My good friend and fellow podcaster, Len Edgerly, received the golden ticket invitation to attend the Amazon press conference this past Wednesday. Len is the author of The Kindle Chronicles, self described as "the Friday podcast all about your Kindle." I love The Kindle Chronicles, or TKC as those who listen every week have come to know it. Len does a marvelous job of keeping Kindle lovers up to speed on all things Kindle with news, tech tips, content, and interviews with interesting guests. I've even been a guest a time or two.
This week's edition of TKC is all about the big news from Amazon regarding the new E-Ink Kindles as well as the brand new tablet, dubbed Fire. Over the past few days I've read all about first impressions of the red-hot Fire, comparisons to the iPad, as well as the marvels of new Silk technology, and the concerns about privacy.
No where, though, have I read about Jeff Bezos and his performance and straight-forward confidence while giving his presentation Wednesday. No where, that is, except in this week's edition of The Kindle Chronicles. Len, with his front row seat, had perhaps the best view of everything happening with the CEO of Amazon. As always Len carefully crafted his spoken prose into his microphone. Sadly, I fear none of it will see print. That's the nature of a podcast, of course. And Len is just too modest to trump his own horn. So I've taken it on myself to do it for him. Here's his recollections of Jeff Bezos walking out onto the stage:
This bald guy wearing jeans, a white shirt, no tie, and a dark sports coat strolled in from the darkness of stage right. There was no announcer's voice booming an introduction and there was a ripple of uncertain applause greeting him. They didn't know if they were supposed to applaud or wait for him to start speaking.
The first thing he said was, "Welcome and thank you very much for taking the time to be here this morning. It is very much appreciated by the whole team." He never said who he was, but of course that wasn't necessary. It was Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com.
Len goes on to describe Bezos recalling the skeptics who at one time thought the Kindle would be a flop. With a simple chart Bezos demonstrated the huge succcess of the Kindle in these past 4 years. After this, Len begins his more personal thoughts of Jeff Bezos:
I'm going to switch here to calling Bezos "Jeff" because his remarks made me feel as if I knew him, even though I've never had a chance to shake his hand. It felt like he was revealing a fairly personal story. From the front row I thought I saw his eyes glistening with moisture - not quite tears maybe - but a show of intensity and perhaps pride. He spoke deliberately like a man giving a testimony in church instead of a triumphant CEO making a pitch to investors or Bloomberg.
Len couldn't resist making the comparisons between Steve Jobs of Apple unveiling the first iPhone in 2007 with Jeff Bezos's performance this week. While not seated in the front row, Len tells us that he was there at the MacWorld Expo when Jobs took the stage.
I don't remember a similar feeling of approachability or self-revelation in Job's presence. Dynamic, charismatic, trans-inducing, yes! And it was great fun to be a part of it. But Jeff Bezos talking about the Kindle is an entirely different way of being in the world. What I saw was partly an evident humility, but it was mixed with a fierceness for the vision he's been pursuing.
This is the kind of quality insight from Len Edgerly that makes his The Kindle Chronicles so worthwhile week in and week out. The rest of the tech world is filled with the technical specifications of the newest gadgetry. And Len covers this tech talk with the best of them. But it is Len's intuitive perception of the human element of the Kindle phenomenon that makes me want to listen. Thanks Len for your weekly work of love.
