This was actually a great post Jeff, at least it was good if you were present at CUSEC.
He perfectly summed up the speaks that influenced and engaged people and the other talks that had interesting subject matter but no one remembered because it put them to sleep.
I’m really sorry to see the comments posted on this so far. It may just be a lack of context I think. Maybe you had to be there to understand this post. See Zed Shaw in action. See Jeff give his presentation where his slides (a total of maybe 15 or 20 for the whole hour) were just a series of images or interesting quotes. See Jon Udell’s slides that were sometimes interesting videos, sometimes just interesting segues into a topic transition. And, very importantly, see the contrast with the more “academic” presentations that were… umm… less engaging.
Luckily, CUSEC recorded video of all the keynotes and said they were going to post the videos online. I suggest you watch every keynote (ok, maybe just half of the boring one(s)) and then re-read this post. You’ll understand much better.