Speechwriting for a $60bn Company's CEO
Every year, Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) puts on a user conference called Autodesk University. In 2020 and 2021, I was part of a three-person team tasked with writing the general session keynote for Autodesk's CEO, Andrew Anagnost. I did the same for Apollo's CEO two years later.
COMPANY
Autodesk
COMPANY
Autodesk
COMPANY
Autodesk
POSITION
Sr. Growth Marketer
POSITION
Sr. Growth Marketer
POSITION
Sr. Growth Marketer
ROLE
Writer
ROLE
Writer
ROLE
Writer
Work Background
Work Background
Work Background
Autodesk University (AU) is Autodesk's biggest event of the year.
With over 50,000 people in attendance and watching virtually, it's the single moment all eyeballs — employees, investors, and customers — are on Autodesk's leadership, waiting to see what direction the company will take in the year ahead.
At each AU, the CEO gives an opening keynote to the general session. In 2020 and 2021, I was part of a three person team, along with Darren Brooker and Lisa Rotzinger, who served as speechwriters for the CEO keynote.
The challenge? Every single department and product line wants a mention in the CEO's keynote. With over 150 products across 4 major divisions, cutting through the noise to deliver only the most important news, while painting an exciting vision of the future, was a massive challenge.
That's just par for the course when speechwriting for the CEO of a $60bn company, though. In 2020, COVID turned what's normally an in-person speech into the first-ever pre-recorded video keynote, adding another layer of complexity.
You'll find the keynotes, plus some thoughts on how we got here, below:
2020
2021
Autodesk University (AU) is Autodesk's biggest event of the year.
With over 50,000 people in attendance and watching virtually, it's the single moment all eyeballs — employees, investors, and customers — are on Autodesk's leadership, waiting to see what direction the company will take in the year ahead.
At each AU, the CEO gives an opening keynote to the general session. In 2020 and 2021, I was part of a three person team, along with Darren Brooker and Lisa Rotzinger, who served as speechwriters for the CEO keynote.
The challenge? Every single department and product line wants a mention in the CEO's keynote. With over 150 products across 4 major divisions, cutting through the noise to deliver only the most important news, while painting an exciting vision of the future, was a massive challenge.
That's just par for the course when speechwriting for the CEO of a $60bn company, though. In 2020, COVID turned what's normally an in-person speech into the first-ever pre-recorded video keynote, adding another layer of complexity.
You'll find the keynotes, plus some thoughts on how we got here, below:
2020
2021
Autodesk University (AU) is Autodesk's biggest event of the year.
With over 50,000 people in attendance and watching virtually, it's the single moment all eyeballs — employees, investors, and customers — are on Autodesk's leadership, waiting to see what direction the company will take in the year ahead.
At each AU, the CEO gives an opening keynote to the general session. In 2020 and 2021, I was part of a three person team, along with Darren Brooker and Lisa Rotzinger, who served as speechwriters for the CEO keynote.
The challenge? Every single department and product line wants a mention in the CEO's keynote. With over 150 products across 4 major divisions, cutting through the noise to deliver only the most important news, while painting an exciting vision of the future, was a massive challenge.
That's just par for the course when speechwriting for the CEO of a $60bn company, though. In 2020, COVID turned what's normally an in-person speech into the first-ever pre-recorded video keynote, adding another layer of complexity.
You'll find the keynotes, plus some thoughts on how we got here, below:
2020
2021
Process and Outcome
Process and Outcome
Process and Outcome
I'm pleased to say that both keynotes were extremely well received by customers, investors, employees, and our executive stakeholders.
Originally brought in for my background in visual storytelling, I played the role of hybrid writer/producer, tasked with crafting the story for the architecture, engineering, and construction section of the keynote, and ensuring what we ended up with in the editing bay matched the story we wanted to tell.
Here's my general outline for how to write a banger keynote for the CEO of a massive, publicly traded technology company.
Get yourself on the writing team by writing a series of near-future detective/sci-fi graphic novels
Meet with the CEO and get his vision of the future
Meet with all the VP's, share the CEO's vision, and get their takes
Get the writers together in a room and kick everyone else out
Put a million sticky notes on the board — all your ideas, good, bad, and ugly
Bring in as many customer voices as possible
Write 1,373 drafts and struggle mightily with Microsoft Word's version control (in)ability
Workshop drafts with executive stakeholders
Put in 5-10 long nights as the deadline to shooting approaches
Watch it all come together
In 2022, I had the opportunity to run this role back, this time as the sole writer of the CEO keynote delivered by Tim Zheng at Apollo's first ever user conference, Olympus.
Apollo.io's Olympus CEO Keynote
I'm pleased to say that both keynotes were extremely well received by customers, investors, employees, and our executive stakeholders.
Originally brought in for my background in visual storytelling, I played the role of hybrid writer/producer, tasked with crafting the story for the architecture, engineering, and construction section of the keynote, and ensuring what we ended up with in the editing bay matched the story we wanted to tell.
Here's my general outline for how to write a banger keynote for the CEO of a massive, publicly traded technology company.
Get yourself on the writing team by writing a series of near-future detective/sci-fi graphic novels
Meet with the CEO and get his vision of the future
Meet with all the VP's, share the CEO's vision, and get their takes
Get the writers together in a room and kick everyone else out
Put a million sticky notes on the board — all your ideas, good, bad, and ugly
Bring in as many customer voices as possible
Write 1,373 drafts and struggle mightily with Microsoft Word's version control (in)ability
Workshop drafts with executive stakeholders
Put in 5-10 long nights as the deadline to shooting approaches
Watch it all come together
In 2022, I had the opportunity to run this role back, this time as the sole writer of the CEO keynote delivered by Tim Zheng at Apollo's first ever user conference, Olympus.
Apollo.io's Olympus CEO Keynote
I'm pleased to say that both keynotes were extremely well received by customers, investors, employees, and our executive stakeholders.
Originally brought in for my background in visual storytelling, I played the role of hybrid writer/producer, tasked with crafting the story for the architecture, engineering, and construction section of the keynote, and ensuring what we ended up with in the editing bay matched the story we wanted to tell.
Here's my general outline for how to write a banger keynote for the CEO of a massive, publicly traded technology company.
Get yourself on the writing team by writing a series of near-future detective/sci-fi graphic novels
Meet with the CEO and get his vision of the future
Meet with all the VP's, share the CEO's vision, and get their takes
Get the writers together in a room and kick everyone else out
Put a million sticky notes on the board — all your ideas, good, bad, and ugly
Bring in as many customer voices as possible
Write 1,373 drafts and struggle mightily with Microsoft Word's version control (in)ability
Workshop drafts with executive stakeholders
Put in 5-10 long nights as the deadline to shooting approaches
Watch it all come together
In 2022, I had the opportunity to run this role back, this time as the sole writer of the CEO keynote delivered by Tim Zheng at Apollo's first ever user conference, Olympus.
Apollo.io's Olympus CEO Keynote
