(Too many skydiving stories. Do something else. Ed.)
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. A friend’s at SXSW, where journalist Sarah Lacy has conducted possibly the worst on-stage interview of all time with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Now Zuckerberg looks like a nerdy kid at the best of times, but what he’s achieved is genuinely visionary, and Lacy made the error of treating him like a nervous kid. In front of an audience that wanted to hear Zuckerberg, Lacy apparently dominated the interview, even complaining at times that her job was hard.
Sarah, you forgot the cardinal rule: know your audience. This crowd of geeks and propellorheads had probably never heard of you; the interview wasn’t about you. You’re not Terry Wogan or Jay Leno. You weren’t the entertainment.
By Lacy’s miffed blogging, she apparently hasn’t learned her lesson. Let’s see if she keeps her job after this object lesson in how not to interview…