Wow. Which is a word that many people who witnessed this 2008 Keynote at SXSW will use to describe this interview between Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) and Sarah Lacy (BusinessWeek Columnist).
The interview started off like any other normal interview with the introductions of one another. Then it quickly went downhill from there.
Sarah focussed more on twirling her hair and giggling while asking Mark questions no where near directed to the Facebook platform. Instead, they were questions about his billionaire status, predictions on whether or not he predicted Facebook aiding the overtake of guerrilla armies and terrorism. Oh, and don’t forget the several plugs for her book that you can pre-order now on Amazon.com. We also heard stories related to other interviews that she’s had with Mark that left us rolling our eyes and wondering why we were sitting there.
You have to give credit to Mark though. He handled her quite well. At one time even stating “You have to ask questions!” in response to her snide comment of “Another Leslie Stahl moment.” He did the best he could with her convoluted questions and ramblings. At times I felt like he was talking in circles repeating what he said in regards to another question. But when all is said and done, I think his attempts to stay on topic were well done.
The last 15 minutes of the Keynote got a little out of hand as she scanned the audience to help her prove a fact about a previous conversation that her and Mark had about something totally off topic. Which is when a guy less than 5 feet away from me screamed ‘Talk about something important!” Which got an applaud from every member of the audience and really started to set Sarah off. Her reaction “You try doing what I do.” She then proceeded to throw Digg under the bus and ask for questions from he audience. One of the audience members asking “Besides really rough interviews, what’s your biggest challenge that Facebook has…” From that point on, it was the crowd against Sarah as Mark sat there not really knowing how to react.
And of course, everyone turned to their Twitters to give snippets of the Keynote. I’m sure there will be video of this Keynote hitting the web. I will tell you, it’s pale in comparison to seeing it live.
