Wednesday, September 15, 2010
As Nokia World began yesterday, speculation buzzed about the identity of the two opening keynote speakers. The line-up had been settled months ago. First on the bill was CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, but he was defenestrated on Friday. And yesterday, the second keynote speaker on the bill, Anssi Vanjoki, announced that he'd be following the CEO out of the door, just a little more slowly. I was about to volunteer my services ¨C make a few off-colour jokes, ask if anybody had parked their Mondeo with their lights on, and maybe even do some juggling, if needed. In the end, it wasn't necessary.
Which is a relief, since I can't juggle.
Niklaus Savander stood in for OPK, while Vanjoki performed as billed. But it still made for quite an unusual atmosphere.
Vanjoki went out with the aggression and bombast turned up to 11. ¡°This phone is biiig. Biiiiiiig¡± he told us several times, and ¡°Nokia is back!¡± Which is most un-Finnish. What was he trying to tell us? I suspect both speakers may have been primed by Gary Moon, one of last year's guest keynotes, a former Khmer Rouge prisoner-of-war, turned demotivational speaker, who told an anecdote about crushing the testicles of a water buffalo. By contrast, I've always liked Nokia people for their quiet rationality, unflappability, and understatement. Over several years, I got enough aggression and bombast in Silicon Valley ¨C and not just from dentists, but quite often from no-hope companies too.
By: DocMemory
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