a new thing!
- 8:35 am I set up a spaceship in my studio, write down my storyline, build a show
- 9:23 My show is launched, I’m speaking from within a spaceship is launched – and I’m in flight with the first in a new series of shows!
The result is the little video clip above, and I’m taking this on in the form of a new series, “Ask a Futurist.” I whipped together a little intro to give it some character.
If you’d like, submit your question below. Maybe I will put it on the list, and will notify you if it is one I tackle with a short video clip!
Ask a Futurist
Ask.A.Futurist – Inaugural Show : “What’s Up With This GameStop Thing Anyways?”
Futurist Jim Carroll launches his new short series Ask.A.Futurist, with a quick look at the trends behind the headlines!
Today’s question? What’s up with all this GameStop stuff, and will we ever go back to normal?
Send your question in and maybe he will take it on in a clip!
Visit https://ask.jimcarroll.com
Daily Inspiration: “When everyone is thinking the same thing, you’ll always end up with the same thing!”
“When everyone is thinking the same thing, you’ll always end up with the same thing!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Nature abhors complacency, despises routine, destroys hubris, punishes consistency, reorders routines, inhibits uniformity, and abandons mediocrity.
Nature rewards creativity, accelerates individuality, rewards rebellion, advances the imaginative, seeks out originality, and prizes the inventive.
Don’t try to stand out in a crowded field of sameness – walk to a different space and make it your own.
No one ever achieved great success by doing what everyone else has always done.
It’s only by deciding not to be a part of the pack that the lone wolf finds success in the hunt.
I mean, all this should be obvious, shouldn’t it? So why are you going to do today what did yesterday? Because before you know it, it’s going to be tomorrow!
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