Former Employee Reveals Jobs’ Keynote Preparation
During his time with us, Steve Jobs became renowned for many things, however perhaps one of his most illustrious talents was his keynote speeches. Today, a former Apple employee, Don Melton, revealed to the world some of the inner workings of those keynote speeches.
Melton was a team leader in developing Safari and Webkit. He is already known for revealing other aspects of Apple’s working life, telling us how Safari got its name, and also documenting the strategies that the Safari team had to employ to keep their projects under wraps.
“Stand back, this is going to be awesome…”
The details of Jobs’ meticulous keynote preparation are specifically taken from the 2003 Macworld Expo, which saw the launch of Safari almost 10 years ago. Melton was present at rehearsals to ensure a helping hand was available if something went wrong with Safari during the launch. He writes: “There’s nothing that can fill your underwear faster than seeing your product fail during a Steve Jobs demo”.
On Jobs, Melton writes:
Most of the time during those rehearsals, Ken and I had nothing to do except sit in the then empty audience and watch The Master Presenter at work — crafting his keynote. What a privilege to be a spectator during that process. At Apple, we were actually all students, not just spectators. When I see other companies clumsily announce products these days, I realize again how much the rest of the world lost now that Steve is gone.
Jobs rehearsed the presentation at least four times, and the keynote went through without so much as a hiccup. A fantastic tribute to Jobs’ work ethic and attention to detail, the full article is available here.
What is your greatest memory of Steve Jobs? Leave a comment below
