Delta CES Keynote: Taking presentations to new heights

 

Molly: [00:00:00] Hey, Presentation Nation, just a quick note before you tune into this episode, it was recorded before the Delta plane crash on February 17th, 2025, and we're super glad that everyone was OK. So enjoy the episode and stay safe.

Mikey: Welcome back to Presentation Thinking, a. k. a. the Storyteller Study Club. This is your co host, Mikey Meduski, founder of Ghost Ranch Communications, a presentation design agency. And I'm joined by two of my favorite people. Molly Gagin, Allie Wilson, what's going on?

Molly: Woohoo! Allie, welcome back to the cast.

Always love it. So it's good time. Music with me is here. We're already laughing. [00:01:00] Um, if anyone's just tuning in for the first time, Allie Wilson is a creative director over at Go Strange Communications. We love her so much and her brain. So we often try and snag her into these conversations that we're having about presentations and storytelling.

And there's a particularly interesting presentation, kind of, we've done a few product keynotes, sales kickoff y kind of things, but this one's got a specific air about it, you guys.

Mikey: Oh, no, that's

Molly: too much. Is that too much? No. We're

Mikey: going to watch and talk about the Delta keynote from CES 2025. So early January, we know a bunch of the tech industry, you know, manufacturing electronics, they get together and basically take over Vegas.

I guess there's like. I want to say it's like a hundred, hundreds of thousands of people, like a crazy amount of people come to Vegas for CES and I, [00:02:00] I fly Delta. I remember getting an email from Delta marketing saying like, come to our, uh, our keynote at CES this year. This is like, is this spam or like an accident?

You know, and they're like, it's at the sphere. I was like, what's going on here? And so it really piqued my interest. And then I totally forgot about it. But then I think a couple of weeks ago it was in our feed, Molly, and it's like, Hey, like people are talking about the fact that a Delta was at CES because they're not exactly like a, you know, they don't, we don't think of them as a consumer electronics company, but they were celebrating their a hundred year anniversary.

And so I think, you know, their PR comms teams probably did a great job to identify this as a really big marketing moment. Right. And so. It's kind of fun to watch.

Molly: Yeah, it was really stunning, visually stunning as all product kind of presentations, you're, you're kind of like, there's like these little announcements tucked into it.

It's kind of like a lot to take in, but in the sphere specifically, I'm excited to [00:03:00] talk more about the production and. The visual storytelling is really, really fascinating. Allie, you brought in, after we watched it, Allie did a little extra research, and apparently it was in 4D, Allie? I guess that's a thing at the SPHERE.

It's just like,

Allie: it's supposedly just this 4D experience, and so that's, I was reading, you know, obviously we were watching it, I'm YouTube because Mikey did not take the bait and go see it in person. So he, he missed out on the, the fourth dimension aspect of this, um, which apparently there's like smells involved that make it feel more.

More real, like you're experiencing it as like a, you know, something more than a screen and like rumble seat, something like physical things. So there's physical stuff going on, there's smells going on. And that's like on top of it just being in the sphere, which is, I think pretty crazy on its own. Have either, have either of y'all been in there yourselves?

Not yet.

Mikey: Seen it from the outside.

Molly: Yeah. My friend sent some videos. She did see the eagles there. And, um, [00:04:00] the videos even just were so beautiful. She said it was so immersive that she cried. I mean, she's like, the concert was so amazing anyway, but just like the incredible sensory Experience of being there.

So presentation nation, if we ever bring in these specific types of presentations, these product keynotes that we, you know, they happen all the time. Sales kickoffs, that kind of thing. It's like, yeah, why are we talking about Delta Airlines as at CES? But I think this is like, this is really making some waves in the, um, in the tech sphere.

And it's just, they brought in some really interesting elements that I think we're excited to talk about.

Mikey: And capacity wise, it sounds like, I think one of the speakers mentioned it's, there are maybe 10, 000 people there and that's what I'm looking online. It says it's got haptic tech incorporated into 10, 000 of the seats there.

Yeah, that probably makes sense. They didn't, but otherwise it can hold up to 20, 000 people, which is mind blowing when you think about the purpose. Maybe we can just talk about like. Whether it's a product keynote or just, you know, like an annual [00:05:00] big celebratory keynote at a, at a conference. Um, this one was led and narrated fully by the CEO.

You know, sometimes they might pass the baton to other product leaders, marketing leaders, whatever, but Ed Bastion, the CEO really like ran the whole thing, but he had people coming in and out and lots and lots of videos. But like, just talk to me, Allie, like you've been a part of a lot of like big time product keynotes.

What is the purpose? Like, what are some things that, you know, like a marketing team, a corporate team is trying to achieve with, with something like this?

Allie: Yeah, I mean, yeah, when we're thinking about it as a product keynote and also thinking about just who is there, um, which we had to do some digging to figure out like who, who are they speaking to in person?

It sounds like it was acting. Also made a ton of sense for like what the content was and how they approached it. I think there were a lot of Delta employees and the audience, um, you know, along with other attendees from CES, but really, I [00:06:00] think it's like, It is about expressing your vision for the future of the product.

So I think it's, it's great that they did this sort of history recap to show the timeline, you know, where, where we started, where we are, and then to build up a lot of height for like the next hundred years. But you know what they did and they did it, you know, they kind of interspersed it throughout. Um, it wasn't like they loaded up the front part of, you know, the presentation with like, Big hard hitting announcements from the get go.

They did a lot of, there was a long runway before any announcement even happened. Um, so it was, Oh,

I was an accident long runway. Yeah. Well, it's just inside of me, I guess. But, um, but yeah, there, there, it took them a long time to get to announcements, but I feel like a product, you know, it's, it's like, what are we doing? You know, like, what are we doing to move things forward? Especially since, you know, we're talking about innovation.

AI is such a big deal. And it's really the focus of a lot of, you know,[00:07:00]

So it's really like, what are they doing with AI? How are they staying ahead? What are they, you know, but I think it's also about revisiting your values as a company too, and making sure you're eyeing, you know, all the new product things that are going on back to the core values of the company. And so those things have to work together throughout.

And I think it did that actually pretty well.

Molly: Yeah. I was going to say, I like how you said that Ellie, we're, we're, we're It did take a little bit of time to get to the kind of the announcements, the updates, et cetera, but it was establishing like where they kind of looked back on where they came to, like there was the, you know, 100 years of flight is what they're celebrating, right?

And they're looking at, like, the tech net, they've been innovators in the space. In the airspace and, um, and thanking the people that they serve, but also the people that like put it on, they highlight specifically a few like Delta workers that have been there with them for a while. And, you know, it's like this nice, yeah, it's like building for the people and stuff.

And [00:08:00] it isn't until I think about, at least in my videos, maybe in the 18, 20 ish minute mark where Ed kind of does the mile marker thing where he's like, we're going to take you along four key moments of the journey today. And he outlines what those will be. One is like talking about the technology updates, more technology.

And they immediately get into like how AI is enhancing people's experiences on Delta. Number two is their convenient new partners, um, updates there. And those are, those will be all the announcements. And then number three is re imagining how you spend your time on board, he says. And number four is that big picture, bringing the world closer together and unlocking more travel technology.

So through flight and air, air access. So that's kind of like the kind of true kickoff. This visual plane has landed in the beginning, they have a huge plane come up through the runway as he walks out, um, very dramatic and immersive and cool looking. I just told you guys this, but I think it was reminiscent for me of that first ever moving picture movie made by August [00:09:00] Lumiere, the Lumiere brothers.

The arrival of a train at, uh, La Ciotat, and people actually ran out of the theater during this, like, amazing, like, film moment in history because they had never seen a moving picture before, and it was the train moving towards them, and the, and the plane was situated in the same angle, so it really reminded me of that.

I don't know if that was intentional, but just a visual call out.

Mikey: I think that was, because I was wanting to see how they pushed what the sphere could give them, and so I think one of the first videos was more of a, Standard aspect ratio, like a, you know, 16, nine and cool. It looks nice. But then when they split out of that, right before they introduced ed, yeah.

Like you said, it looks, they made it look like you're inside this like insanely realistic plane hanger, futuristic too. And it just starts to like open slowly, slowly. You see this like runway and then the plane slowly comes at you. And then the top lifts off and you start to see the sky and that's like a visual motif throughout then.

But yeah, it was, [00:10:00] it was pretty freaking gorgeous and like so immersive. I can't imagine what it was like being in there.

Molly: Yeah, totally. I think they took advantage of the, what, what that could offer. The sphere could offer them, as you said, Mikey, with that. I bet that's when the

Allie: seats were rumbling, Allie.

They did. Nah, I guess they were like rumbling when like the plane would like. Land and yeah, but, but Mike, you, you just brought up one of my, one of my favorite things. I thought it was really, really smart. So I know, sorry if this is skipping ahead to like, just like Give it all of the space and how it was used.

I mean, they totally could have overdone it because I mean, the spirit, like you were talking about Molly with like people running away from the train, um, like I, it could be overwhelming. And I think, you know, something we always learn in presentation design is not every moment. Can be like a massive spectacle or else you almost get like numb to it.

It's, it's crazy. I felt like they intentionally used this space really intentionally and it was really, really smart. So Mikey, what you're talking about with [00:11:00] that, like standard 16 by nine, they did this play with nostalgia with that. So I don't know if you noticed that, you know, the big. overarching graphics that were taking up the whole dome.

So you'd have these like full environment moments. And then you had these moments that were nostalgic where you, we were like, either looking back in time or video camera vibe. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's like these reflective moments. They're like, here's the way you're used to seeing that. And it was like, boom.

And it gave you that feeling of nostalgia right away because they gave you a, almost like a comfort zone for how to view what they were showing. And I thought it was really, so whoever, whoever planned that the cadence of that and the balance of going back and forth between the big environment and this, like zoomed in.

So more standard screen was Ed that was super smart. Really, really well done.

Mikey: Really conceptually. Just on and like you framework. All right. And then they were like, all right, so when we're talking about our blue sky futuristic stuff, we're gonna, we're gonna go full immersive, 360 [00:12:00] sphere.

Music: Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm

When

Mikey: we're framing it within today or yesterday, we're gonna act accordingly. And then, like you said, it's the salience, as like Carmen Simon talks about, it's like everything's this big home run, you start to, yeah, you kind of forget about it almost. So let it really shine.

Molly: And as the talk goes along and as he kind of launches, you know, he does his intro where where the planes directly behind him.

And then as he, you know, you kind of have a little visual where you're essentially part of the takeoff and you're up in the blue sky clouds. Yeah. And that's when he announced, it starts announcing like people to come out and start talking about just some updates, the technology, whatever. And throughout the whole thing, the sky, you're, you're on the flight, essentially, the sky is changing, the clouds look different, the skies gets darker and lighter and stuff.

And so they take that whole motif of like, you're on the, you're on the ride, you know, with them,

Mikey: which is cool. Even to the end, Molly, you said, like, at the very end, you're finally back, like the sun setting, it's night, then there's fireworks. So, yeah, I mean, from start to finish. [00:13:00] So well orchestrated.

Molly: Yes. Yes.

Mikey: Okay. I also really liked, cause you noticed I kind of lost count. I counted at least like nine or 10 interstitial videos, and I think those serve many purposes, but primarily really good transition moments, right? Like to where it lets the stage crew bring on the next. Guest or let's add like drink some water, whatever it is.

Mm-hmm . And I think we saw that on the Nvidia one too, Molly, but, um, but yeah, I think I'd flip it back to y'all. What do you think the role of video is in a product keynote? And were there any that stood out to you in this one?

Allie: The standout for me that I really, really liked was the, um, like the, the like sort of like customer vignette video Oh, that they put together?

Music: Yeah.

Allie: Yeah. Mm-hmm . But it wasn't, it wasn't one note when it was like a full lifespan of someone traveling. It was like the, the, the before even they're even leaving for the airport, but it was such a great showcase of products. So I think [00:14:00] using it for demo purposes or showcasing new technology is always a great way to do it.

Especially you have control of it. You know, if it's. Um, you know, a video you're putting together ahead of time where you can really think about where in the point of this overarching talk, like how, where you want to hit home, like key points about your product. So this customer demo vignette was broken up into.

Um, different ways that the, the product was changing or updates they were having or different new technologies and ways that they were partnering with people. But it was following the same person the whole time on this one, like nice, cohesive travel experience. And I thought that was, that was killer. Um, they were really, really well done.

Yeah.

Molly: That was definitely my favorite as well. Allie, you said it nicely. Like it showcased so much with like along the way throughout all the updates they had. Whereas like, you know, the other, other videos were like maybe a preview of like, Tom Brady's wellness thing was like, that's fine, but like it's a little more, it doesn't like land as cohesively with the story.

Um, for me, and I also liked, you know, at the end they [00:15:00] had the kids kind of ideating the Airbus technology in innovation space. That was cute and

Mikey: stuff. Who is that actress? That's the, she was really good at, I know she looked really familiar, recognizable. She looked

Molly: really familiar. Yeah. I don't know who that was.

Yeah,

Mikey: she was funny.

Molly: But yeah, I liked, I liked that too. But this specifically with the product, they called it Delta concierge.

Music: Yeah.

Molly: And they show they're like, this is a few years into the future. She's packing up. But Delta is helping her get to the airport with a Joby flight, which by the way. What's going on there?

This is one of the announcements is this, uh, private, I guess, or service to get to the airport. A drone. Exactly. That you can fly to the airport. She avoids traffic by getting lifted to the airport. I was like, Oh, what is the price of that? I wonder. What could possibly go

Music: wrong?

Molly: Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, it was very interesting to see that.

And then they kept coming back to her journey once she had been at the airport, when she's on board. Cause then they're talking about the inflight stuff. So it was really successful. Use of her story. Eve, I think was her name.

Mikey: You see, like we remember [00:16:00] stories, right? Like we remember her damn name. And, um, I agreed like same deal three for three.

That was by far my favorite part because I want to take that to clients and show like, yo, there's a way to do product demos where there's narrative built around it. That people remember that paints the art of that art of the possible as opposed, as opposed to that, like classic point click demo, this button does this, you know, the real estate tour alley.

Whereas this one is like, truly, I was like, shit, I can't wait to walk through an airport, you know, sit at that dope ass lounge, have a permanent bag tag, you know, biometrics. I don't have to fumble with any, anything. It

Allie: was like no security. It was just like, duh, duh, duh, duh. Thanks

Mikey: to this dope partnership, I can watch YouTube or do my sports, my sports betting.

Yeah. Yeah.

Allie: Yeah. I know. Big, big news. Big announcements.

Mikey: Yeah. And some of the, some of the announcements had to be called out as [00:17:00] like. I mean, at one point they had said, yeah, that was an announcement, you know, so I think like as far as like one, you know, I would have loved, I don't know, more of a spectacle around some of those announcements just to be like on the screen alley.

I'm sure we would have wanted just like concierge, you know, Delta concierge with like a mock up and like really bring that to life. But yeah, you know, some of the partnerships were cool and some were just like, is that really crazy? Newsworthy? I don't know. Totally.

Allie: Yeah. Could have been, could have been an email.

Um, yeah. Yeah. I had that in my notes to Mikey that like some visual support in this dope ass sphere would have been cool for these announcements, like something, right? Like anything to just like help like. Ground some of the stuff that was being announced and make it feel a little bit bigger than it was.

Um, I think, I think they could have, they could have pushed a little harder.

Molly: Even Eve getting into her Joby flight, this crazy drone private flight to the airport. [00:18:00] They announced the partnership with Joby by simply, this would be my, one of my pieces of feedback, I guess, is they, for the visual accompaniment for that, they just flash to the CEO of Joby that's in the audience.

Music: Yeah.

Molly: When I'm like, okay, yeah, I, I guess I care about who, I don't really care about who that is though, necessarily. I care about like. What is like, I'm, I'm, I'm still looking at the thing being like, what is that she's getting into? You know what I mean? Like I want a little more of like a hurrah and an explanation of what, what's going there because I'm being shown it, but that's a good example of like show, don't tell.

But I also like, I was like, wait, this is a few years into the future. I'm unfamiliar with the technology, so tell me what's going on here. So I think that was instead of, and they did it with the DraftKings guy too, where they show him like, they're like, oh, here's the CEO Oh, that's not really helpful to me.

I'd rather see, what does that mean? What does that look like on the, on the seat back entertainment? You know, what I can do with DraftKings on in flight entertainment. You guys know I'm a huge, I'm a huge bettor. So, and

Mikey: you never want to be away from your sports betting for longer than like 90 minutes.

You always want [00:19:00] access to, to draining

Molly: that account. And now a message from our sponsors.

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I, I'll, I'll say my favorite partnership announcement by far. Mm-hmm . Because they, they just killed it. Wa was the Uber Eats like Uber? Yes. Yeah. Brought, describe what happened. CEO, I think and them. Yeah. So like. Is they're just kind of talking, [00:20:00] you know, they'd previously brought up a couple other people. I think, um, Qualtrics, they brought out Tom Brady.

Now the Uber CEO is out there and he's like, Oh, you know, Ed, I know that you must be thirsty. So I got you something. And, you know, they bring the little Uber Eats scooter and the guy brings out like two lattes and he's like, Oh, sweet. And I guess Allie, you said they even wafted the scent of like hazelnut in front of everybody's noses because Ed was drinking a hazelnut with a little.

A little bit of cream, but then they kind of had this Oprah interactive moment where they're like, Hey, it's not just red. Everybody's getting Uber Eats. And they had like, it must've been like a thousand Uber Eats people like walking down the stairs with bags and stuff.

Molly: Imagine serving a 10, 000 person order.

That's what it did.

Mikey: I know.

Allie: But yeah, I think it looks like gift cards, but I mean, it's still cool. Okay. How else are you gonna do that? There's no, there's no way. Keep it free. Yeah. Pass one down. I'm like,

Mikey: Nope.

Allie: You pass it. You're passing over. Like, some people are dairy free. Like, God, you, you, that could have been a mess.

There's too, too

Molly: much risk. Too much

Allie: risk. So many people were hung [00:21:00] over too, you know? Mm-hmm . But either way, it was, it was cool though. That was, that was a cool moment. Breaking,

Mikey: breaking the plane. Thinking of those interactive moments to step away from just. A person up there speaking to a bunch of slides is.

It can go a long way to just like reactivate the crowd, right. And re energize them.

Molly: And I thought that was, yeah, I thought that break, the breaking up moments were really well done. Mikey Ware was like kind of the talking to instead of, or talking with instead of just two. Yeah. And so that was, that was fun.

And, and he, Ed does a good job of like being like, all right, who's, who uses Uber in here? And people are like cheering and stuff, but something that really worked for me too is, you know, again, he called out those milestones in the beginning with the four key moments along the journey. And I could really tell after they were done, it was pretty much after the Uber moment and everybody's kind of probably hyped up, they got their gift card or whatever.

And um, then he moves into the bigger picture, future of flight section. And I thought that was so obvious and clear that we were kind of zooming out again, [00:22:00] the sky was getting darker. So I was like, okay, we're kind of coming to like the finale of sorts. I knew it was happening. He talks that they do show one kind of evergreen video about like.

people's access to flight. And he says that one in five of the world's population has experienced air travel. So it's not like that's only 20%. 20 percent of the world's population. So he's, you know, Delta is on a mission to try to connect more people to air travel. And that's when they used to get into the Delta Airbus Innovation Lab and all these interesting new things about flight and how to keep it more sustainable or make it more sustainable.

Folding instead of flapping wings. That sounds crazy. I don't really want to go on the test flights, but I was very curious to hear how those kind of innovations were happening. And they bring out some really interesting people too. Share what's going on there? Self. So I self, I just thought that that transition self Yeah.

Planes.

Allie: Yeah. That was weird. That was crazy. Yeah. I, I dunno, I kind blacked out at that part that weirded me out. was like, what? It's like, it's like

Music: skin

Molly: biomimicry stuff. Yeah. With AI that, you know, [00:23:00] that planes will be able to, if there's an issue, they'll be able to. Mend themselves.

Mikey: Yo, and flying in, flying in patterns.

That sounds like they're already, like, touching that. Which

Molly: is really cool. Yeah, Molly,

Mikey: I'm glad you mentioned that stat, 1 in 5, because just before that. He talks about just what the importance of aviation. And so I think we're studying this whole ethos, logos, pathos thing, like to make a good persuasive argument, you need to appeal to logic, emotion and credibility from Aristotle, our guy.

But, um, so yeah, there, I think thinking through again, like what makes a good product keynote. You know, there's a lot of different types of people in the room. Some are like, all I want is the emotional stuff. And then, you know, there's some analysts and stuff there too. So it's like, you know, he's like people flew 5 billion times last year, a third of all global trade by value is shipped via air.

Aviation generates 4 percent of the world's GDP, it supports 86 million jobs. [00:24:00] So I think, boom, there you've got your credibility, you know, so,

Molly: Mm hmm. Logic. Yeah.

Mikey: But if the whole thing was all about that, then you're just like, snoozeville, boring, you know? Yeah, totally. So I think, again, his team thought through about those different arcs and moments where you need to tap a different side of the brain or the heart, you know?

Molly: Yeah. Definitely. He definitely ticks off all the, Aristotle needs and how we define it sometimes, Mike, you and we're talking about a much shorter and like more succinct Ted talk is. Screen, story, and stage, so stage presence, what's on the screen for visuals, and then the story, and I think they weave all of those things, even though sometimes, yeah, Ed had a little bit like, that was an announcement, you know, but, but like, obviously the screen was totally killer, pretty much the whole time, and then The story, they keep coming back to their hundred years.

Another stat I really remembered is just before that, where, and it just, again, made a lot of sense for this partnership was Uber, where he says, the CEO of Uber says that 50 percent of Uber bookings begin or end at an airport, which made sense for me as like, that's when I'm [00:25:00] booking Ubers

Mikey: and car,

Molly: share, share, share rides, lifts.

He's like, what's he said, the other Said the competitor's name, but yeah, I think, I think it just made a lot of sense. So there was like, even though I liked the emotional stuff and I was like, even though some of the stuff was like a little, maybe like cheesy or something, I'm like, oh yeah, no, that's a nice story of like this person that's, um, worked there for a long time and contributed to the a hundred years, you know?

So that's cool. Yeah,

Allie: I think, I think it was, it was actually, I noted it so many times. I know when we were talking on the side before this, who were like, what did we hear come up over and over and over? And it was all just consistently about putting people first. It was very, very human centric, which I don't know if you find it surprising or unsurprising, just, you know, as AI is such that it was, you know, obviously the, the big topic of everything.

And I think they did a really, really great job of making that point. Consistently throughout the time. Yeah. It was like humans at the center, we're putting humans first. We're talking about our people that work for [00:26:00] us. We're talking about our customers. Humans. Humans. Humans. Yeah. Which at the end of the day, like it is a tangible thing, what they're doing.

And that's, you know, they're obviously, they're at ca, CES, they're announcing a bunch of product stuff, a lot of things around ai, a lot of partnerships that are, you know, digitally. like grounded in digital stuff. But, um, I'm glad Molly that you found that ending segment because I felt like the best part was how he was expressing the importance of a tangible non digital world.

Like that really is like, he was like, you know, we couldn't do it, you know, during COVID, you know, you're trying to travel, like the importance of being able to not just get from point A to point B. But, you know, to make that a more accessible thing to everyone to be able to be physically in all of these places, not just looking at them on a digital screen.

So it was this nice play of like, Hey, we're still digitally relevant, but at the end of the day, humans, tangible things, tangible experiences are still front and center for us. And I thought it was. [00:27:00] And kind of a cool, probably pretty challenging thing to bring those together and have them work as a, you know, work together.

Mikey: I agree. Got employees up on the stage at the very end and call them out at the very beginning to where it was like,

Music: yeah, they,

Mikey: they showed those four people in the crowd. You know what, that one flight attendant, she teared up. That was so sweet. Like she'd been in service for 65 years.

Molly: Where she's just wild.

Yeah. That's awesome. And I, I liked the book ending of that when he, when he's introducing like all the stuff they're going to talk about with technology, he does say, quote, verbatim, I wrote this down and was like, it's not just technology for the sake of technology. We're always innovating with heart, keeping humanity at the core.

So you've seen like the dramatic sweet people powered videos, and then he's going to get into the technology, but he really sets it up with that. Yeah. And he asks, like, before he introduced that, it's like, how can we use AI to connect more meaningfully? Like with each step of your travel journey, like it's [00:28:00] always with a purpose.

So even if you get lost in the sauce of like the draft Kings and the Uber and the whatever, the YouTube at the end, he brings it back to that. So it's bookended really, really nicely, I think. And by then the sun is setting, you're on a night flight. It's beautiful. And there's fireworks. Oh, yeah. And Ali, you told us.

And you can smell them. You can smell them. They release the

Allie: smell of fireworks. Yeah. Crazy. I like that smell. I like. I do. I think that smell is like, I know it's so bad. It's like summer. It's probably really, really bad for the environment. But dang, I love that smell. I know. It is nice. And apparently it smelled just like it.

So. Um, was that safe or healthy for the audience? I don't know, but it sounds like it was probably pretty cool. This was a

Molly: once in a lifetime opportunity, so yeah. And then we, yeah, I mean, for people at CES, people had commented that, you know, this isn't necessarily Delta isn't known as like a tech company, of course, but very cool for its employees.

This is kind of like kind of a sales kickoff, [00:29:00] kind of a product keynote, product launch Right. Kind of. Mikey, I like how you kind of phrased it as like, this is an opportunity, you often refer to SKOs as state of the union for companies, and it kind of felt like that, especially with the hundred year bookmark, be like, we're a hundred years in, this is where we are, this is where we're going, and here's some exciting things going on, and enjoy your Uber Eats gift cards, and I saw someone had a bucket hat, a cool like Delta bucket hat that looked kind of like cool

Allie: swag.

I heard, I heard the like lines for the schwag were crazy. Like people, they were like, just like, man, I guess the schwag was nuts. I will say, I just booked a flight to New York the other day and I very intentionally picked Delta. Oh, I'm, I'm a, yeah, cause it's like, um, well you're in Detroit. That's not why there were other, there were other airlines I could have taken that Delta.

I do, I do always feel like I'm more secure when I'm flying Delta for whatever [00:30:00] reason. I don't know if it's because I watched this product keynote. Well, listen,

Mikey: that was one of the, one of the big keywords, the most reliable airline

Molly: reliability. Yes. Okay. Mikey, did you were able to run it through the, uh,

Mikey: No, the keyword transcriptor 3000 was down actually, but I just like, I think, I think Allie just nailed it.

It was about, it was a lot about people, customers, our people, you know, uniting the world, even though I'm sure. United is a, is a, is a no, no word. Maybe, yeah, maybe they kept that out man, blacklisted, right, bad words. But that's the sentiment is, um, it's all about, it's all about the people. I agree. And then even, so in the room it was, you're right, employees.

So in that sense, it's kind of like that rally cry. Let's, let's have another badass, like a hundred years. It's got customers. A lot of customers were there. Partners too. So that kind of makes me think of like a cab, you know, like, um, customer advisory board style, like You know, just making them feel good as [00:31:00] well, like really relationship nurturing.

And then I'm sure media, right? And just like maybe competitors, you know, like just people who are like also in the airline industry and trying to, you never know. But I think most of it was probably just customers and employees.

Molly: Yeah. And I think people seem to bought it, you know, it's like a patch house.

I think, yeah, the story really landed. It'll be interesting to see as just thinking about like this type of. Presentation, you know, it has story, but it's like about product and it's about technology and innovation. It'd be interesting to see, I think they're set, trying to set the bar, probably doing it at the sphere and people, lots of people are talking about it.

People are blogging about it. That's why we're talking about it. So it's, I think it'll be interesting to see where these types of presentations go in the future with companies having to keep up with the technology relating back to the story as like, I don't know, I feel like maybe people are like a lot of mistrust with brands and stuff.

And this is like a. This is maybe an opportunity for people to. You know, you bought in like a hundred Delta's been around for a hundred [00:32:00] years, innovators of flight. So I think it's, it's interesting to see where that will go.

Mikey: I don't know how, uh, like a head of comms or something measures the ROI on something like this, but I imagine it's how much, how much press did you get?

You know, how many, how many web visits, how many people are watching this YouTube video talking about us? So. Sentiment scores, you know, I, I imagine, but I would bet this is kicking off more like this. Like you said, Molly, like product keynotes after something like this one. Yeah. You're not going to do it in your little boardroom anymore.

You know, I think like there, I think it's probably on a lot of executive teams radar right now is to make some, build some hype around such a cool moment like this. And so I hope to see others creative, creatively pushing things like Delta did with this one.

Molly: Mm hmm. Yeah. Very, very cool to see. Guys, should we open up the Spice Cabinet?

After our first presentation analyzing in the sphere?

Mikey: Yeah.

Molly: Mikey, next time, let's get tickets, you know?

Mikey: Yeah, first and foremost, here's the thing. Ed, I don't think he picked his own walkout music. They [00:33:00] just kind of had some like Guitar,

Molly: very dramatic.

Mikey: Yeah What was that? So it was like safe.

Allie: Wait, what didn't Lenny Lenny Kravitz?

Like do you think he was like back back there just like Waylon? I don't know Cuz I know he was that you mentioned performed at some point. It wasn't in the video. Oh, wow, but he was there Oh, I think it was Lenny doing something special just right With

Molly: that, Lenny Kravitz was at the presentation. I didn't know that.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. All right. Allie, thanks for the extra research. This is why we brought you on. Lenny Kravitz was at the Delta keynote. Let's see, that's you guys. Yeah, that's cool. Was he paid to be there? Was he? Yeah, on that note

Allie: though, sorry, Mikey, we like really cut you off there about his walk in music, but I was like, it would have been cool if like some of the music had been live, knowing that Lenny Kravitz was there.

I was like. But I could have like, that would have been kind of sweet. Yeah, and I

Molly: mean, the spheres used as a concert venue would have been like kind of cool to get a band, like yeah, get a little bit of a band in the back there. I think that's what you gotta do.

Mikey: [00:34:00] Yeah, if, okay, if Ghost Ranch rents it out, and I give this like, incredible keynote for 90 minutes, I think we would have, we would just like, hey, we're in here anyway, we might as well follow this by a concert.

So I, maybe Lenny was gonna play afterward, because we've seen, it's, it's really easy to get like a, a washed up 90s band to play a corporate gig these days. So I think that's what you got to do is like, thanks for coming now. Let's party. You know, I

Molly: think that, well, that was going to be my guess. I played up to a cheesy, cheesy song that Ed would pick. But no, he's gonna have a better taste than that. Sorry, Creed. Um, what would Ed, what do you guys think Ed would walk out to if he was able to pitch pick? Or maybe more of a Delta, a general Delta walk up.

Mikey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe just some, some Sinatra rap hack or something. He seems pretty classy.

Music: To the moon, let me play among the [00:35:00] stars.

Mikey: Rich. Jazzy, yeah. He plays, he plays golf with Tom Brady.

Molly: All the

Mikey: time it sounded like

Molly: he told him he looked good. They're not playing the public horse.

Mikey: No. Yeah,

Molly: he looks so good There's

Allie: a lot like multiple hugs, no,

Molly: but seriously you look good

For Delta, oh, you know, what if it's like the up theme song because it's like Yeah, flight and sweet and I mean, there's no better storytelling than Pixar.

Mikey: That was it.

Okay. Well, dang, um, this has been really fun. Molly. Guess who's coming up on our eighth freaking year at Ghost Ranch? Our very own executive creative director.

Molly: Oprah?

Mikey: Right here.

Molly: Eighth's a magic eight ball number.

Mikey: Because we have eight guiding lights. Yeah, right? Yeah. If you've been working here for eight years, that's a [00:36:00] That's kind of a whole, it's not easy necessarily every day.

Allie: Agency years, agency years. It's like, it's kind of like how dog years were, it's like sort of more, um, in a way, but yeah. Aged. Yeah. You know, got some city miles on me. It's been, it's been, it's been just the coolest. I mean, yeah. Cause I've really been here since the beginning. So it's been pretty cool seeing go start with fearless Mikey, just with the most brilliant idea ever.

Like in really, you know, to where it is now or where, gosh, we're close to 30 people. It's just been so interesting. Every year is different. That's why I love it so much. You just never know. Hey, hey, we're open minded people with a really, you know, cool, unique agency. Keeping that open mind. We're always, you know, every year is different.

Every day is different. It's so cool. But, um, yeah, I get to you. Such a cool perk that we have here is that, yeah, if you have been [00:37:00] here for eight years. So you get an eight week sabbatical, which is pretty, it's crazy. I mean, I mean, I'm planning it as best I can. We're going to do like a pretty cool two week trip out west.

Um, and I've got, I've got a little two year old, so, you know, there's, there's, you know, There's, there's limitations to like, you know, I can't be quite as cool as Mikey and, you know, go to Australia for eight weeks. I wish that would be so cool, but I think, um, I know Mikey, I've told you about this, but still, still figuring out what I'm going to do with my other six weeks that I know it's going to be something.

Something creative and interesting that I would never get to do. Otherwise, um, considering being like an apprentice at a floral, this really dope, um, it's called Florida tree, seeing if I could do flower arrangement. With them.

Mikey: So good at that fricking green thumb anyway.

Molly: It's so cool to be able to try [00:38:00] something new and, and, and change your brain, like, you know, it's like, I

Allie: think it's healthy and it's like, dang, like when do you get an opportunity to do something where you totally flip your brain chemistry for a little while?

I think it's probably really healthy. So there will be something cool. I'm not exactly sure what it is yet, but it's going to be something, but the link productive, I'm not going to be able to just like chauffeur. So I'm going to have to do something, but hopefully some chilling as well, chilling, some floral

Molly: arrangements, a little trip out

Allie: west.

It's going to be so nice. Yeah. And then, yeah, right at the end of that though, um, speaking of trips out west, I am insanely stoked for our very first. external story cam. So this isn't just, you know, the, the story camp that we, that's been kind of in beta testing with ghost ranch for the past few years. But this is the one where, um, we are inviting others to join us because it it's so incredible.

We couldn't keep it to ourselves any longer, really. Um, just because. And, and [00:39:00] this is the, this story camp in particular is it's a go, go big moment where we did not, we did not mess around with the lineup of keynote speakers. I don't know, Mikey, if you want to go into each of them, but it's pretty, pretty star studded group of keynote speakers that the coolest part of it, in my opinion, I guess that's, you know, everyone's opinions different is that it's going to be so intimate.

So location in park city. Um, which is incredible and beautiful and inspiring in its own way. But, you know, three incredible keynote speakers with a cap of like 50 people at this event. So this is like, and you're not getting to just see them on stage and, and, you know, kind of button chair absorb and then move on with your life.

It's like you get to interact with them. They're going to make eye contact with you. They're probably going to sit next to you at lunch.

Mikey: Yeah. Um,

Allie: and you get

Mikey: the same air is you

Allie: will be, yeah, you will be breathing with the storytellers, but even like [00:40:00] personal feedback, it's like you, you have an opportunity to, um, get up and work on and workshop a presentation with these people.

It's, um, I mean, these are people who, um, Mike, you can speak to them. Oh yeah. So I don't just keep blasting about it, but it's like. It's kind of an opportunity of a lifetime.

Mikey: It's pretty sweet. I mean, a former White House speechwriter, a professor from Northwestern, Kellogg, you know, who like is leading research on why visuals work, like the science behind visual storytelling.

And then the second most viewed TED talk of all time, Amy Cuddy, who we just announced like right now. That she is coming in to help us, you know, like give a workshop on presence, body language, how to freaking command a stage or any room. So really taking that three pronged approach, right? Like the full circle approach to becoming better presenters and business communicators, story, screen, stage.

Do not miss this first one. [00:41:00] Like Allie said, we're going so big, it's going to be a freaking blast and one of a kind kind of kind of event. So, Molly,

Molly: we'll link it in the show notes, storycamp. com,

Mikey: be there,

Molly: storycamp. com. I was going to say that's where to find the further information. And we've also, you know, Amy Cuddy reigns supreme as our most listened to episode on the podcast.

Music: Yeah.

Molly: And we just talked about the podcast or sorry, her TED talk. So we didn't even talk to her in person. So I'm really. This opportunity is just so, so

Mikey: unique and

Molly: cool.

Mikey: All right. Well, Allie, it's always a pleasure having you here. Thanks for watching this keynote with us and rapping about it.

Molly: Yeah. Thank you for joining.

Thanks for having me.

Mikey: All right. Always

Molly: fun.

Mikey: All right. Presentation Nation, thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next week. And in the meantime, keep on kitchen.