The analogy that I draw most often is to the world of music. In music, you have the song and the performance. Each part is important – perhaps equally important – indeed they often carry separate copyrights as the Prince v Radiohead controversy highlights. Each can shine independently of the other, although a brilliant song can be killed by a bad performance in the same way that brilliant insights can often be masked by an inability to communicate. Each can reveal aspects of the other that had not been seen before. And, each delivers revenue in different ways.

For example, while songwriters in bands may do alright, most of the money comes from live performances. There’s not really that much money in selling CDs which is why lots of artists are quite happy to encourage free downloads because they consider songs marketing for performances. Because songs are also marketing for albums, giving away songs can often also lead to greater sales. Likewise, many artists make a great living never writing anything original. They are simply masters of performing.

You see the same thing happening in the business world. IP or thinking is becoming separated from the performance. Thinkers are giving away their works for free like Seth Godin recently or are releasing their work as they write to solicit feedback like John Grant did. While both are hoping for increased sales through these tactics, it’s also highly likely that they will and have seen increased demand for their speaking as a result. In the same way that songs can be remixed and recombined, a lot of new thinking in business builds upon and steals thinking from others (just realised that Faris may think I think he steals which is not what I’m saying, but as I write this I also realised that Faris might be quite pleased to think that I think he steals). Musicians are using CCmixter and Rifflet to encourage this, business thinkers blog and stick their stuff up on places like slideshare under creative commons to achieve the same ends.

The biggest difference for me is that there are far more thinkers in business than there are performers. The really magical presenters are quite rare and often, they mask sub par thinking and content with amazing performances. But, if we’re to carry the analogy further, is it possible that a new class of profession could arise – the business performer? The business performer would know how to construct a presentation and how to deliver a presentation, but would not necessarily create the thinking or ideas. As the availability of business thinking grows, the business performer might, as in music, eclipse the business thinker in fame and fortune.

Of course this is already happening to some extent. It is unlikely that Steve Jobs or Barack Obama actually wrote or created most of their own presentations, but their delivery ability (among other things) has ensured their places at the top of their respective organisations. However, I wonder if this could be taken even further with specialised presenters who have no other skill than that of being able to deliver amazing presentations.

Gavin posted recently a sign of this coming future that still continues to amaze me. Anil Dash delivering slides he’s never seen in a Powerpoint Karaoke competition. If he ever decides to divorce his performing from his thinking, I’m calling…

Technorati Tags: performance, powerpoint, presentation

Possibly related posts

• Nonlinear presentations.
• Influx Curated.
• Mastering new modes DRAFT.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll also know that we think that this is the age of the slideshow as marketing vehicle. That’s why even more than anticipating new product releases, I find myself awaiting the performance just as eagerly.

When Gizmodo says:

“What we know for sure

• Without naming any specifics, our unofficial conversations with people inside Apple points out at a 2008 full of new products. Not new versions, but actual new products. According to them, as their consumer segment gets stronger by the day, the company can take risks that before were unthinkable.

• The same sources says that, although Apple is going to keep spacing these releases through time, the overload of information for this keynote requires their marketing agenda to be extremely focused, even more than during previous events.”

It’s like pleasuring us at both ends so to speak.

I think if one were to run an econometric model on Apple’s marketing, a huge portion of their sales could be traced back to this one day.

Random Posts

• Reinforcements on their way.
• Communications models.
• The real digital divide is a human values one not a technological one.
• Lost in translation: the changed context of marketing terms.
• See you in 2008!