The Facebook keynote debacle

So you probably heard about the chaos and hilarity that was the Mark Zuckerberg keynote at SXSW. If you haven’t, check out the Wired News coverage or Valleywag chatter, or just watch the video.

The firsthand experience was bizarre. My take is that Zuckerberg was lucky that BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy was such a bad interviewer, because otherwise the attention would have been more on him and his utterly unengaging wall of silence. The guy had little to say and resorted to repetitive platitudes. If he were my CEO, I’d be worried. I know, I know, he’s only 23. But he needs more coaching fast.

Sarah Lacy made me wince continously. Like, she’s like a flirty 13-year-old and comes across as, like, soooo unprofessional. Like, you know? I know this informal valley girl interview style is in vogue, but the lack of content and expertise was embarrassing. Stop giggling and ask real questions.

And OK, the crowd overreacted. She deserved criticism, but not real-time cruelty. The SXSW audience is more demanding and impatient with BS, no doubt. It was fascinating to see it unfold in person.

Interesting broader coverage about the participation of the conference crowd: “SXSW: 2008, the Year the Audience Keynoted”