keynote during presentation

Pro Speakers on How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation

Updated: January 13, 2021

Published: November 03, 2020

Two years ago, I was asked to give a presentation about my HubSpot article on emotional marketing . It was by far the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experience of my professional life.

I don’t necessarily hate public speaking. However, leading up to the event, I felt the full responsibility of not only delivering a good presentation but also teaching the audience valuable , actionable information — and that was very intimidating.

I wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good teacher.

Therein lies the importance of keynote presentations : to be effective, they should be educational and entertaining. Do you have a keynote presentation in your future? Read on for some advice from professional speakers.

First, what is a keynote presentation? Glad you asked.

You may also be tasked with a keynote presentation in order to secure funding, make a sale, or update stakeholders or executives. Whatever stage you find yourself on, delivering a keynote presentation is an important responsibility as a public speaker.

How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation, According to the Experts

I spoke with four professional speakers on how to deliver a near-perfect presentation. Here are five pieces of advice they shared.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

When it comes to public speaking, practice quite literally makes perfect. Every expert I spoke with mentioned how frequently they rehearse their presentations.

“However much you think you need to rehearse, rehearse 10 times more than that. When you show up to a concert, you expect that the musicians know their songs, and you certainly don't want the first time they try to play it to be right there on stage. You owe your audience and the folks hiring you to speak the same respect,” said Melanie Deziel , international keynote speaker and founder of StoryFuel . (She received this advice herself from Michael and Amy Port at Heroic Public Speaking .)

Provided by Melanie Deziel

As more presentations and events become fully virtual, the likelihood of technical difficulties also grows. Rehearsing your content can help you weather any interruptions or last-minute changes.

Rehearsal not only leads to content mastery; it allows freedom in your presentations. “The more you rehearse and become comfortable with the content, the freer you'll be to take chances, experiment, and truly focus on your delivery, rather than trying to remember what comes next,” shared Deziel.

How do these experts recommend practicing your presentations? “[Use] a mirror,” said Olivia Scott , keynote speaker and founder of Omerge Alliances . “I take the time to see how I'm being received, I look at my body posture, and I look at everything to make sure that I feel good about what I'm delivering. This isn’t exactly a tool or technology, but it's a way to practice and rehearse.”

Additionally, consider asking friends, family, and trusted colleagues to listen to your practice runs and provide feedback on your presentation.

2. Ask for feedback.

Speaking of feedback, expert orators know to ask for it on a regular basis — from friends, peer groups, mentors, audience members, and clients. “Find a support crew and connect with other speakers in the industry,” mentioned Karen Hopper , keynote speaker and data strategist at M+R. Hopper personally recommends Shine Bootcamp , which provided her with lifelong friendships, helpful feedback, and a priceless education about public speaking.

Provided by Karen Hopper

“We help each other with feedback on our pitches, topics, outlines, and presentations, and we celebrate each others' wins,'' said Hopper. “ ... It’s well worth surrounding yourself with people who will cheer for you and who will give you honest feedback — the fastest way to get better is to ruthlessly seek out that feedback.”

Clients can also be an incredibly helpful source of feedback. If you’re asked to speak at an event or conference, consider asking the people who hired you. “I ask my client for their reaction immediately after every presentation. It’s important to know how they felt, and whether the presentation achieved their goals. Every time my client is happy, that’s my most successful presentation,” said Jeff Toister , keynote speaker, author, and customer service expert.

Lastly, the best feedback often comes from the source — in this case, your audience. Whether you ask questions during your presentation (which we’ll discuss next) or ask for feedback following your presentation, it’s never a bad idea to know what your audience thought about your keynote.

Feedback may look different if giving a remote keynote presentation, but it's still possible.

“It’s been a creative challenge to adapt a talk I'd hoped to give in person to work in a virtual environment. It's much harder to tell how your talks are received online, without being able to see nodding and note-taking and hear laughter and clapping. But all the feedback I have received [over email] indicated that my talk successfully changed the way many people are thinking about their content idea generation process, and that was the ultimate goal of the talk: to change how people think ,” shared Deziel, referring to her recent keynote at Content Marketing World 2020.

3. Engage your audience.

Nobody likes being talked at . Sure, delivering a keynote presentation involves you doing most of the talking, but it doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Many of the experts I interviewed encouraged some sort of audience engagement or interaction to enhance your presentation.

“People love to be involved in a presentation. Rather than explain a concept to my audience, I find a way to have them experience it,” said Toister. “For example, when I share how multitasking hurts productivity and causes us to make more errors, I have the audience try a brief multitasking exercise so they can experience the problem themselves.”

Did you know that audience engagement levels drop considerably (14%) if a presenter does most of the talking, versus if the audience talks just as much? Moreover, 64% of people believe that a presentation with two-way interaction is much more engaging than a one-way presentation.

Presentation engagement also takes practice — just like your presentation content itself. “ ... Entertainment comes from the performance itself: the way in which you deliver that content and the energy you bring to that delivery. This is a separate skill you need to practice. Work with a coach, watch back recordings of yourself to identify opportunities to improve your craft, and watch videos of top-notch comedians, poets and other speakers to see what you can learn from them,” encouraged Deziel.

Lastly, as important as engagement is, don’t let technology stand in the way. While smartphones and polling software can make audience interaction easier, they can also get in the way of you connecting with your audience. “I prefer to just have people stand up, raise their hand, or clap to participate in the poll. It gets the audience moving, and I don’t have to worry about WiFi connections or whether the polling software is working,” said Toister.

4. Prioritize your content as much as the delivery.

While entertaining and interacting with your audience is helpful and exciting, it shouldn’t take precedence over your presentation content itself. “Nearly all of what the audience can learn from you comes from the content: the stories you tell, the examples you share, the facts you cite and the other information you explain. Carefully crafting those materials and testing it out ensures that the audience will get the information they were promised from your session,” said Deziel.

Tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva can help you hone your content and develop a story within your presentation. A 2018 Prezi study (another presentation tool option) showed that 90% of people believe a strong narrative makes for a more engaging, interesting presentation. Data can help form arguments and explain facts, but stories stay with your audience long after your time on stage.

Storytelling is yet another way to engage with your audience, especially by evoking emotions like humor. “It’s entertaining to ask questions, saying, ‘Can anyone relate to this? Has anyone ever had this type of experience before?’ and then getting them involved with some laughter around those experiences. Laughter always helps,” said Scott, who presented at INBOUND 2020 .

Hopper, who was also a Breakout Speaker at INBOUND 2020, agreed: “Don't be afraid to be funny or drop in jokes — there are studies that show that laughing actually helps your brain retain information better, so not only will your audience have a good time laughing with you, but they'll also get more out of your presentation. It’s a win-win!”

5. Focus on the audience.

Finally, everyone can agree that public speaking is either revered or feared. If you relate to the latter and find yourself nervous when giving presentations, turn your focus on the audience.

“Speakers easily get nervous when they focus on themselves and worry too much about their own performance. Focusing on your audience first takes the nerves away and redirects your attention to making sure your audience gets something of value from your keynote,” shared Toister.

That’s the goal of a keynote presentation — to provide value to your audience. Regardless of what story you’re telling, what tools you’re using, or how you’re engaging the crowd, as long as you deliver a presentation that inspires your audience to think differently — even for 30 minutes — you’ve given a perfect keynote presentation.

Note: HubSpot Marketing teams reserve the right to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content as we see fit, including but not limited to HubSpot’s social media channels.

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10 Expert Tips to Create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation

So you’ve got a keynote presentation coming up, and you’re hitting the books to make sure you’re armed with the best plan possible. Besides taking notes from all the greats on TED, you’re reading up about a message structure that works, and looking for the perfect template.

While it seems like you’ve got your bases covered, like all things in life, there’s always a way to streamline the planning process.

According to Aaron Weyenberg , the UX Lead for TED and a self-professed “master of slide decks,” and the wizards behind Apple’s presentation slides , there are a number of tricks of the trade that you can rely on to create a rocking keynote presentation .

Below are some of our favorites. And to easily create a professional-looking presentation , sign up for Piktochart . It’s free and it allows you to make beautiful visuals without being a graphic designer.

1. Do your slides last

While most keynote speakers will typically build their presentation around the structure of a template, Weyenberg says that “building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation.” Before working on your slides, you should put together your main message, structure, supporting points – then practice and time your presentation. The reason for this, he says, is that the presentation needs to be strong enough to stand on its own. Approaching a keynote like this requires a shift in thinking.

While a beautiful set of slides is imperative to your presentation, it should not be central to it.

Weyenberg said it best: “The slides are just something you layer over [the presentation] to enhance the listener experience.”

Observe these 2017 Google I/O keynotes, especially CEO Sundar Pichai’s – the role of the slides are to support what the speaker is saying – not the other way around.

2. Get creative with photos

Often times, presenters will be far too literal or cheesy with their image choice. Weyenberg suggests to use images that are simple, yet punchy – and pairs nicely with your spoken words. He says to look for photos that are:

• Related to your keynote’s concept
• Are not complex in terms of composition

3. Simplify charts and graphs

While most presenters will simply drop an image of their charts and graphs into their deck, Weyenberg points out that it might be a bit “unsightly.” If you need to use data to back a point that you’re making, you should make the extra effort to make it more attractive – and this can be done by recreating it in your presentation maker .

There are a couple benefits to doing this:

• It will make your presentation seem consistent and well-thought out
• You’ll have control over colors, typography, and more.

4. One theme per slide

According to the designers of Apple presentation slides, less is certainly more. Trying to cram too many ideas on one slide can only work to your detriment. Beyond ideas, the same goes for statistics.

Let’s play a little game: For the following idea, how many slides would you use? “The developer program is incredibly vibrant. We have over six million registered developers. Demand for this show has never been greater. We sold out in just over a minute [71 seconds].”

While the average person might think that 6 million and 71 seconds would belong on the same slide and be short and sweet enough, let’s compare it with what Apple’s CEO Tim Cook did.

He only leveraged two slides: The first said “6 million,” and the second: “71 seconds. Sold out.”

5. Create a visual experience with data

Taking a leaf again from Apple’s presentation book, once you’ve gotten the hang of having just one stat per slide – you should also make it as visual as possible.

One data point per slide, combined with it being visually interesting – is sure to be memorable.

6. Practice Really Makes Perfect

Imagine the late Steve Jobs, a legendary keynote presenter, still rehearsed for months before a presentation. According to Brent Schlender , one of the co-authors behind the Steve Jobs biography “Becoming Steve Jobs,” Jobs would rehearse and prepare “exhaustively” for all of his public appearances.

Despite being a natural on the stage, Jobs never would wing it, he came to the show well prepared.

“I once spent an entire day watching him run through multiple rehearsals of a single presentation, tweaking everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights, to editing and rearranging the order of the keynote presentation slides to improve his pacing,” remembers Schlender.

While you may not be a perfectionist like Jobs, you are likely also not nearly as good of a presenter as he is – so practice really makes perfect in this case.

7. Tell A Consistent Story

Circling back to Weyenberg’s tips – he suggests that in a good slide deck, every slide should feel “like part of the same story.” Think of your deck like a story – every slide should feel cohesive to the big picture message you’re trying to communicate – as opposed to random ideas juxtaposed together.

You can do this by:

• Using the same or similar typography, colors, and imagery across all slides
• Using presentation templates can help with maintaining the same look and feel

8. Less is more

We explored the less is more concept earlier in the article by suggesting you keep to one idea per slide. The same can be applied to text.

When it comes to creating slides for your next keynote, the cardinal sin is a slide with ample text that is verbatim of your spoken presentation.

What this does is encourage people to keep their eyes on your slides instead of listening to you.

Weyenberg also points out that a text-heavy slide forces the brain to multitask between focusing on what it’s reading and hearing – which is quite difficult and will compromise your presentation.

9. Consider topic transitions

While you want to make your slides look like a cohesive unit, you want to also keep in mind that making every slide look the same may be boring. Weyenberg suggests to:

• Create one style for the slides that are the “meat” of the message
• Then create another style for the slides that are transitioning between topics

For example, if your overall slides have a dark background with light text, you can use transitional slides that have a light background with dark text. This way, they’ll still feel like they’re from the same presentation family without being completely uniform.

10. Tell a captivating story

It is fitting that our final tip comes from likely the greatest keynote presenter of all time. The late and great Steve Jobs had the ability to captivate and inspire his audience with his talks, and that’s because he was a very good storyteller. And that’s the golden leaf that you can take from Jobs’ book today.

Always aim to tell a captivating story.

One example is perhaps when he introduced the iPod: “In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music. It changed the entire music industry.” Listen to Steve Jobs weave a story about the digital music revolution when unveiling the iPod.

Bonus Round: Tips From Piktochart Designers  

• Always remember that your audience is sitting far away . So ensure that your title font size is large enough to be seen from a distance, and that your body text is no smaller than 20px.
• Use only two colors for your entire presentation – a primary and secondary color. If you must use a large color palette, your maximum choice should be up to five colors.
• Make sure that there is enough white space throughout your presentation . This will give your content room to breathe. Less is definitely more in this case.
• Emphasize only one object per slide – whether it’s an image, statistic, quote. This will make sure your audience stays focused.

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15 Keynote Tutorials To Make Sublime Presentations [2022]

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We have already mentioned Keynote as one of the best presentation software on the market for Mac users. It has everything needed for the success of your presentations – great practicality and a superior interface which is Apple’s trademark. On top of that, Keynote is free to use.

But how exactly should you make standout presentations? In this article, you will find out with the help of our 15 Apple Keynote tutorials .

1. Getting started with Keynote

Every software journey starts with a “manual” of how to use it, and in this Keynote tutorial, you will understand what Apple Keynote is, what this software package offers, and goes over some of the most used features available – such as the basic templates, the main menus, and the visual hierarchy of the app. What you will learn is how to replace images, add texts, and some other basic tasks which is quite helpful for someone inexperienced with the program.

2. How to create a presentation in Keynote?

Learning how to make a presentation in Keynote is crucial before you advance to the next stages. So, in this Keynote beginner tutorial, you will learn how to create a presentation from scratch. You will see how to add themes, change the background color, add a gradient, insert a slide number, and other cool stuff. It’s definitely worth checking it out, especially if you’re a complete newbie.

3. How to Format Text in Keynote?

Knowing how to format text is pivotal in any presentation software, and Keynote is no exception. In this Keynote text formatting tutorial, you will see how to align text, how to add a different color style, change the font, and play around with the font weight, font size, and other key patterns. Luckily, the app is very intuitive, and you’ll get used to modifying the fonts easily.

4. How to Add and Edit Images in Keynote?

As an Apple software, Keynote is perfectly optimized for editing images. In this Keynote tutorial, you’ll learn how to add images, change the background, align different images on the canvas, and so much more. While the video guide is considered old now (the video is published in 2010), the concept is still considered unique even today.

5. How to Add a Video in Keynote?

Adding videos is crucial if you want to grab the attention of your audience. In fact, it raises audience awareness a lot! In this Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to embed a YouTube video in Keynote within a couple of seconds and then check its size or even add a shape. So cool!

6. How to Make Charts in Keynote?

Creating charts in Keynote is not just possible, but it’s quite a lovely experience! In this Keynote chart tutorial, you will learn how to create a chart in Numbers (Apple’s version of Excel and Google Sheets), and then transfer it to the presentation software, where you can modify it in any style you like. You can pick between 2D and 3D, animated Keynote charts, and even make your chart colorful.

7. How to Create a GIF in Keynote?

Animated GIFs add value to your presentation and make it look more interactive. While adding GIFs to Keynote is possible and easy, there is something else you can do – create a GIF from Keynote. In this video tutorial, you will learn how to make a cool GIF using Keynote, and use it for your presentation or other designs.

8. How to Make Infographics in Keynote?

Keynote is a powerful presentation app because it has many functionalities but, more importantly, it focuses on great looks. In this Apple Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to manage proportion, pick the right size of the infographics, group objects, and some more useful techniques that you can apply to your works.

9. How to Use Presenter Notes in Keynote?

PowerPoint and Google Slides users know them as “Speaker notes,” but in Keynote, they’re known as Presenter Notes . In this Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to show presenter notes and add some while “on the go.” Topher Morrison will also give you some practical advice on how to use them correctly so you don’t forget your thoughts during the presentation.

10. Intermediate Keynote Tutorial

If you have stepped up your game, then it may be time for some of the more advanced Keynote tutorials. What you will learn from this video is how to create animations in Keynote, make transitions, and even remove backgrounds (which is very useful). You will also learn how to add links to slides and insert shapes to make flashy designs. Last but not least – you’ll see how to customize your Keynote toolbar.

11. How to Collaborate in Keynote?

We all have to admit that Keynote can’t rival Google Slides in terms of collaboration, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In this Keynote tutorial, you will see how to make your presentation shareable and how to do it properly, so you can collaborate with your peers on Keynote presentations without issues. All the progress is saved in iCloud Drive, and you can check the changes in real-time.

Read more : Keynote vs Google Slides comparison

12. How to Create a Poster in Keynote?

Who would suppose you can create beautiful posters with Keynote? Well, we do! In this Keynote poster tutorial, you will learn how to quickly come up with a poster design without spending too much time. The guide itself is simple, but it will teach you how to make slides vertical and where to find icons. On top of that, you will also see how to align objects.

13. How to Make a Dynamic Background in Keynote?

That is arguably the most interesting Keynote tutorial on our list, as it will show you how to add a dynamic background. You can find a couple of different options, which you will learn to customize to get the results that you wish. We have to admit Jesse has been quite creative with his explanations, but the guide was very helpful, too!

14. Keynote for iPad Guide

We cannot make a Keynote article without mentioning iPads. It’s simply impossible. In this Keynote for iPad tutorial, you will learn all the basic (and not so basic) skills to operate well on the Apple tablet. You’ll learn how to change fonts, create transitions, and print your presentations, but also collaborate and AirDrop, create passwords, add soundtracks, and other useful things that you can do.

15. How to Present Keynote Slides in Zoom?

Learning how to stream a live presentation in Zoom has become a very crucial skill to acquire these days, so it’s no surprise that many presentation programs are adapting to use it. In this Keynote live streaming tutorial, you will learn how to pair it well with Zoom and present it in a virtual meeting.

Final words

Keynote is a great presentation software. It has an amazing UX design, and it can help you craft masterpieces. While some argue it’s not as feature-rich as PowerPoint, learning it can give you everything you need.

If you find our content useful, you can check some of the other articles:

• Keynote vs PowerPoint: Presentation Software from Different Worlds
• 30 Free Marketing Presentation Templates with Modern Design
• How to Start and End a Presentation: 10 Practical Tips to Grab Attention and Make an Impact

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Nikolay Kaloyanov

Nikolay is a copywriter with vast experience in Technology, Marketing, and Design. When he isn't playing with words and crafting texts, he watches sports and asks questions. He is a funny person...until you put him on a diet.

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Features available with Keynote.

Keynote lets you create presentations as groundbreaking as your ideas. So go ahead. Wow people like never before.

Get the updates. Then get in touch.

Stay up to date when people join, edit, or comment in collaborative presentations and easily get in touch with your team using Messages and FaceTime.

Get more done on iPad.

Quickly insert objects, find settings, and get to your favorite tools with the customizable toolbar. And Stage Manager extends multitasking across the big screen when working with multiple apps at the same time. 1

Captivate your audience with dynamic backgrounds.

Make your presentation stand out by adding stunning color and visual interest to your slides. Create motion on a title or closing slide for a bold statement, and keep viewers engaged with subtle movement throughout the presentation. To get started, choose one of three new themes featuring dynamic backgrounds, or customize any of the 18 presets.

Add live video feeds in any slide.

Appear in a window, right on your slides, with a picture-in-picture display in remote presentations, how-to videos, and lectures. Add live video from the built-in camera on Mac, iPad, or iPhone — you can even remove or replace the background for a dramatic effect. Or when presenting on your Mac, include a live feed of your iPhone or iPad screen to show off apps.

Present with your team. Seamlessly.

Say goodbye to saying “Next slide, please.” For slideshows with multiple presenters, you can take turns controlling a single deck — from anywhere — on Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Outline your presentation. Easier.

With outline mode for iPhone and iPad, you can look at your presentation in a whole new way. Quickly jot down your thoughts, restructure ideas, and move concepts from slide to slide. Then switch to slide view and start designing.

Showcase videos like never before.

Play videos and movies continuously across slides, without the need to start and stop, find where you left off, or edit them into clips. Change the position, size, or rotation, and the video will animate seamlessly. The audio can even fade between slides or adjust when there is dialogue or voiceover.

Turn handwriting into text. Magically.

With iPadOS and Apple Pencil, your handwriting will automatically transform to typed text, so you can get back to what you were doing without interrupting your flow. Jot down a text bullet or scribble a date, and see it quickly turn into text.

Make backgrounds disappear.

Now you can more easily remove backgrounds from supported images — and even live videos — or adjust them to your liking.

Present over video conference. Like a pro.

Keynote for Mac delivers a seamless experience over video conferences. Play a slideshow in its own window so you can access other apps while you present. You can view your presenter notes, current and upcoming slides, and slide navigation in a separate window as well.

Other Key Features

Accessibility descriptions

Add accessibility descriptions to images, image galleries, movies, and audio to help people using assistive technology.

Easily record, edit, and play audio directly on a slide.

Captions and titles that stick with objects

Easily add text to images, videos, and shapes. Your words will automatically stay with objects — if and when you move them.

Color, gradients, and images

Apply a color, gradient, or image to the background of any presentation, to your text, or to any shape.

Custom themes

Create themes to use as a model for new presentations, and access them on any device using iCloud.

Enable Dark Mode to give Keynote a dramatic dark look and emphasize your content.

Add a large, decorative letter to make the beginning of your story or paragraph stand out.

Export your presentation as a movie or an animated GIF to share online.

Gorgeous charts

From columns to donut charts, there are many ways to display your data. You can also create an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver on iOS and iPadOS.

iCloud Drive folder sharing

Add a Keynote presentation to a shared iCloud Drive folder, and automatically start collaborating.

Image background removal

Quickly remove an image’s background to isolate its subject or make unwanted parts of an image transparent.

Image gallery

Add and view a collection of photos on one slide, and include a unique caption per photo.

Interactive presentations

Turn text, text boxes, images, shapes, lines, arrows, videos, and more into links. Then, during a presentation, tap to open web pages or email messages, to jump to other slides, or to exit the slideshow.

Math equations

Add elegance to your mathematical equations using LaTeX or MathML notation.

Offline collaboration

Edit shared presentations while offline, and your changes will automatically upload when your account’s online again.

Paragraph styles

Use paragraph styles to achieve a consistent look throughout your presentation, and to quickly make global changes to your text.

Precise object editing

Use more precise editing controls to fine‑tune the look and placement of your objects.

Reading Mode

Scroll through your presentation, zoom in and out, and interact with it — without accidentally changing anything.

Shapes library

There are over 700 Apple-designed shapes to choose from. You can change the color and size, add text, and even create and save your own shapes.

Trackpad and mouse support on iPad

Use Keynote with Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, or Magic Trackpad for a new way to work with your presentations.

Embed a video from YouTube or Vimeo, then play it right in your presentations, without the need to download or open the video in a media player. 2

See everything that’s new in Keynote

• What’s new in Keynote for iPhone and iPad
• What’s new in Keynote for Mac
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What Is a Keynote? 5 Things You Should Know

• The Speaker Lab
• March 14, 2024

Table of Contents

Have you ever been so mesmerized by a speaker that their words stayed with you long after their speech ended? That’s the magic of a keynote . But what exactly is a keynote speech and why does it matter?

In essence, a keynote speech sets the tone for an event. It serves as its heartbeat, pulsating with ideas and insights that energize attendees. Picture yourself standing before an audience, delivering not just any speech but one where every word strikes like lightning, illuminating minds and sparking conversations.

This post promises to take you on a journey exploring captivating keynotes, dynamic speakers, and exciting events. Together, we’ll look at how keynotes influence everything from business success to social media activity; unveil strategies for creating impactful presentations; and provide tips on becoming an effective speaker yourself.

What is a Keynote?

A keynote is a defining presentation or speech centered around the main theme of an event. The term “keynote” in relation to speaking is based on the musical term “key note,” or the note around which the key is based. Just like a musical ‘key note’ defines the harmony of a composition, a keynote speech lays down the central theme or message of an event.

The Importance and Impact of Good Keynote Speakers

As one of the main highlights of an event or conference, keynote speakers are expected to inspire audiences with their unique perspectives and insights. A great speaker has the ability to not only communicate effectively but also engage with their audience in meaningful ways. This engagement forms the bottom line for successful presentations—it can make or break an event.

The Hallmarks of Professional Keynote Speakers

What sets apart good keynotes from merely average ones? The answer lies in several factors:

• An understanding of both their subject matter and audience : Top-tier keynote speakers know how to connect deeply with those listening while delivering high-value content that resonates long after they’ve left the stage.
• Dynamism and energy : Audience members are more likely to stay engaged when your presentation style mirrors your passion for what you’re discussing.
• A knack for storytelling : Narratives help us process information better; therefore good storytellers often leave lasting impressions upon their audiences.

Fostering Engagement Through Effective Speaking Techniques

Surely we’ve all attended lectures where, despite our best efforts, our minds wandered off mid-presentation. So what’s different about engaging speeches?

One major difference is novelty. Unique insights delivered compellingly pique interest. Professional keynote speakers know how to weave facts and figures into a captivating narrative that is relevant to the audience.

Additionally, good keynotes strike an emotional chord with listeners. This not only keeps them engaged but also helps in better recall of information presented. A great speaker uses storytelling techniques effectively for maximum impact .

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Role of Keynotes in Events

As mentioned earlier, a keynote sets the stage for an event, serving as a compass that directs the overarching theme. Whether it’s delivered by national speakers or industry leaders, this keynote can ignite audience engagement and set the tone for what follows.

Opening vs. Closing Keynotes

While both have significant roles, there is a clear difference between opening keynotes versus closing ones.

An opening keynote often aims to energize attendees at the start of an event. It’s like turning on a lamp in an unlit area—suddenly, everyone can make out what is before them and where they are headed. This initial spark helps draw people into the experience and makes them eager to learn more.

In contrast, closing keynotes help solidify connections made during events, creating memorable moments that continue to resonate with attendees even when they’ve returned home or back to their desks. Professional keynote speakers are skilled at creating such lasting impressions through powerful storytelling techniques coupled with actionable takeaways.

Leveraging Keynotes for Business Success

Keynote speeches are more than just a way to kick off an event. They have the potential to become powerful tools in leadership development, client relationships, and attracting attendees. A good keynote speaker will help their audience visualize their own paths towards success.

The Role of Keynotes in Leadership Development

A keynote speaker has the power to ignite change within an organization or industry by providing new perspectives on established practices or unveiling innovative approaches to overcoming challenges. Their influence often extends beyond the stage as attendees continue discussing their ideas long after the event finishes.

This is particularly true when speakers share personal stories from their careers—experiences that demonstrate resilience during difficult times or highlight how unconventional thinking led them to unprecedented levels of success.

Creating Strong Client Relationships Through Keynotes

An engaging keynote speech also serves as a starting point for fostering strong client relationships. When a keynote speaker shares insights relevant to their clients’ industries or discusses issues close to their hearts, that speaker shows understanding and empathy. This resonates with audiences on both professional and personal levels, which can lead directly into fruitful partnerships down the line.

Drawing Attendees With Impactful Speeches

Beyond fostering connections with current clients, delivering compelling keynotes helps attract attendees too. Attendees are likely to show up if they hear a well-known figure in the industry is giving a talk. They look forward to learning from their insights and getting inspired by their journeys.

In conclusion, leveraging keynotes for business success involves understanding the multi-faceted role of these speeches in events. Whether it’s developing leadership skills among attendees or attracting potential clients, a powerful keynote can become your ticket towards achieving unparalleled growth and success.

Tips and Best Practices for Effective Keynote Speaking

Being a keynote speaker is no small task. To ensure a memorable presentation, there are several techniques to consider. Let’s explore some best practices.

The Power of Preparation

As any experienced public speaker will tell you, preparation is critical. Thoroughly understanding the subject matter helps build confidence, which translates into more effective delivery techniques. As a result, a keynote speaker needs to know what opinions are expressed in their field so that they’re able to anticipate questions from attendees and answer them competently during Q&A sessions.

Connecting With Your Audience

A successful keynote isn’t solely focused on delivering content; it’s also about making connections with the audience. By incorporating relatable stories or analogies, a good speaker will not only engage listeners, but also help simplify complex ideas for them. Want more storytelling tips? Check out this podcast episode with Ravi Rajani for more ways aspiring speakers can weave narratives into their talks for greater impact.

Constantly Improving: Asking for and Using Feedback

Although a keynote speaker may be tempted to pat themselves on the back after giving a talk, their job isn’t done yet. For any talk they give, it’s important to seek out constructive criticism in order to learn how best to improve. What worked? What didn’t? What did the audience find most engaging and why? The answers to all these questions are worth their weight in gold, and a good speaker knows it. By incorporating audience suggestions into his or her presentation, a keynote speaker ensures that they are at the top of their game.

The Digital Age and Keynote Speaking

As the digital landscape evolves, so does keynote speaking. Social media channels have become powerful platforms for speakers to reach event attendees and amplify their messages. In fact, these platforms are now a fundamental part of any successful speaker’s toolkit.

Online Presence of Keynote Speakers

Digital tools like social media offer than just exposure—they let speakers interact directly with potential audiences and industry peers alike, fostering relationships that transcend physical boundaries.

Live streaming options available on multiple social media platforms allow speakers to share their message with audiences near and far, while also providing attendees an unparalleled opportunity to connect with influential voices.

This broadened reach doesn’t only benefit the speakers themselves, but also enhances the overall experience for event attendees who get unprecedented access to their favorite thought leaders in real time.

Social Media as A Promotional Tool

The days when flyers were enough to attract attendees are long gone—we’re living in an age where captivating visual content reigns supreme. So, if you’re planning to deliver a keynote or organize an event soon, remember: your social media activity could be the starting point of creating buzz and anticipation around it.

Increasing Number of Digital Aids

From Canva to Prezi, there are now tons of digital tools designed for keynote speakers. This LinkedIn post provides a helpful list of these tools , as well as some pros and cons.

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FAQs on Keynotes

What is a keynote.

A keynote is a defining presentation or speech centered around the main theme of an event.

What is the purpose of the keynote?

The purpose is to energize, inspire, or challenge attendees to see things from a fresh perspective.

What is the difference between a keynote and a presentation?

A presentation shares information while a keynote aims to spark change. The latter inspires action through powerful storytelling around central themes.

What does it mean to give a keynote?

Giving a keynote means delivering an impactful speech that guides an event’s direction, motivates listeners, and provides valuable insights related to the core topic.

What qualifies as a keynote speaker?

A credible figure with expertise in their field who delivers engaging speeches inspiring change or providing new perspectives on pertinent topics usually qualifies.

The essence of keynote speaking lies in creating an overarching theme that captivates audiences from start to finish. Opening keynotes set the stage while closing ones wrap up event objectives with finesse.

Together, we’ve explored strategies for delivering engaging presentations and using social media for promotion.

Now you know that a great keynote isn’t about just standing before an audience; it’s about resonating with them long after you leave the stage. Remember this as you step onto your own path of public speaking!

• Last Updated: March 22, 2024

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How to use Keynote's hidden presentation features to hold your audience's attention

Apple's Keynote application isn't only for creating slideshow presentations, it's for showing them too. That's quite unusual for software: nobody writes a book in Word and then holds their iPad up for people to read from. Yet the two sides of Keynote are complementary and what you set up while you were creating your presentation will help you now with showing it.

Keynote has a lot more to offer when you're getting ready to put this show on the road. There are tools to make your presentation work the way you expect — and there are tips to help ensure it does.

You've made that non-linear presentation using Master Slides, Outline View and Light Table . You've also included video even though we warned you about that.

The warning about video isn't only because you're relying on your venue to have loudspeakers. It's also because video files are big, and it makes your presentation file that much larger, and that much more difficult to transport.

Don't include any more video that you absolutely must. We mean that literally. If you have to have a 35-second clip, make it 35 seconds and not 36.

You can drag in a three-hour movie and then trim it down to 35 seconds in Keynote but you're not actually cutting the size of the video file. You're just determining how much of the whole file your audience will see. Keynote keeps the entire clip in your presentation so that you can later change your mind and adjust the clip you want.

For that reason, do your basic trimming in QuickTime Player on your Mac or use something like Final Cut Pro X to do more elaborate work. Only drag in the finished segment you need. Otherwise, your presentation could be so bloated that it takes longer to sync over iCloud from your Mac to your iPad.

It could also be so weighed down with the video file size that the presentation will run slower, too.

Watch your size

If your Mac's storage is not yet using APFS, the Apple File System, then after your presentation goes over about 500MB on your Mac, Keynote will step in. When you go to save it, you'll be prompted to choose between saving as a Single File or as a Package.

You get the choice but you only get it once: whatever you pick now is set for the life of this presentation. This is a problem that goes away when you're using APFS so over time it will be seen less and less. For now, though, your best bet is to choose Single File — so long as your presentation isn't already creakingly slow when you're editing it.

The reason is that a package lets Keynote split your presentation data out into separate files and folders so that it can then choose what to load and when. Rather than your video sitting there throughout 200 slides, it can be loaded when you reach the one slide it's on.

Plus a package with lots of little files suits the way that iCloud syncs data. So if you're the only person who's going to use this presentation and that's how you want to sync, choosing package could help you.

However, if you need to share it over Dropbox or really any other cloud service then packages aren't as robust as a single file is.

Even if you don't need to share the presentation with anybody else, though, save copies on different cloud services — and in different formats.

Belt and braces

Save your shiny new Keynote presentation to the Mac and/or iPad you're going to be presenting it from. Preferably save in iCloud Drive where all your devices can get it. Then save it to Dropbox too. Email yourself a copy. Pop one onto a USB stick.

And when you've done all that, do it all again but with the presentation saved in the old Keynote '09 format.

And then when you've done even that, do it all again but saving the presentation as a Microsoft PowerPoint file .

Sometimes your venue will have a Mac in place and it's better to use their equipment instead of yours because it's already tried and tested. Only, the Mac is using the older Keynote format.

Or perhaps the venue neglected to tell you that every speaker has to hand over their entire presentation at the start of the conference. There are companies that will insist on joining every speaker's presentation together so that a single file runs for the entire day. When that happens, you can bet it'll be a PowerPoint file.

Better you give them a PowerPoint file that Keynote has created than to trust that their PowerPoint will open Keynote okay.

Then there are the acts of God that will leave you without any copy of the presentation at all. Dropbox or iCloud should get it back but there is one further option.

Go to iCloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID. There's a fully-functioning copy of Keynote on that site and we've used it for three-day-long residential workshops when necessary.

Remember your place

All of this so far has been about the visual side of presentations, of about making sure your audience has something to look at. They also need to hear you, though, and Keynote has tools to help you make sure you stay on track.

Every time you create a slide, you can write your own notes at the bottom. These Presenter Notes won't be seen by your audience, they will only show on your Mac or iPad screen in front of you.

That's even when you're presenting from that screen: Keynote is excellent at by default routing only the slides to an external screen.

On the Mac, choose the View menu and then Show Presenter Notes . You get a small text box at the foot of the screen and it's tied to each individual slide. Write something in it, then move to the next slide and write in that one's empty text box.

When you duplicate slides, by the way, you also duplicate the notes. So if you've done a slide you really like and want to base the next few on it, select-and-cut the note before you duplicate the slide. Otherwise you'll have the same note in every one.

That's an issue if you've gone back to the View menu and chosen the Hide Presenter Notes option for any reason. When you later come to present and switch on the notes, you'll lose track of what you meant to write where.

On the iPad, tap on the three-dot ellipses icon at top right and then toggle on Show Presenter Notes .

What you see

It's years since we presented from our Macs because the iPad version of Keynote is so very good, especially when used with an Apple TV . Except for one thing.

On the Mac, you can have your screen be showing you all sorts of things that the audience isn't supposed to see. You can have your presenter notes, for instance, but also both the current and the next slides showing.

Then you can choose to have a clock showing you the current time or a countdown of how long you've been speaking — or both.

On the iPad, you're more limited. You can have the clock or the timer and many presenters don't even know you've got that option. By default Keynote shows you the clock but you can tap on it to swap to the timer.

Then you can have presenter notes and the current slide. You can have presenter notes and the next slide. You can have the current and next slides on your screen.

Only, you can't have current and next slides plus presenter notes and that's the one we want the most.

However, there is a way around it. Previously we recommended planning your Keynote presentation in another app such as OmniOutliner. If you've done that, and not strayed too far from the original plan, then you can re-use that outline now.

Open your Keynote presentation on the iPad, press Play to start the slideshow. Then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to show the dock and then choose OmniOutliner from there. Drag it up and to one side of the presentation.

So long as Keynote is playing the slideshow, your audience will see the current slide. And you'll see current and next plus an entirely separate outline.

What the audience gets

The audience or the venue will always ask you for a copy of your slides. You can tell them as often as you like that the slides make little sense without you standing there talking in front of them, but it doesn't matter.

Don't bother arguing and also don't bother doing any fiddling with the slides. Just choose File , Print and then in that print dialog click on Show Details .

There are options in these details to determine whether your printed version includes the presenter notes and slide numbers, whether it includes any skipped slides. Make sure those are all turned off and then click on the PDF button and choose Save as PDF .

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Ace the Presentation

Here’s an Excellent Keynote Speech GUIDE: With 2 Great Examples

You’ve probably been asked to give a keynote speech and you are afraid of it. Well, if you’ve never done this before, then there’s no need to panic. Thankfully, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s start with the basics, shall we? 

So, what is a keynote speech? 

Simply put, a keynote speech is usually given to set the theme of the entire event. It is a speech that is generally delivered by an expert, renowned and well-respected individual, depending on the theme of the event.

Being asked to give a keynote speech in front of a large audience can be a little intimidating. However, it’s the greatest honor to be selected as a keynote speaker. That said, you must deliver the best speech you possibly can. 

Now that we’ve covered what a keynote speech is, it’s time to key steps that you should take when preparing a keynote speech. 

Related Article: 7 Basic Elements of Public Speaking

How to prepare a keynote speech

Keynote speeches are very important. With that in mind, it’s one of the best opportunities for you and your business. Therefore, if you’ve been asked to be the keynote speaker, take advantage of such an opportunity. But, first, you will have to prepare your speech: 

1.     Find out the theme for the day

For any first-timer, you will probably be given the theme for the day by the event organizer. But if you are an experienced speaker, I’m sure everyone will applaud anything you say. All the same, both scenarios still require you to plan and organize your thoughts for your speech. 

2.     Outline your presentation

Sadly, most speakers always skip this part. And, it’s usually visible in their delivery and line of thought. The best way to handle this situation is by creating a sort of blueprint for your presentation which will include: 

• Highlight some of the key structural elements, for instance, introduction, conclusion, or even stories. 
• Highlight your key element in the presentation. What do I mean? Start by answering the question-what messages are you using to support your logical key point? 
• Link all the elements together in a systematic sequence
• Also, try mapping out the transition from one key point to the next and ensure that it’s flawless. 

3.     Now fill each section

Following your outline, use keywords to convey a clear message to your audience. This will also help in keeping the audience’s attention. On top of that, it will ensure you have a great flow of thoughts in your presentation. 

Write down the topic you’d like to present. Then go ahead and add principal keywords. Afterwards, write what you derive from each keyword. Thankfully, the structure of your keynote speech will give you a set of new keywords to follow. 

Make sure that you are brief and clear when filling each section. More importantly, don’t crowd up your content. You will also need to ensure you have most of the keywords in your mind. This will save you the time you use to check on your keynote speech instead of maintaining eye contact with the crowd. 

4.     Make the work visually attractive

Without a doubt, you should always ensure that your work has some visual ideas that would be easy to interpret. Add graphs or charts where necessary, but only where necessary. Too much of anything will lead to you losing the attention of your audience. 

5.     Add personal stories

Anecdotes and stories will assist you in illustrating your ideas to the audience. On top of that, it’s the best way to show your research. With stories, you should be able to capture the attention of your audience. Additionally, your audience will be emotionally invested which will differentiate you from nervous and inexperienced speakers. 

Play a game, add a question, or simply just maintain eye contact with your audience. This will help you gain their full attention throughout your speech. 

6.     Finally, rehearse

There’s no shortcut in this section. For you to present a killer speech in front of your audience without sounding nervous is through research. By rehearsing your speech several times, you can understand what it means to your audience and also see places where you can improve your speech. 

Actually, you can even record yourself while giving your keynote speech. That way, you will be able to work on your body language and speaking rate. If you have stage freight, this is a good way to avoid the effects of it. 

Now that you already know how to get ready for your speech, let’s take on how to open a keynote speech. 

The next points of discussion are: how to open a keynote speech, how long should a keynote speech be, and some great examples of keynote speeches. Before digging into that, let me add below some of the top related and interesting articles that can add to what you’re learning from this one. If any of the titles picks your interest, please click and open in a new tab, so you can check them out later. Enjoy!

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How to open a keynote speech?

I bet you are probably worried about your opening lines in your keynote speech, right? Well, first thing’s first, don’t be in a rush to speak. Before you open your mouth, the attention is usually high at this moment. Therefore, once you arrive up there, pause for a moment. To the audience, you will appear like you are trying to be confident and collected, so use that moment. 

The audience will lean in to try and hear your first few words. And at that moment, the audience will form their first impression of you with the first words you utter. An example of the first opening words include, ‘um, good evening everyone….I’m happy to be here in front of you. I will like to thank you so-so-so-so much…..’

Trust me if you start your speech with these words, the audience will feel like you are repeating words that will sound the same as the conversations they have been trying to avoid. 

To get the full attention of your audience, here are some quick tips on your opening statements. 

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Before we go into how to open your keynote speech…

I would like to announce that you can get more insightful tips and how-to’s from our recently launched eBook, now available at Barnes & Noble , at $4.99. We tried to pack it with valuable information and price it below $5 to be as inclusive as possible with our pricing. Click below and Get a Copy!

Key tips on the opening statement in your keynote speech

• Name someone central to your message
• Use a provocative question
• Use a short, pithy quote
• Start with a personal association
• Tell an Interesting and relatable Story
• Paint a picture with your words, and so on…

How long should a keynote speech be?

Usually, the maximum length of the keynote speech depends majorly on the skill of the speaker. Therefore, the minimum length of the keynote speech depends on how long the speaker will need to make an impact on the audience.

You will know when the keynote does not last long enough when the message said by the speaker doesn’t have a deep effect on the audience. Additionally, the length of the keynote speech depends on the time allocated to the event. 

Examples of Excellent Keynote Speeches 

If you follow the instructions above, you won’t even need examples to sharpen your skills. However, here are some of the examples you can check out to give you a deeper understanding of keynote speeches

• Fire Antony speech
• A speech by Briana Scurry

With these two examples, you will be able to draft your speech in no time. 

To wrap it all up…

A keynote speech is an incredible way to get over public speaking and be able to introduce yourself to the audience. It doesn’t matter the number of people in the gathering. Always remember to count every opportunity that comes your way. 

Also, a great speech is not one that strings different elements together-no siree! A great speech is one that weaves them in the minds of the audience in such a way that they are not able to tell the difference between the segments. The speech shouldn’t be repetitive or random. It should be something that you sat down and constructed to perfection. 

Give the audience something that they can remember you by. A speech that will make them concentrate on the best course of action. Someone once told me that, ‘words can change the world’ and I believe it. Now, this is your opportunity to change the world. 

REFERENCES & FURTHER READING

https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-is-a-keynote-speech–cms-31420

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-write-a-keynote-speech-2295879

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Keynote speaking opportunities are an excellent way to enhance your industry credibility and personal brand in the professional world. Becoming a sought-after speaker in 2024 demands a blend of genuine authenticity, forward-thinking ideas and strategic engagement.

If you’re looking to elevate your impact and visibility through speaking engagements, it’s important to understand the current thought leadership landscape as well as your target audience. Here, 19 Forbes Coaches Council members share ways for aspiring business leaders to position themselves as go-to keynote speakers this year.

1. Choose A Specific Niche

One way an aspiring speaker can become a sought-after keynote speaker is to pick a specific field or niche. By doing this, you present yourself as the expert and can begin to build your brand as an authority on that subject matter. Next, create content around it to showcase your expertise and attract organizers of conferences and speaking events. - Lisa Herbert , Just The Right Balance LLC

2. Build A Strong Personal Brand On Social Media

By consistently sharing valuable insights, engaging with your audience and showcasing your expertise in a specific domain, you will attract conference organizers and companies looking for speakers who resonate with their audience. In today’s world, your online presence is truly a global stage. - Kerri Sutey , Sutey Coaching & Consulting LLC

3. Identify Your Unique Message

An aspiring speaker can jump-start their progress toward becoming a sustainable keynote speaker by identifying what their unique message is, which is as individual to them as their DNA. You can break through the clutter and rise to the top by having this type of clarity. The second step is to understand who your message most benefits and how to package it to make it accessible to the audience it is meant to serve. - Katy MacKinnon Hansell , Katy Hansell Strategic Advisory

The Best Reading Glasses Plus Expert Tips From An Ophthalmologist

‘baby reindeer’ star says real martha searches need to stop, false rumors bytedance denies it is exploring a tiktok sale after ban bill, 4. start speaking now.

Request to speak at your local chamber of commerce, or any community event, and reach out and pitch yourself for a local TEDx event. Create a speaker landing page that clearly details who you are as a speaker, what you speak about, why, and how to book you. Share it widely. Ask for testimonials and referrals from every engagement. Repeat. Refine your “talks.” Soon, the phone will ring with requests! - Susanne Biro , Susanne Biro & Associates Coaching Inc.

5. Be Distinct

Make your ideal target audience clear and share your message in a presentation abstract that is short, compelling and specific to the learning objectives. Network within the associations and learning organizations that cater to your target audience, and identify conference planning committee members. Send your speaking ideas to them with a request for support in getting selected. - Jennifer Wilson , ConvergenceCoaching, LLC

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

6. Engage Your Audience

No boring speaking allowed! You are an expert on stage, so keep your audience with you by incorporating interactive elements into your presentations, such as live polls, Q&A sessions or multimedia experiences. Help them see themselves as passengers on a ride. Engaging your audience fosters memorable experiences, sets you apart and increases demand for keynote speaking engagements. - Lawrence Henderson , BOSS Consulting

7. Create Emotional Connections

Engaging keynote speakers create an emotional connection with the audience by sharing stories and painting the picture of what might be possible, versus simply teaching concepts or presenting information. To become sought-after keynote speakers, leaders should build out their repertoire of stories, experiences and examples, and use simple, engaging visuals with few words to anchor these messages. - Katie Anderson , Katie Anderson Consulting

8. Become A Thought Leader

Start by establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field. Submit articles to journals and post your hot takes about current events in your field on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Add terms like “keynote speaker” or “professional speaker” to your profiles, and have a well-written professional bio and headshot at the ready when you receive inquiries to speak. - Sheri Nasim , Center for Executive Excellence

9. Harness The Power Of Digital Platforms

Establish a strong online presence through social media, a personal website and platforms such as YouTube or podcasts. Share valuable content, showcase your expertise and engage with your audience to build credibility and attract the attention of event organizers seeking dynamic speakers in the digital age. - Adaora Ayoade , EZ37 Solutions

10. Focus On The Power Of One

Choose one speaking topic, one interesting angle, one target industry, one thing you are passionate about and one key example as evidence of your experience in your expertise. Stay consistent for a few months. Reassess and fine-tune your topic regularly. - Svetlana Dimovski, PhD, ICF-PCC, NBC-HWC , Dharma Growth, LLC

11. Bring Something New Or Personal

The most inspired keynotes have one of two things: an amazing personal story or a breakthrough way of looking at a problem. Everything else should be scrapped from the program! - Cari Jacobs-Crovetto , carijacobs.com aka The Force Majeure

12. Develop Highly-Engaging Virtual Content

As hybrid events become the new normal, speakers who can captivate audiences both in-person and online will have a major advantage. Leaders should focus on crafting dynamic presentations that translate well through screens, using multimedia, interactive polling, Q&As and other techniques to maintain interactivity and energy in virtual settings. - Jonathan H. Westover, Ph.D , Human Capital Innovations

13. Forget About Yourself

It’s all about your audience. Create a library of two to three talks that reflect your experience, passion and expertise. What’s your “so what?” Create a list of organizations that would be aligned with your message. It could be alumni associations, chambers of commerce, relevant professional associations or nonprofits to start. Be clear and compelling about what’s in it for them. - Susan Sadler , Sadler Communications LLC

14. Focus On Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful tool that helps convey messages in a memorable and impactful way. By sharing personal stories, experiences and insights, you can connect with your audience on an emotional level, making your message more relatable and engaging. When pitching an idea for a keynote, be clear and tailor the pitch to the interests and objectives of the event. - Dr. Michele D’Amico , Vetta Consultants LLC

15. Craft A Compelling Title For Your Presentation

To distinguish yourself as a keynote speaker in 2024, focus on crafting a compelling title for your presentation—akin to a headline showcasing your expertise. Aim for immediate engagement by brainstorming three potential titles and soliciting feedback from industry peers. Ensure your title succinctly addresses a prevalent problem or promises a sought-after solution. - Dale Wilsher , Your Authentic Personality

16. Offer Pro Bono Speaking Engagements

Offer pro bono speaking engagements to large nonprofit organizations aligned with your expertise and values. This is a proven way to showcase your expertise while making a positive impact on society. This also demonstrates your commitment to social responsibility and attracts attention from event organizers seeking keynote speakers who have a genuine passion for making a difference. - Alla Adam , Alla Adam Coaching

17. Reciprocate Engagement Offers

Speaking engagements tend to be reciprocal and driven by visibility. If you are in the position to do so, invite people to speak at your own events. If you do, invitations to speak will likely start coming to you in return. Of course, every time you do a speaking engagement, you’re expanding your network, so the more talks you give, the more invitations you can expect in return. - Carol Geffner , CB Vision LLC.

18. Make The ‘Pitch’ About The Organization; Show The ROI

There are a few ways to increase the number of speaking engagements you land. First, make the “pitch” about the person or organization (not about you.) Second, demonstrate the nuanced and unique value you will bring to the audience that they won’t hear anywhere else—the takeaways and learnings they’ll receive and how the talk will improve the top revenue, retention and productivity goals of the company. Show them the ROI! - Sara Connell , SARA CONNELL COACHING CORP

19. Prioritize Delivering Value Over Self-Promotion

Business leaders can become sought-after keynote speakers by providing valuable insights and actionable takeaways that genuinely help their audience solve their challenges or improve their businesses. Positioning yourself as a thought leader who prioritizes delivering value over self-promotion will attract more speaking opportunities and earn the respect and trust of event organizers and attendees. - Rukayat Alabi , RKY Careers

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Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy, Research, Capacity and Influence

Tschirley delivers keynote address during innovation lab council 2024 regional partner’s meeting.

Sierra Jezuit <[email protected]> - April 24, 2024

The Innovation Lab Council 2024 Regional Partner’s Meeting offers opportunities for learning across Labs and partners regarding their experience in bringing Lab innovations to scale

This week, USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab leaders, many of their local partners, government officials from Nepal and other key stakeholders are coming together for the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab Council 2024 Regional Partner’s Meeting, “Translating Research to Action – Opportunities for Evidence-Based Scaling of Agri-Food Systems Innovations.” Hosted in Kathmandu, Nepal, this gathering provides opportunities for learning across Labs and partners regarding their experience in bringing Lab innovations to scale.

David Tschirley , director of the USAID-funded Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research, Policy and Influence (PRCI), set the tone of the gathering in one of the meeting’s two keynote addresses. In his presentation, entitled “Innovation, localization, and the messy path to nth-best scaled solutions,” Tschirley conceives scaling of innovations as the outcome of a “deep localization” process of dialogue and bargaining among multiple stakeholders and emphasizes how dynamic, unpredictable and “messy” the process is.  He notes that the inevitable outcome of this process is “n th -best solutions,” which he defines as the best available solution given the dynamics and constraints of the system one is operating in. Such outcomes are typically far from what a researcher would consider “best,” yet the alternative often is that no solution emerges at all.

The bottom-line message from Tschirley’s presentation is that transformation and innovation are happening without any input from ILs, and the job of ILs is to understand these processes of transformation and “figure out how to bring added value to them” through their research and potential innovations. He emphasized that this understanding needs to inform both “ what the Labs work on and how they work on it.” 

A key objective of the remainder of the meeting is to begin a process of Labs learning from each other, leading to a consensus on good practices to increase the impact of their work.

Access Tschirley's presentation below Innovation, localization, and the messy path to nth-best scaled solutions

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‘A lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose’: can Allan Lichtman predict the 2024 election?

The professor on his famous 13 ‘keys’ to the White House, a method for predicting election results that’s been right nine times out of 10

• Sign up for The Stakes: a free newsletter on the 2024 US presidential election

H e has been called the Nostradamus of US presidential elections. Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted the result of nine of the past 10 (and even the one that got away, in 2000, he insists was stolen from Al Gore). But now he is gearing up for perhaps his greatest challenge: Joe Biden v Donald Trump II.

Lichtman is a man of parts. The history professor has been teaching at American University in Washington for half a century. He is a former North American 3,000m steeplechase champion and, at 77 – the same age as Trump – aiming to compete in the next Senior Olympics. In 1981 he appeared on the TV quizshow Tic-Tac-Dough and won $110,000 in cash and prizes.

That same year he developed his now famous 13 keys to the White House, a method for predicting presidential election results that every four years tantalises the media , intrigues political operatives and provokes sniping from pollsters. Long before talk of the Steele dossier or Mueller investigation, it all began with a Russian reaching out across the cold war divide.

“I’d love to tell you I developed my system by ruining my eyes in the archives, by deep contemplation, but if I were to say that, to quote the late great Richard Nixon , that would be wrong,” Lichtman recalls from a book-crowded office on the AU campus. “Like so many discoveries, it was kind of serendipitous. ”

Lichtman was a visiting scholar at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena when he met the world’s leading authority in earthquake prediction, Vladimir Keilis-Borok , who had been part of a Soviet delegation that negotiated the limited nuclear test ban treaty with President John F Kennedy in Washington in 1963.

Keilis-Borok had fallen in love with American politics and began a collaboration with Lichtman to reconceptualise elections in earthquake terms. That is, as a question of stability (the party holding the White House keeps it) versus earthquake (the party holding the White House gets thrown out).

They looked at every presidential election since Abraham Lincoln’s victory in 1860 , combining Keilis-Borok’s method recognising patterns associated with stability and earthquakes with Lichtman’s theory that elections are basically votes up or down on the strength and performance of the party that holds the White House.

They came up with 13 true/false questions and a decision rule: if six or more keys went against the White House party, it would lose. If fewer than six went against it, it would win. These are the 13 keys, as summarised by AU’s website :

1. Party mandate: After the midterm elections, the incumbent party holds more seats in the US House of Representatives than after the previous midterm elections.

2. Contest: There is no serious contest for the incumbent party nomination.

3. Incumbency: The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president.

4. Third party: There is no significant third party or independent campaign.

5. Short-term economy: The economy is not in recession during the election campaign.

6. Long-term economy: Real per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth during the previous two terms.

7. Policy change: The incumbent administration effects major changes in national policy.

8. Social unrest: There is no sustained social unrest during the term.

9. Scandal: The incumbent administration is untainted by major scandal.

10. Foreign/military failure: The incumbent administration suffers no major failure in foreign or military affairs.

11. Foreign/military success: The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign or military affairs.

12. Incumbent charisma: The incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero.

13. Challenger charisma: The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero.

Lichtman and Keilis-Borok published a paper in an academic journal, which was spotted by an Associated Press science reporter, leading to a Washington Post article headlined: “Odd couple discovers keys to the White House.” Then, in the Washingtonian magazine in April 1982, Lichtman used the keys to accurately predict that, despite economic recession, low approval ratings and relative old age, Ronald Reagan would win re-election two years later.

That led to an invitation to the White House from the presidential aide Lee Atwater , where Lichtman met numerous officials including then vice-president George HW Bush. Atwater asked him what would happen if Reagan did not run for re-election. Lichtman reckoned that a few important keys would be lost, including incumbent charisma.

“Without the Gipper, forget it,” Lichtman says. “George Bush is about as charismatic as a New Jersey shopping centre on a Sunday morning. Atwater looks me in the eye, breathes a huge sigh of relief, and says, thank you, Professor Lichtman. And the rest is history.”

For the next election, Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis by 18 percentage points in the opinion polls in May 1988, yet Lichtman correctly predicted a Bush victory because he was running on the Reagan inheritance of peace, prosperity, domestic tranquillity and breakthroughs with the Soviet Union .

That year Lichtman published a book, The Thirteen Keys to the Presidency . But he was still derided by the punditry establishment. “When I first developed my system and made my predictions, the professional forecasters blasted me because I had committed the ultimate sin of prediction, the sin of subjectivity.

“Some of my keys were not just cut and dried and I kept telling them, it’s not subjectivity, it’s judgment. We’re dealing with human systems and historians make judgments all the time, and they’re not random judgments. I define each key very carefully in my book and I have a record.”

He adds: “It took 15 to 20 years and the professional forecasting community totally turned around. They realised their big mathematical models didn’t work and the best models combined judgment with more cut-and-dried indicators. And suddenly the keys were the hottest thing in forecasting. ”

Lichtman was a man in demand. He spoke at forecasting conferences, wrote for academic journals and even gave a talk to the CIA about how to apply the 13 keys to foreign elections. And his crystal ball kept working.

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He predicted that George HW Bush would be a one-term president, even though he was riding high in polls after the Gulf war, causing many leading Democrats to pass on mounting a challenge. Then a call from Little Rock, Arkansas. It was Kay Goss , special assistant to Governor Bill Clinton.

“Are you really saying that George Bush can be beaten in 1992?” she asked. Lichtman confirmed that he was saying that. Clinton went on to win the Democratic primary election and beat Bush for the White House. “The Clintons have been big fans of the keys ever since,” Lichtman notes.

The one apparent blot on Lichtman’s copybook is the 2000 election, where he predicted victory for the Democratic vice-president Al Gore over George W Bush, the Republican governor of Texas. Gore did win the national popular vote but lost the electoral college by a gossamer-thin margin. Lichtman, however, believes he was right.

“It was a stolen election. Based on the actual votes, Al Gore should have won going away, except for the discarding of ballots cast by Black voters who were 95% for Gore. I proved this in my report to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. One out of every nine to 10 ballots cast by a Black voter was thrown out, as opposed to one out of 50 cast by a white voter.

“Most of those were not so-called hanging chads. They were over-votes because Black people were told punch in Gore and then write in Gore, just to be sure, and those ballots were all discarded. Political scientists have since looked at the election and proved I was right. Al Gore, based on the intent of the voters, should have won by tens of thousands of votes.”

He adds: “I contend I was right about 2000 or at a minimum there was no right prediction. You could argue either way. I contend – and a lot of people agree with me – that I’m 10 out of 10. But even if you say I’m nine out of 10, that’s not bad.”

Perhaps Lichtman’s most striking prophecy, defying polls, commentators and groupthink, was that Trump – a former reality TV star with no prior political or military experience – would pull off a wildly improbable win over the former secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton in 2016. How did he know?

“The critical sixth key was the contest key: Bernie Sanders’s contest against Clinton. It was an open seat so you lost the incumbency key. The Democrats had done poorly in 2014 so you lost that key. There was no big domestic accomplishment following the Affordable Care Act in the previous term, and no big foreign policy splashy success following the killing of Bin Laden in the first term, so there were just enough keys. It was not an easy call.”

After the election, Lichtman received a copy of the Washington Post interview in which he made the prediction. On it was written in a Sharpie pen: “Congrats, professor. Good call. Donald J Trump.” But in the same call, Lichtman had also prophesied – again accurately – that Trump would one day be impeached.

He was right about 2020, too, as Trump struggled to handle the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic is what did him in. He congratulated me for predicting him but he didn’t understand the keys. The message of the keys is it’s governance not campaigning that counts and instead of dealing substantively with the pandemic, as we know, he thought he could talk his way out of it and that sank him.”

In 2020 Lichtman gave a presentation to the American Political Science Association about the keys as one of three classic models of prediction. In recent months he has delivered keynote addresses at Asian and Brazilian financial conferences, the Oxford Union and JP Morgan. As another election looms, he is not impressed by polls that show Trump leading Biden, prompting a fatalistic mood to take hold in Washington DC and foreign capitals.

“They’re mesmerised by the wrong things, which is the polls. First of all, polls six, seven months before an election have zero predictive value. They would have predicted President Michael Dukakis. They would have predicted President Jimmy Carter would have defeated Ronald Reagan, who won in a landslide; Carter was way ahead in some of the early polls.

“Not only are polls a snapshot but they are not predictors. They don’t predict anything and there’s no such thing as, ‘if the election were held today’. That’s a meaningless statement.”

He is likely to make his pronouncement on the 2024 presidential election in early August. He notes that Biden already has the incumbency key in his favour and, having crushed token challengers in the Democratic primary, has the contest key too. “That’s two keys off the top. That means six more keys would have to fall to predict his defeat. A lot would have to go wrong for Biden to lose.”

Lichtman gives no weight to running mate picks and has never changed his forecast in the wake of a so-called “October surprise” But no predictive model is entirely immune to a black swan event.

Speaking in the week that saw a jury seated for Trump’s criminal trial in New York involving a hush-money payment to a pornographic film performer, Lichtman acknowledges: “Keys are based on history. They’re very robust because they go all the way back retrospectively to 1860 and prospectively to 1984, so they cover enormous changes in our economy, our society, our demography, our politics.

“But it’s always possible there could be a cataclysmic enough event outside the scope of the keys that could affect the election and here we do have, for the first time, not just a former president but a major party candidate sitting in a trial and who knows if he’s convicted – and there’s a good chance he will be – how that might scramble things.”

Millions of people will be on edge on the night of 5 November. After 40 years of doing this, Lichtman will have one more reason to be anxious. “It’s nerve-racking because there are a lot of people who’d love to see me fail.” And if he does? “I’m human,” he admits. “It doesn’t mean my system’s wrong. Nothing is perfect in the human world.”

Biden v Trump: What’s in store for the US and the world?

On Thursday 2 May, 3-4.15pm ET, join Tania Branigan, David Smith, Mehdi Hasan and Tara Setmayer for the inside track on the people, the ideas and the events that might shape the US election campaign. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

• US elections 2024
• US politics
• Donald Trump

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Keynote User Guide for Mac

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Add and view presenter notes in Keynote on Mac

You can add notes to any slide to help you present. If you’re presenting on an external display, you can refer to your presenter notes during your presentation when you set up the presenter display to show presenter notes.

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Type notes in the white area below the slide.

Thumbnails for slides with presenter notes have a small lined square in the top or bottom-right corner.

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To view your presenter notes during your presentation, play your slideshow in full-screen mode on a connected display. Your notes appear only on your screen, so your audience can’t see them. You can also view presenter notes when you rehearse your presentation .

Select the Presenter Notes tick box then click outside the dialogue to close it.

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Change the size of the font: Move the pointer over the Presenter Notes window, then click one of the font buttons to make the font smaller or larger.

Invert the text and background colours: Move the pointer over the Presenter Notes window, then click the Invert Colours button to show white text on a black background or vice versa (other text colours aren’t affected).

To add or edit presenter notes while you play your presentation, move the pointer over the Presenter Notes window, then click Edit.

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Change the size of the text in the presenter notes: Move the pointer over the Notes window, then click a font button in the top-left corner.

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To close the presenter display and notes, click the red close button in the top-left corner of the Presenter Display, or choose Play > Hide Presenter Display in Window.

To learn more about how to play a presentation in a window, see Present in a window .

You can also print your slides along with your presenter notes.

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Microsoft Fabric April 2024 Update

• Monthly Update

Welcome to the April 2024 update!

This month, you’ll find many great new updates, previews, and improvements. From Shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage and S3 compatible data sources in preview, Optimistic Job Admission for Fabric Spark, and New KQL Queryset Command Bar, that’s just a glimpse into this month’s update.

There’s much more to explore! Read on and let us know what update you’re most excited about and what you found the most helpful.

Fabric Conference Day 1 Keynote is now available!

Did you miss it, or want to hear it again? We are excited to release the FabCon Day 1 Keynote to the Microsoft Fabric YouTube Channel !

If you aren’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Microsoft Fabric Channel! Check out the amazing announcements & demos from Arun, Amir, Wangui, and other awesome presenters. The Day 3 keynotes will be released later this month, and more content will be released regularly moving forward.

Make sure you check out the blog post from Arun, that highlights the announcements from FabCon you can find that here:  Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference

Earn a free Microsoft Fabric certification exam! 

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of  Exam DP-600 , which leads to the  Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate  certification.  

Microsoft Fabric’s common analytics platform is built on the instantly  familiar Power BI experience , making your transition to Fabric Analytics Engineer easier. With Fabric, you can build on your prior knowledge – whether that is Power BI, SQL, or Python – and master how to enrich data for analytics in the era of AI. 

To help you learn quickly and get certified, we created the  Fabric Career Hub.  We have curated the  best   free   on-demand and live training, exam crams, practice tests and more . 

And because the best way to learn is live, we will have  free live learning sessions  led by the best Microsoft Fabric experts from Apr 16 to May 8, in English and Spanish. Register now at the  Learn Together  page.

Also,  become eligible for a  free certification exam  by completing the  Fabric AI Skills Challenge.  But hurry, the challenge only runs from  March 19 – April 19  and free certs are first-come, first-served! (limit one per participant,  terms and conditions  apply). 

New Visual – 100% Stacked Area Chart

Line enhancements, enhance q&a with copilot-generated linguistic relationships, snowflake (connector update), storytelling in powerpoint – improved image mode in the power bi add-in for powerpoint, storytelling in powerpoint – continuous slide show auto refresh, storytelling in powerpoint – auto populating the slide title, introducing the fabric metadata scanning sample app, dynamic subscriptions for power bi and paginated reports, supporting folders in workspace, new “clear barcode” action in the report footer, open power bi items in full screen mode, new visuals in appsource kpi matrix growth rate chart by djeeni v1.4 aimplan comment visual.

• Financial Reporting Matrix by Profitbase 

Horizon Chart by Powerviz

Drill down scatter pro by zoomcharts, image gallery, horizontal bar chart, multi-pane card 1.1.

• Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview) 
• Shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage and S3 compatible data sources (preview)
• OneLake data access roles – public preview

Tenant level Private Link

Managed private endpoints for microsoft fabric.

• Trusted Workspace Access for OneLake Shortcuts
• Git Integration

Partition elimination performance improvement for tables with a large number of files 

Mirroring (public preview) .

• Optimistic Job Admission for Fabric Spark 
• Single Node Support for Starter Pools
• Container Image for Synapse VS Code 
• Git Integration with Spark Job Definition 
• New Revamped Object Explorer experience in the notebook 
• %run your scripts in Notebook
• Semantic Link is now GA! 

Capacity level delegation for AI and Copilot 

Eu customers can use ai and copilot without cross-geo setting .

• New KQL Queryset Command Bar 
• New Update Command Public Preview 
• Introducing Pause and Resume Feature in Eventstream
• Fabric Real-Time Analytics Integrates with Newly Announced Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview)

Service Principal Name authentication kind support for On-Premises and VNET data gateways 

• Certified connector updates

Updated Fabric data pipeline homepage 

• Pipeline support for CI/CD in public preview 
• Data Factory Data Pipelines APIs
• Increase in Pipeline activity limit
• Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity
• Edit column type to destination table support added to Fabric Warehouse and other SQL data stores
• SFTP: performance improvements when writing data to SFTP

Introducing the new 100% Stacked Area Chart, now available in our core visuals gallery. These visuals display the relative percentage of multiple data series in stacked areas, where the total always equals 100%. It’s perfect for showing the proportion of individual series to the whole and how they change over time. Find it in the visual gallery, on-object dialog, or format pane, right next to the Stacked Area Chart. Give it a try and share your feedback with us!

For more detailed information about this new visual, and the new line enhancements you can read our article: PBI Core Visuals

Take your line charts to the next level with our new line control features.

• Adjust line color transparency under Lines > Colors > Transparency.
• Control the color and transparency of each series by selecting them in the ‘Apply settings to’ dropdown.
• Use Monotone and the new Cardinal smooth type for full control of smooth lines.
• Choose from before, center, and after step lines to align your visual with your story.

Try out these new features and enhance your line charts.

These new line enhancements are just the beginning, there is more to come. Try them out and stay ahead of the curve. We would love to hear about your experience and the amazing things you can achieve with these new features.

Improving your linguistic schema is an important step in making sure that the Q&A visual can understand the wide range of questions people might ask about their data. This is why, back in September , we added a new section into the Q&A setup menu to help you add linguistic relationships to teach Q&A about words which qualify or relate your data.  

But we also know that coming up with all the different words people might be using to refer to your data can take time and effort, and we’ve been working on ways to make that process easier for you! In November , we introduced a way for you to quickly generate new synonyms for the names of tables and columns in your model; this month, we’ve introduced the same functionality for linguistic relationships!  

When you open a report with a Q&A visual, if you have Copilot enabled and you’ve already added synonyms, you’ll now see a banner prompting you to get relationships with Copilot as well.  

Unlike with synonyms, Copilot generated relationships will not be used to understand natural language inputs until you have approved them, so make sure you accept the ones which work for your model!  

Allow Copilot to help interpret Q&A questions.

You can also now use Copilot to improve the Q&A engine’s term recognition when you ask questions! This new feature will trigger when you ask Q&A a question which uses words or phrases which Q&A doesn’t recognize, but which it detects might be referring to data entities like tables or columns. Then, Copilot will also check those unknown words or phrases to see if there is any reasonable match and if so, return the answer as a visual as though a suggested synonym had been applied.

This feature is not a replacement for synonyms! In fact, adding synonyms for the entities in your semantic model is even more important to create good matches, as they increase the surface area to check for similarities. It will widen the range of inputs Q&A will recognize, but like a multiplier, it will improve recognition for well modeled data much better than it will for poorly modeled data.  

This feature will be automatically enabled when you choose to get synonyms with Copilot, but you can also turn it on or off manually in the suggestion settings menu in the Synonyms tab in Q&A setup. 

Data Connectivity

The Snowflake connector has been updated to support the use of Snowflake dynamic tables .

We’ve made saving Power BI content as an image more simple and more powerful. 

First, we’ve added a new dropdown menu to the add-in’s footer. In that menu, you can choose whether you want to see live data or a snapshot. So now it is much easier to find where to switch between live data and a static image.

Second, for snapshots, you now have two options:

Public snapshot: Anyone who can view the presentation can view the image.

Snapshot: Only those who have permission to view the report in Power BI will be able to see the snapshot.

Third, we’ve disabled the default snapshot, so that the slide thumbnail doesn’t show the image by default (this also applies when you copy & paste the slide into an email for example), but only after the add-in is loaded and the required permissions have been checked.

And lastly, we honor this setting when you open the presentation in PowerPoint for the web. You still cannot change a live view into a snapshot in PowerPoint for the web, but if you or someone else has changed the view to snapshot in the PowerPoint desktop app, this will be respected, and you will see the snapshot also in PowerPoint for the web.

PowerPoint allows you to continuously playback a presentation. This is especially useful when you want to present information in public displays without any human interaction.

If a presentation that is running continuously has slides that include the Power BI add-in, the data in the add-in might become outdated, since the add-in gets the data from Power BI when the slide is loaded, or when the user manually refreshes the data being presented.

With the new automatic refresh in slide show feature, you can set the add-in to automatically pull fresh data from Power BI while the presentation is in slide show mode, ensuring that the presentation will always show the most recent data.

To enable automatic refresh, go to the add-in footer, select Add-in options, choose Slide show settings, check Automatic refresh in slide show and set the desired frequency.

Note that auto refresh only happens in slide show mode and not while you’re editing the presentation.

When you add the Power BI add-in to an empty slide that doesn’t have a title yet, the Power BI add-in is here to help. It offers you suggestions for the slide title based on the content of you add-in. The title can be the report name, the page/visual name, or both. Just select the desired option and hit Add title.

We’re delighted to announce the availability of the new Fabric metadata scanning app. This sample application builds upon the metadata scanning capabilities of Fabric’s set of Admin REST APIs collectively known as the scanner APIs. This new app can be used as a reference for admins interested in utilizing the Scanner API to catalog and report on all the metadata of their organization’s Fabric items.

The Fabric metadata scanning sample app handles all the steps for calling the scanner API including authentication, parallelism, throttling, and incremental scanning. In addition, it provides a central configuration file which can be easily modified to suit the specific needs of the caller. Currently authentication is supported both by using a service principal and a delegated token.

The app is available as a Microsoft open-source project, and is open for suggestions and improvements here: Fabric Metadata Scanning

We’re pleased to announce that you can now send dynamic per recipient subscriptions to up to 1000 recipients instead of the earlier limit of 50 recipients from the data in the Power BI semantic model. For existing subscriptions, we will automatically send subscriptions up to 1000 recipients if your Power BI semantic model contains that many rows of data. You need to edit the subscription if you don’t want to automatically send subscriptions. Learn more about creating dynamic per recipient subscriptions for Power BI Reports and paginated reports .

This feature will be available in some regions as soon as today, however depending on the geography in which your Power BI tenant is located, it may take up to two weeks to appear.

The Power BI Mobile apps support folders in workspace. So, you can access items that are organized in folders inside of your workspace directly from the mobile app.

Workspace and folders are Fabric entities, which means that you can add items that are not necessarily Power BI items to a workspace. But the Power BI Mobile apps only support a subset of Power BI items. Therefore, only the Power BI item will be accessible when you are browsing the folder content from the app. If a folder contains only non-Power BI items, it will appear empty in the mobile app.

When a field in your model is marked as a barcode, you can use your mobile device camera to scan the barcodes of real objects to filter reports that are built on this model. This feature is extremely useful for retail, where you can scan the barcode on a piece of merchandise to get a report showing data about the item directly in your mobile app (for example, inventory information, product selling data, etc.).

To make it easier and more intuitive to use barcodes and based on feedback we’ve gotten from our users in stores, we’ve added a new button to the report footer that makes it a one-click action to clear any previously scanned barcode from the report’s filter.

Learn more about scanning barcode from the mobile app

We continue to simplify the experience of using the Power BI Mobile apps, always keeping in mind the frontline workers who need quick access to their content. In this monthly update we’ve made it possible to open Power BI items in full screen, so users can view their data at its max.

Opening an item in full screen is supported both for launch items and when using a universal link.

A launch item is a Power BI item (report, page, app, etc.) that the user has selected to automatically open when they open the app. Now, you can also tell the Power BI Mobile app to open this item in full screen mode.

To set a launch item to open in full screen mode, go to:

Settings > Launch item and enable the Open in full screen toggle.

Using an MDM tool that supports an AppConfig file, mobile device administrators can also configure a launch item to be opened in full screen mode for their users.

You can also add the query parameter? fullscreen=1 to a Power BI item’s link. When you use a link with this parameter on your mobile device, the mobile app will open the item in full screen mode.

Visualizations

Financial reporting matrix by profitbase.

Making financial statements with a proper layout has just become easier with the latest version of the Financial Reporting Matrix.

Users are now able to specify which rows should be classified as cost-rows, which will make it easier to get the conditional formatting of variances correctly:

Selecting a row, and ticking “is cost” will tag the row as cost. This can be used in conditional formatting to make sure that positive variances on expenses are a bad for the result, while a positive variance on an income row is good for the result.

The new version also includes more flexibility in measuring placement and column subtotals.

Measures can be placed either:

Default (below column headers)

Above column headers

If you have multiple fields showing on your column headers, you can now decide which of these fields you want a column subtotal for.

This is in addition to the already existing features of the Financial Reporting Matrix:

Adding custom rows

Applying company/customer specific themes

Expand/collapse columns

Conditionally hide columns

+ much more

Highlighted new features:

New Format Pane design

Measure placement – In rows

Select Column Subtotals

Row Options

*Get the visual from AppSource (fix link) and find more videos here !

A Horizon Chart is an advanced visual, for time-series data, revealing trends and anomalies. It displays stacked data layers, allowing users to compare multiple categories while maintaining data clarity. Horizon Charts are particularly useful to monitor and analyze complex data over time, making this a valuable visual for data analysis and decision-making.

Key Features:

Horizon Styles: Choose Natural, Linear, or Step with adjustable scaling.

Layer: Layer data by range or custom criteria. Display positive and negative values together or separately on top.

Reference Line: Highlight patterns with X-axis lines and labels.

Colors: Apply 30+ color palettes and use FX rules for dynamic coloring.

Ranking: Filter Top/Bottom N values, with “Others”.

Gridline: Add gridlines to the X and Y axis.

Custom Tooltip: Add highest, lowest, mean, and median points without additional DAX.

Themes: Save designs and share seamlessly with JSON files.

Other features included are ranking, annotation, grid view, show condition, and accessibility support.

Business Use Cases: Time-Series Data Comparison, Environmental Monitoring, Anomaly Detection

🔗 Try Horizon Chart for FREE from AppSource

📊 Check out all features of the visual: Demo file

📃 Step-by-step instructions: Documentation

💡 YouTube Video: Video Link

📍 Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/

✅ Follow Powerviz: https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U

ZoomCharts has just launched the latest addition to their suite of user-friendly custom visuals – Drill Down Scatter PRO. It provides all the features you would expect from a great scatter chart visual, but what sets Scatter PRO apart is the ability to easily drill down. Simply click on a data point and see all the values underneath it.

This way, you can quickly find your answers while also gaining a full understanding of where they come from. Furthermore, the visual’s UI is designed to be smooth and user-friendly for PCs and touch devices, and with cross-chart filtering you can use Scatter PRO to build incredible reports for immersive data exploration.

Main features:

Drill Down: Create a multi-level hierarchy and drill down with just a click.

Dynamic formatting: Apply custom marker colors, shapes, or images to each data point directly from data.

Trendlines: Show a linear or polynomial regression line on the chart.

Thresholds: Display up to 4 line or area thresholds on each axis.

Area Shading: Highlight up to 8 custom areas with rectangles or ellipses.

🌐 Learn more about Drill Down Scatter PRO

Documentation | ZoomCharts Website | Follow ZoomCharts on LinkedIn

The Image Gallery is the first visual to be certified by Microsoft that allows for the display of high-quality images and their exportation along with other report content. There is no need to upload images to the Cloud, a CDN, or use any datasets. Simply import your images directly into the visual and share them instantly with your colleagues.

This visual boasts several impressive capabilities:

Microsoft certification ensures that the visual doesn’t interact with external services, ensuring that your images are securely stored and encrypted within the report, consistent with your report’s sensitivity settings.

Automatically saves your selected image in preview mode, allowing your colleagues to view the exact image you have highlighted.

Images can be uploaded or removed exclusively in Edit Mode. Users in View Mode can only view the images.

The visual is compatible with Power BI’s export functionality to PDF and PowerPoint.

Image Gallery Link

A space-saving horizontal bar chart designed with category labels placed inside the bars for clarity.

This horizontal bar chart serves as an efficient filter to navigate through your data more effectively, optimizing space by placing the category labels within the bars themselves.

Adjustable Bar Thickness and Spacing: Offers the flexibility to adjust the thickness of the bars and the spacing between them. This allows for optimal use of space and improves readability, especially when dealing with large datasets.

Tooltip Details on Hover: Displays detailed information about each category when the user hovers over a bar. This feature provides additional context and insights without cluttering the visual.

Data-Driven Category Labels: Automatically updates category labels based on the data source. This ensures that the chart remains accurate and up to date, reflecting any changes in the underlying data.

Support for Hierarchical Data: Allows users to drill down into hierarchical categories within the chart. This functionality enables a more detailed data analysis without leaving the context of the initial visual.

Export Options: Offers the ability to export the chart as an image or PDF, facilitating easy sharing and reporting outside of Power BI.

HorizontalBarChart Link

Introducing the “ Trends ” visual for Power BI – your gateway to leveraging Google Trends data for strategic business analysis. This innovative visual tool allows you to compare brand popularity, monitor market trends, and gain insights into consumer search behaviors directly within your Power BI environment.

With Trends visual, you can:

Analyze the ebb and flow of brand interest over time to identify market opportunities and competitive threats.

Compare the popularity of products to inform marketing strategies and product development decisions.

Understand seasonal trends to optimize your marketing campaigns and inventory planning.

Securely integrated and easy to use, “Trends” transforms your Power BI reports into a dynamic analysis tool, offering a comprehensive view of the market landscape. Dive into data-driven decision-making with “Trends” and stay one step ahead in the competitive business environment.

New visual: Multi-pane Card can be used to group and show data in multiple collapsible panes in Power BI reports. It is an alternative to multi-row card visual, but it can combine columns into a few groups and put each group’s data in each pane. It is suitable to show data in detail with a reduced number of report pages.

Screenshot 1 (Show data in 3 groups: Area and Population, GDP and Foreign Exchange Reserves for countries)

Data can be sorted by a specified column and numbers can be converted to a human readable string. You can also set up how many rows that you want to show on the card. Using these features, it will be very easy to show “Top 10 best performing stores” or “Top 10 worst performing stores” for retail businesses.

Screenshot2 (Combined with drilldown choropleth map to show the top 10 richest countries by GDP per capita for each continent and subregion)

You can go to Microsoft AppSource: Multi-pane Card , to download and try it.

To learn more on how to use it, please read tutorials ( https://www.mylocs.ca/tutorials.html#multi-pane-card ).

Introducing Copilot pane in Power BI Desktop (preview)

Earlier this year, we announced preview of Copilot for all customers with Premium/Fabric capacity in Power BI web . We’re thrilled to share that the same Copilot experience for report creation is now available for preview in Power BI Desktop. With our current preview, users can create reports faster and easier in the Power BI Desktop experience. You can now open the Copilot pane in report view and ask Copilot to:

Create a report page – Copilot will create an entire report page for you by identifying the tables, fields, measures, and charts that would help you get started.

Summarize a semantic model – Copilot will help you understand your Power BI semantic model by summarizing the data in your model.

Suggest a topic – Copilot will suggest topics for your report pages.

Click here to learn more about how to get started.

Shortcuts to Google Cloud Storage and S3 compatible data sources (preview) 

We are excited to announce that you can now create OneLake shortcuts to your Google Cloud Storage (GCS) buckets and S3 compatible data sources! 

With the addition of GCS, you can now utilize cross-cloud shortcuts to analyze your data across all three major cloud platforms. Shortcuts in OneLake allow you to connect to your existing data through a single unified name space without having to copy or move data. Just open Lakehouse in Fabric, create a shortcut to GCS, AWS S3 or ADLS Gen2 and immediately start analyzing your data through Spark, SQL and Power BI. 

OneLake is also adding connectivity to data sources that offer an Amazon S3 compatible API, a widely supported API offered by many distributed file systems and services that offer object storage. With this new feature, it’s quick and easy to create a shortcut that references your cloud based S3 compatible data sources. The data source endpoint simply needs to offer S3 compatible APIs, be publicly hosted and accessible, and accept the key/secret credentials you provide during shortcut creation. Once you set up your shortcut, you can access and use your data with the many Fabric engines or other services using OneLake’s open APIs . 

Learn more in our recent blog posts for S3 compatible shortcuts and GCS shortcuts ! 

OneLake data access roles (preview)

OneLake data access roles for folders are a new feature that enables you to apply role-based access control (RBAC) to your data stored in OneLake. You can define security roles that grant read access to specific folders within a Fabric item and assign them to users or groups. The access permissions determine what folders users see when accessing the lake view of the data, either through the lakehouse UX, Spark notebooks, or OneLake APIs. 

OneLake previously managed data access at the Fabric item level. Access to the OneLake data behind a Fabric item could be granted or removed for users or groups. Data access roles now allow for defining security roles that can grant access to individual OneLake folders within a Fabric item. The granted access inherits to any newly added sub-folders in a transparent manner. Role permissions and user/group assignments can be easily updated through a new folder security UX or through API calls. The security also extends to 3rd party access requests made through the OneLake APIs. 

Check out the full announcement blog or jump right into the getting started guide!  

Organizations today rely on cloud platforms for storage and analysis of data at scale and need to keep up with the accelerating volume of data while protecting sensitive information.  While enterprises in Banking, Healthcare, and similar domains require strict data security standards by default, securing business-critical data is the highest priority for all enterprises. We are excited to announce the public preview of an enhanced networking feature, Azure Private Link for Microsoft Fabric, for securing access to your sensitive data in Microsoft Fabric by providing network isolation and applying required controls on your inbound network traffic. 

Private Links enable secure connectivity to Fabric by restricting access to your Fabric tenant from an Azure VNet of your choice and blocking all public access. This ensures that only network traffic from that VNet is allowed to access Fabric experiences like Notebooks, Lakehouses, Warehouses in your tenant. 

With Azure Private Link, you can: 

• Restrict traffic from the internet to Fabric and route it through the Microsoft backbone network. 
• Ensure only authorized client machines can access Fabric. 
• Comply with regulatory and compliance requirements that mandate private access to your data and analytics services. 

While Azure private links were supported in Power BI at a tenant level, we are now extending this feature to other Fabric workloads with this release. For example, connecting to your data in Onelake using the OneLake Explorer can be protected through Private Links. Similarly, you can access Warehouses and Lakehouse SQL endpoints in SQL Managed Studio via Private Links. A list of supported scenarios and limitations can be found at Use private link to access Fabric. for detailed instructions, please refer to How to set up private endpoints to access Fabric . 

We are excited to announce the public preview of Managed Private Endpoints for Microsoft Fabric. This feature allows secure connections to data sources that are behind a firewall or not accessible from the public internet. Managed Private Endpoints enable Fabric Data Engineering items to access data sources securely without exposing them to the public network or requiring complex network configurations. These private endpoints provide a secure way to connect and access data from sources like Azure SQL DB or Storage account blocked from public access from your Fabric Spark Notebooks or Spark Job Definitions. 

Workspaces with managed private endpoints have network isolation through a dedicated managed virtual network. These managed virtual networks (Managed VNETs) separate the Spark compute clusters from the shared virtual network and enable network security features such as private links and managed private endpoints. Microsoft Fabric takes care of the provisioning and management of the virtual networks and private endpoints, so users do not have to create or manage these network infrastructure resources themselves. 

By just providing connection details, your managed private endpoint is instantly provisioned in the Managed VNET and a request for private endpoint access is submitted to the data source administrator for approval.  

Users can track the status and approval process of the managed private endpoints from the Network security section of the Workspace settings. 

Managed Private Endpoints support various data sources, including Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Cosmos DB, Application gateway, Azure Key Vault, and many more. 

Learn more about the data sources supported, please refer to our documentation Create and use managed private endpoints in Microsoft Fabric (preview) – Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn  

Note: Managed private endpoints are only supported for Fabric Trial capacity and Fabric capacities F64 or higher SKUs.  

To learn more about the benefits, detailed steps of setup and limitations of managed private endpoints in Microsoft Fabric, please refer to our documentation Overview of managed private endpoints in Fabric.   

To learn more about network isolation offered by managed virtual networks, please refer to Overview of managed virtual networks in Fabric . 

Trusted Workspace Access for OneLake Shortcuts 

Trusted workspace access allows you to securely access firewall-enabled Storage accounts. With Trusted workspace access, you can create OneLake shortcuts to Storage accounts, and then use the shortcuts in various Fabric items, such as Spark notebooks, SQL analytics endpoints, semantic models, reports, data pipelines, and dataflows Gen2.   

Trusted workspace access is designed to help you securely and easily access data stored in Storage accounts from Fabric workspaces, without compromising on performance or functionality. You can leverage the power and flexibility of Fabric and OneLake to work with data in place without compromising on security. 

How does Trusted workspace access work? 

Trusted workspace access is based on the concept of workspace identity, which is a unique identity that can be associated with workspaces that are in Fabric capacities. When you create a workspace identity, Fabric creates a service principal in Microsoft Entra ID to represent the identity.   

Workspace identity enables OneLake shortcuts in Fabric to access Storage accounts that have resource instance rules configured. Resource instance rules are a way to grant access to specific resources based on the workspace identity or managed identity. You can create resource instance rules by deploying an ARM template with the resource instance rule details.  

To leverage Trusted workspace access in Fabric workspaces, you can create a OneLake shortcut in a Lakehouse, and provide the URL of the Storage account that has been configured with a resource instance rule. While creating the shortcut, you need to select organizational account or service principle for authentication and ensure that the principle used for authenticating to Storage has the appropriate Azure RBAC roles on the Storage account. Once the shortcut is created, you can use it in various Fabric items. 

How to get started with Trusted workspace access?

Trusted workspace access is available for workspaces in Fabric capacities (F64 or higher). To get started with Trusted workspace access, you need to do the following steps:  

• Create a workspace identity for your Fabric workspace if you don’t have one already. If you face issues with creation of the workspace identity, follow the troubleshooting guidelines provided here . 

Create a workspace identity. 

2. Configure resource instance rules for the Storage account that you want to access from your Fabric workspace. Follow the guidelines for configuring resource instance rules for Fabric workspaces here . 

Resource instance rules in a Storage account 

• Create a OneLake shortcut to the Storage account in a Lakehouse and select the organizational account or service principal option for authentication.   

Create an ADLS g2 shortcut in a Lakehouse. 

4. Use the OneLake shortcut in various Fabric items, such as Spark notebooks, SQL analytics endpoints, semantic models, reports, data pipelines, and dataflows Gen2.  

Access data stored in firewall-enabled Storage accounts through OneLake shortcuts. 

For more details and guidance on how to use Trusted workspace access, please refer to the documentation links below.  

• Trusted workspace access in Fabric  
• Workspace identity in Fabric  

Data Warehouse 

Git integration .

We are excited to announce the Git integration for the Warehouse! This feature allows you to check in the changes of your Warehouse into an Azure DevOps Git repository as a SQL database project. Git integration enables source control capabilities for developers to integrate their development processes, tools, and best practices directly into the Fabric platform. 

Some scenarios that are enabled by Git: 

• Backup and version development work 
• Revert to previous stages 
• Collaborate with others or work alone using Git branches 
• Apply the capabilities of familiar source control tools to manage your Warehouse 
• Commit changes 
• Sync changes from Git 
• Manage conflict resolutions 
• …and many more! 

The SQL analytics endpoint of a Lakehouse uses partition elimination to read data from only those partitions that are relevant to the query. Recent improvements have boosted performance even more when queries are aimed at a few partitions in a table that has many files. 

We are thrilled to announce Mirroring in Fabric for Azure SQLDB, CosmosDB and Snowflake is in Public Preview!  

Mirroring in Fabric allows users to enjoy a highly integrated, end-to-end, and easy-to-use product that is designed to simplify your analytics needs. Built for openness and collaboration between Microsoft, and technology solutions that can read the open-source Delta Lake table format, Mirroring is a low-cost and low-latency turnkey solution that allows you to create a replica of your Azure SQL DB, Snowflake or CosmosDB data in OneLake which can be used for all your analytical needs. Learn more

Data Engineering 

Optimistic job admission for fabric spark.

We are excited to announce a new feature for Fabric Spark: Optimistic Job Admission. This feature aims to reduce the frequency of throttling errors (HTTP 430: Spark Capacity Limit Exceeded Response) and improve the job admission experience for our customers, especially during peak usage hours.  

Throttling errors on Spark workload occur when the Spark usage exceeds the Fabric capacity limits. In the current job admission policy, Fabric Spark reserves the maximum number of cores that a job may need during its execution, based on the maximum number of nodes that the job can scale up to. This ensures that the job will always have enough resources to run, but it also limits the number of concurrent jobs that can be admitted in the cluster. 

With Optimistic Job Admission, Fabric Spark only reserves the minimum number of cores that a job needs to start, based on the minimum number of nodes that the job can scale down to. This allows more jobs to be admitted if there are enough resources to meet the minimum requirements. If a job needs to scale up later, the scale up requests are approved or rejected based on the available cores in capacity.  

Optimistic Job Admission can significantly increase the max number of concurrent jobs for our customers, especially for those who use large SKUs. For example, if a customer is using F32 SKU, which has 64 Spark VCores (Based on 1 CU = 2 Spark VCores) and 192 Max Burst Cores for concurrency (based on the 3X burst multiplier), they can only run 3 jobs concurrently in the current job admission policy, assuming they have the default starter pool configuration. 

Now with Optimistic Job Admission, they can run up to 24 jobs concurrently with the same configuration. This is an 8x improvement!

We hope that this feature will help you run more jobs faster and more efficiently on Fabric Spark. 

Single Node Support for Starter Pools 

Do you hate waiting for your Spark sessions to start in starter pools with single node configuration? If yes, you will love the update on single node starter pool support. This feature lets you set your starter pool to max one node and get super-fast session start times for your Spark sessions. With this new support that’s been introduced, the system allocates the driver and executor with 4 cores each and 56 GB in memory, so that they fit within a single medium node configuration for Starter Pools. This improves session start times to 5 seconds in single node starter pool configurations. 

How can you use it? 

To use this feature, follow these steps: 

• Go to your Fabric workspace and choose the Workspace settings. 
• Select the Data Engineering/Science option to expand the menu. 

• Select the StarterPool option from the Pool selection and click on Edit. 

• Set the maximum node configuration for your starter pools to 1.

• Save your changes and enjoy super-fast session start times for your Spark sessions.

Container Image for Synapse VS Code

To simplify the development process for Synapse VS Code extension, we have released a container image that contains all the necessary dependencies for the extension ( Microsoft Artifact Registry) . This image is available in Microsoft artifact repository and can be pulled with a single command. By using this image, you do not need to install Java, Miniconda, or any other tools on your local machine. You can work on your Synapse projects inside the container environment, which is isolated and consistent. 

We have also integrated the container image with VS Code dev container feature, which allows you to open a folder or a repository inside a container and use the VS Code editor and extensions as usual. To use this feature, you need to install the Remote – Containers extension and create a devcontainer.json file in your project folder. We have provided a sample devcontainer.json file that you can use as a template or customize according to your needs ( SynapseVSCode/samples/.devcontainer at main · microsoft/SynapseVSCode (github.com) ). The dev container feature will automatically pull the container image, mount your project folder, and launch the VS Code editor inside the container. You can then enjoy the full functionality of the Synapse VS Code extension without any hassle. 

Git Integration with Spark Job Definition

We are excited to announce the Git integration for Spark Job Definition artifacts. This feature allows you to check in the changes of your Spark Job Definitions into a Git repository, which will include the source code of the Spark jobs and other artifact properties. By using Git as a version control system, you can track the history of your Spark Job Definitions, collaborate with other developers, and implement CI/CD workflows for your Spark projects. 

The Git integration for Spark Job Definition artifacts is designed to enhance your development experience and enable CI/CD scenarios for your Spark projects. We hope you find this feature useful, and we welcome your feedback and suggestions. 

When a new Spark Job Definition is made with a PySpark script as the main definition file, the Git status shows that this is an unsaved change that needs to be committed.

Once the change is finalized mich

The structure of the linked git repository and the file containing the source code that was submitted.

New Revamped Object Explorer experience in the notebook  

We are excited to announce the release of a revamped object explorer experience. The new experience is designed to improve flexibility and discoverability of data sources in the explorer and improve the discoverability of Resource folders. 

Try it out and add new Data sources clicking on the +Data sources button and upload new modules or create folders by clicking on the Resources folder and let us know what you think.   

%Run your scripts in Notebook  

Now you can use %run magic command to run your Python scripts and SQL scripts in Notebook resources folder, just like Jupyter notebook %run command. By this way you can easily reuse common modules that developed from your local IDE and use them in your Fabric Notebooks conveniently. We also introduced different command parameters to make sure complex cases such as reference run and high concurrency mode can be covered without friction, stay tuned for the best practice example for the usage! 

Data Science 

Semantic link is now ga  .

Semantic links are now generally available! The package comes with our default VHD, you can now use Semantic link in Fabric right away without any pip installation. Check it out .  

We introduced a new feature in December 2023 that allows tenant admins to enable AI and Copilot in Fabric for certain security groups in addition to the entire organization. Today, we are excited to announce that you can enable AI and Copilot for a specific Capacity. You can test Copilot at a certain capacity without impacting other workloads. This allows you to adapt Copilot to meet the needs of different groups in your organization and manage your capacity more effectively. 

AI and Copilot in Fabric are powered by large language models that are only available in limited datacenters. Previously, users who were not in US and France had to turn on the cross-geo setting to use AI and Copilot. Since mid-March, we updated the cross-geographic mapping logic, EU customers can use AI and Copilot without turning on the cross-geo setting, and their AI and Copilot requests will be processed within EUDB. Check it out ! 

Real-time Analytics

New kql queryset command bar.

Finding the commands for the actions you are trying to perform just got easier with our latest update to the KQL Queryset. Now, it’s easy to distinguish between actions applicable at the Queryset level and the single query level. 

Introducing a secondary command bar within the query editor dedicated to hosting query-level actions. Enjoy smoother navigation and streamlined functionality for a more efficient querying experience. 

New Update Command Public Preview  

The new update command is now in public preview! 

This allows you to update existing records in a Kusto Table.  This can be useful to fix ad hoc data issues or be integrated into a data loading pipeline.  The command has a “what if” mode to try a command before running it on your data. 

.update table Employees on Id <| 

  MyStagingTable 

  | where true 

Introducing Pause and Resume Feature in Eventstream   

We’re excited to introduce a powerful new feature in Fabric Eventstream: The Pause and Resume Feature. This powerful capability empowers you with unprecedented control over your data streams, enabling you to pause data streaming from various sources and destinations within Eventstream. You can then resume data streaming seamlessly from the paused time or a customized time, ensuring no data loss. 

Key Features: 

• Activate/Deactivate All : You can quickly pause and resume all data traffic flowing in and out of Eventstream with the Activate All and Deactivate All options on the menu bar. 
• Toggle Switch Button : Each node has a convenient toggle switch button, allowing you to activate or deactivate any data source from streaming in or out of Eventstream with ease. 

With the Pause and Resume feature in Fabric Eventstream, you can pause traffic from specific sources and destinations whenever needed. Whether it’s for troubleshooting purposes, building proof-of-concepts with test data, or minimizing unnecessary data processing costs, this feature offers unparalleled control over your data streams and leads to more efficient resource allocation.

Fabric Real-Time Analytics Integrates with Newly Announced Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview)  

Azure SQL family users can now take advantage of an enhanced monitoring solution for their databases and leverage Microsoft Fabric integration. With the introduction of the new Database Watcher for Azure SQL (preview), users gain access to advanced monitoring capabilities. Through integration with Microsoft Fabric, they can effortlessly stream, store, and analyze monitoring data in real-time using an Eventhouse database in Fabric Real-Time Analytics. This integration enables users to stay informed about their database performance and make timely, informed decisions. 

Database watcher is a new managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family. It supports Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. 

Database watchers collect in-depth workload monitoring data to give you a detailed view of database performance, configuration, and health. Monitoring data from the databases, elastic pools, and SQL managed instances you select is collected in near real time into a central data store. To store and analyze SQL monitoring data, database watcher uses an Eventhouse database in Fabric Real-Time Analytics (as a complement option, Azure Data Explorer is also supported). 

Dashboards in Azure portal provide a single-pane-of-glass view of your Azure SQL estate and a detailed view of each database, elastic pool, and SQL managed instance. 

A conceptual diagram of a database watcher deployment, showing the flow of monitoring data from Azure SQL resources to a database watcher.  The monitoring data is stored in Fabric Real-Time Analytics .  Dashboards in the Azure portal show you a single-pane-of-glass view across your Azure SQL estate, and a detailed view of each database, elastic pool, and managed instance.    

You can query data in your Eventhouse database in Real-Time Analytics using KQL or T-SQL , analyze and model your data using Real-Time Analytics Querysets or Fabric Notebooks , build custom visualizations using KQL built-in visualizations or Power BI . 

To analyze collected monitoring data, the recommended method is to use KQL. KQL is optimal for querying telemetry, metrics, and logs. It provides extensive support for text search and parsing, time-series operators and functions, analytics and aggregation, and many other language constructs that facilitate data analysis. You can find examples of analyzing database watcher monitoring data with KQL in the documentation . 

The dashboards, complemented by KQL queries, enable you to delve deep into the performance and configuration of your databases. This means you can detect, investigate, and troubleshoot a wide variety of database performance and health issues. 

Whether you’re tackling resource bottlenecks or fine-tuning your Azure SQL resources for the best balance of cost and performance, Database Watcher equips you with the insights needed to make informed decisions. It’s your pathway to optimizing your Azure SQL setup for peak efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

Next steps  

One effective approach to grasp the potential and the power of Database Watcher is to give it a try yourself. Set up your Azure SQL resources with Database Watcher, explore the dashboards, and start running some queries with KQL.  To read more about Database Watcher, check out the documentation . 

Data Factory 

Dataflows gen2 , fast copy  .

Dataflows help with ingesting and transforming data. With the introduction of dataflow scale out with the SQL DW compute, we are able to transform your data at scale. However, to do this on a scale, your data needs to be ingested first.  

With the introduction of fast copy, you can ingest Terabytes of data with the easy experience of dataflows, but with the scalable back end of Pipeline’s Copy Activity. 

We released support for Azure Service Principals (SPN) as an authentication kind last year. Now we’ve added support for this new authentication kind for on-premises data gateways and VNET data gateways.  

Azure service principal is a security identity that is application based and can be assigned permissions to access your data sources. Service principals are used to safely connect to data, without a user identity. Learn more about service principals.  

You can learn how to leverage the service principal authentication kind from the documentation available and leverage this in multiple connectors such as Azure Data Lake Storage, Dataverse, Azure SQL database, Web connector and more. 

Certified connector updates  

We’re pleased to announce the new and updated connectors in this release: 

• [New] Topcon Aptix Insights 
• [Update] BitSight Security Ratings 
• [New] Zendesk Data 
• [Update] Planview OKR 
• [Update] BQE Core 
• [New] LinkedIn Learning 
• [New] LEAP 
• [New] Samsara 
• [Update] Celonis EMS 
• [New] Supermetrics 
• [New] Exact Online Premium 

Are you interested in creating your own connector and publishing it for your customers? Learn more about the Power Query SDK and the Connector Certification program . 

Data pipelines 

The Data pipeline homepage is now updated with an all-new look! You’ll now find new guidance cards to help you find what you’re looking for more quickly.  

Pipeline support for CI/CD in public preview

When developing workflows with Data Factory’s pipelines it is very important for developers to be able to save their work in a Git repository for versioning, source control, and CI/CD. We are happy to announce the public preview of CI/CD support for Data Factory pipelines! Now, you can connect your Azure DevOps (ADO) projects to your Fabric workspace and commit, merge, and branch your pipelines using Fabric’s Git integration. Additionally, you can now use the built-in Deployment Pipelines inside Fabric to assign workspaces to different environments (dev, test, prod) and promote your changes easily without using ADO! 

Data Factory Data Pipelines APIs 

You can now use our public APIs to create, execute, and monitor data pipelines in Fabric Data Factory. 

Increase in Pipeline activity limit 

As a cloud service for analytics workflows, the Data Factory team has had a limit of 40 activities per pipeline since the early days of Azure Data Factory. The same orchestration engine drives Fabric Data Factory data pipelines and we’ve reacted to your feedback that many times you need more than 40 activities in a pipeline to perform complex workflows that require error checks, branching, and other control flow capabilities. We’ve now updated the limits for the Data Factory pipeline service in both Fabric and Azure (Azure Data Factory & Synapse pipelines) to now allow up to 80 activities per pipeline. 

Fabric Warehouse in ADF copy activity  

We’re excited to announce that you can now connect to your Fabric Warehouse from Azure Data Factory/Synapse pipeline. You can find this new connector when creating a new source or sink destination in your copy activity.  

This connector is also supported in the Lookup activity, Stored Procedure activity, Script activity, and Get Metadata activity.  

Edit column type to destination table support added to Fabric Warehouse and other SQL data stores 

When moving data from any supported data sources into Fabric Warehouse or other SQL data stores (SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance; Azure Synapse Analytics) via data pipelines, users can now specify the data type for each column under the destination table, as well as customize the precision and scale to certain data types such as decimal, numeric, etc.  

SFTP: performance improvements when writing data to SFTP 

SFTP connector has been improved to offer better performance when writing to SFTP as destination.  

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Variety’s 2024 Entertainment Marketing Summit to Examine Industry Trends, Successful Campaigns Like ‘Oppenheimer’ 

By Karen Idelson

Karen Idelson

• Variety’s 2024 Entertainment Marketing Summit to Examine Industry Trends, Successful Campaigns Like ‘Oppenheimer’  3 days ago
• Directors for ‘Elemental,’ ‘Spider-Man’ and More Oscar Noms on Why Serious Themes Shine in Animation 2 months ago
• ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and More VES Award Nominees Boast New Tech Achievements  2 months ago

With the pandemic in media executives’ rearview mirrors, media trends are still emerging at the speed of sound, and this year’s Variety Entertainment Marketing Summit, presented by Deloitte, will spotlight the strategies of top industry marketers. The event will take place April 24 in Los Angeles.

Disney Entertainment Television marketing president Shannon Ryan will receive Variety’s inaugural Entertainment Marketing Icon Award in honor of her cutting-edge campaigns during her time at Fox and Disney. Following the award presentation, Ryan will sit down for a conversation with Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

Popular on Variety

Media analysts report that audiences still seek authentic connections with everything from films to social media, but now increasingly do so simultaneously on multiple platforms — watching a movie while texting, for example, or consuming longform storytelling in smaller bites on social platforms like TikTok.

Roxy Young, Reddit’s chief marketing and consumer experience officer, intends to speak about her platform’s ability to tackle that challenge — enhancing viewers’ connections both to specific content, and to one another — on the “Agents of Change: Innovators of Social Impact Marketing” panel.

Emily King, Fox Entertainment’s executive vice president, marketing strategy media and digital, will speak at the “Dig- ital Visionaries — All Platform Marketing” panel. She finds humor has become a successful cornerstone of many social media campaigns, and indicates that her company’s future strategies will follow this trend.

“Thanks to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and social media as a whole, we’re seeing a reemergence of comedy in the cultural zeitgeist,” says King. “It’s an important area for Fox, given the success of ‘Animal Control’ and our animated comedies. And both our live-action [{series] and campaigns will reflect that growth.”

Marian Lee, CMO of Netflix, who will speak at the “President Keynote Roundtable,” suggests that future increases in viewership will likely come from audiences seeking international content.

“A lot of what I watch on Netflix is from outside the U.S.,” says Lee. “This year so far I loved ‘The Gentleman,’ ‘One Day,’ ‘Scoop’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’ from the U.K. I think the trend will be more people discovering stories from all over the world.”

At the “Propelling Brands into the Epicenter of Culture” keynote, Bruce Gersh, 11:11 Media’s president and COO, will exam- ine the ways he established a foothold, and a unique, craveable identity, against the firehose of contemporary culture.

“When Paris [Hilton] and I decided to start the company, the goal was to build a next-generation media company at the center of culture,” says Gersh. “Over the last four years, we’ve built one of the largest female-led media companies in the world without one [outside] investor. If you’ve been following Paris and seen her growth over the last few years, you know her audience reaches over 80 million fans globally. That sets a different tone and a different strategy.”

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Entertainment | What to do around Chicago: Trace Adkins, C2E2…

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• Music and Concerts
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Things To Do

Entertainment, entertainment | what to do around chicago: trace adkins, c2e2 and a bookstore crawl.

“Midsummer Night’s Dream”: The Joffrey Ballet stages Alexander Ekman’s mind-bender, set during a modern-day Scandinavian solstice celebration.  April 25 to May 5 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive; tickets $36-$205 at joffrey.org

Mike Birbiglia: The storyteller and comedian rolls into town with ruminations on childhood and parenting in “Please Stop the Ride.” The tour follows his critically acclaimed 2022 show, “The Old Man and the Pool,” a poignant take on death and middle age. April 26-27 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; tickets $49-$69 at birbigs.com

Chicagoland Bookstore Crawl: Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day by exploring the area’s vibrant bookstore scene. From the stalwart Lake Forest Bookstore to Tinley Park’s romance-centered Love’s Sweet Arrows, 46 bookstores in Chicago and beyond are participating in this year’s crawl. Look for signed prints by Chicago poet Eve L. Ewing and artist Tony Fitzpatrick as well as discounts and other goodies. April 27 at various locations; more information at chilovebooks.com

25th Annual Poetry Fest: Chicago Public Library offers a full slate of poetry programming, featuring a keynote presentation by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón as well as a panel discussion on censorship, readings and more. Teens should consider the session hosted by avery r. young. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 27 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St.; free, more information at chipublib.bibliocommons.com

Dia del Niño: The Museum of Contemporary Art moves beyond its campus to offer art-based activities and bounce-house fun in Little Village. Make kaleidoscopes, ‘zines, flags and more. White Sox mascot Southpaw will appear, and Los Comales will serve free food. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 27 at Saucedo Scholastic Academy, 2850 W. 24th Blvd.; free, register at visit.mcachicago.org

The Trashy Earth Market 2024: No Oscar the Grouch here: Instead, find eco-conscious artisans who transform trash to treasure. Browse their wares and participate in LOOM360, an art installation that encourages people to donate and weave scraps of unwearable clothing into a communal tapestry. Reduce Waste Chicago and Cradles to Crayons will be on hand to collect items for recycling and reuse. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 27 (rain date April 28) at Gallagher Way, 3635 N. Clark St.; free, more information at www.eventbrite.com

Trace Adkins: Head to Gary for country music star Trace Adkins’s Somewhere in America tour. 7 p.m. April 27 at Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, 5400 W. 29th Ave., Gary, Indiana; tickets $69.50-$109.50 at casino.hardrock.com

The Swans of Harlem — Reclaiming the History of Black Ballet: Lydia Abarca, Sheila Rohan, Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells will talk with author Karen Valby and “Chicago Tonight” co-anchor Brandis Friedman about their groundbreaking careers as Black artists during the civil rights movement. Following the talk, Chicago-based dance company Move Me Soul will perform a dance tribute. 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. April 27 at Francis W. Parker School, 330 W. Webster Ave.; tickets $15-$25 at chicagohumanities.org

Frankie Beverly & Maze: Chaka Khan and El DeBarge will join Frankie Beverly & Maze on a farewell tour. 8 p.m. April 27 at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison; tickets $59.50-$409.50 at unitedcenter.com

C2E2:  Cosplayers, you’ve been waiting for this. Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo takes over McCormick Place this weekend . Go for the sights: Artist Alley and the homemade costumes are worth the cost of admission alone. And if celebrities and long lines are your thing, snag an autograph: Josh Brolin, Maya Hawke and Christopher Lloyd are on the roster.  April 26-28 at McCormick Place, 2301 S. Martin Luther King Drive; c2e2.com

Have something to do around Chicago?  Send events to [email protected]

More in Entertainment

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Music and Concerts | Review: Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a spirited, if uneven, collaboration with the CSO

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Secretary Mayorkas Delivers Remarks at 10th Annual African American Mayors Association Conference

Secretary Mayorkas delivered the following remarks in a keynote address at the 10 th Annual African American Mayors Association Conference in Atlanta, GA. Last March, a large and destructive tornado touched down in Rolling Fork, Mississippi – a town of just less than 2,000 people a few miles from the Louisiana border.  Seventeen people were killed, more than 150 were injured, and whole blocks of the town were simply blown away – 300 homes were destroyed, and more than 500 people were displaced.  Three days after that terrible tragedy, I traveled to Rolling Fork to meet with survivors, and to ensure Mayor Eldridge Walker had the support he needed from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA as he and his team led the town’s recovery and response work.  In the days following that trip, DHS and our Administration partners helped ensure that the cost of debris removal and overtime for local first responders were covered by the federal government.  We opened four Disaster Recovery Centers, and we deployed hundreds of Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams to cut through red tape and expeditiously got over $11 million in cash grants into the hands of survivors, helping them cover the cost of temporary housing, home repair, and the replacement of lost personal property.  In the 21 years since our Department’s founding, we have responded to hundreds of natural disasters like that tornado, in cities and towns of every size, in every corner of our country.  To do so is one of our founding charges – indeed, when President Bush first addressed the nation to propose the creation of Homeland Security, he noted that among the new Department’s most prominent duties would be to “work with state and local authorities to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies.” Countless communities, including some of yours, know first-hand the breadth of resources and support our Department can bring during a moment of great need. The same is true of our work as it relates to another of our Department’s founding charges, tasked in the aftermath of 9/11: preventing acts of terrorism and targeted violence.  Though the U.S. continues to be in a heightened threat environment, and our team remains devoted to countering the threat of foreign terrorism, today we also confront lone offenders – individuals and small groups already present in the United States and radicalized to violence based on ideologies of hate, personal grievances, anti-government sentiment, and false conspiracy theories.  We now live in a world where anyone, in any town, anywhere, can be a target.  Our support and our prevention resources, therefore, are available to, and utilized by, communities of every size, everywhere. Following the horrific, racist murder of ten Black Americans at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo two years ago, our Department worked with the State of New York to help prevent another such act of targeted violence.  We engaged with officials across the state, including some of you here today, to help individual communities access grant funding; develop and implement a Targeted Violence Prevention Strategy; and bring together intergovernmental teams of public health practitioners, social service providers, educators, and law enforcement professionals to better identify opportunities for intervention before tragedy could strike.  This collaboration has yielded real results: hundreds of referrals have been made to behavioral threat assessment and management teams in counties across the state, at least two of which led to the discovery of drafted manifestos and stockpiled weapons. I share these stories to make clear the power of, and critical need for, partnership between DHS and the nation’s cities in service of our common mission of ensuring the safety and security of our country.  The importance of such partnership will only grow in the months and years ahead.  The threats now facing our country constitute far more than just the natural disasters and targeted violence we regularly work with all of you to help mitigate.  Fentanyl and other deadly drugs, cyber threats to critical infrastructure, the increasing aggressiveness of adverse nation-states, climate change, the scourges of human trafficking and online child sexual exploitation, unprecedented global and Hemispheric migration, and much more – today, all can pose a significant challenge to any locality. We know that no government can effectively confront these diverse and evolving challenges alone. Yet we know, too, that when any of these challenges do arise, it is often the mayor who is turned to for answers, and when tragedy strikes, it is the mayor who is expected to pick up the pieces of a devastated, broken community. That is why I wanted to be here in Atlanta this afternoon: to make clear to you, and to your communities, that the Department of Homeland Security – your Department of Homeland Security – is committed to assisting you before, during, and after any modern threat to our safety and security presents itself. One need not look beyond the last few weeks to see proof of this.  When the Francis Scott Key Bridge tragically collapsed in Baltimore last month, our U.S. Coast Guard response assets, including rescue boats and helicopter crews, were on the scene within minutes of the collapse, leading search and rescue operations in those critical early hours alongside city, county, and state partners.  Our marine investigators and pollution response experts moved quickly to contain potential environmental damage and gather evidence from the accident scene in the days following the collapse.  Coast Guard crews joined the Unified Command and remain on the scene today, one month later, working closely with our administration counterparts, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore to restart the flow of commerce through the Port of Baltimore, stabilize the city’s economy, and safeguard our critical supply. As online threats grow in complexity and diversity by the day, DHS last week – just last week – launched Know2Protect, our newest public awareness and education campaign, to bring communities together to stop one of the most heinous and most urgent emerging digital dangers facing our communities: online child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 36 million cyber tips, and the volume of incoming reports has increased more than 20 percent over the past three years.  In too many places, the web is growing darker and darker, and its real-world effects can be starkly seen in numerous reports of young people who took their own lives after falling victim to sextortion attempts.  Know2Protect helps communities prevent these tragedies and safeguard against these threats by providing free resources, trainings, and tools that children, adults, schools, and community leaders can all use to learn how to recognize and report attempted exploitation and abuse, and how to get help when it is needed. Education and awareness can make a difference: This past October, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents conducted such a training at a school in Tennessee.  Following the presentation, a young girl in attendance came up to the Special Agents, accompanied by her parents, and told them that an adult male had contacted her on social media, sent her sexually explicit imagery of himself, and persuaded her to produce and send her own.  The child received victim assistance, and federal prosecution of the perpetrator is now being pursued. That is the kind of life-saving outcome that our close, continued partnership has the power to deliver for communities across our country.  It is what the American people expect and deserve from us, and it is why I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and connect with all of you today.  I use that word, connect, intentionally.  Effective partnership cannot be a one-way street.  Our collective security is far better served when you – the nation’s mayors – those who know best what challenges your community is facing, and what is needed to mitigate those challenges – share your unique insight and experiences with those of us in Washington.  Early in my tenure as Secretary, I reviewed years of research showing that FEMA had, historically, if unintentionally, rejected disaster aid applications at a higher rate for minority and poor populations, particularly in the South.  Local leaders helped us see where the disconnect lay: In communities where homes were commonly passed down from generation-to-generation, decades- or even centuries-old deeds were often misplaced, damaged, or even nonexistent, making it much more difficult for disaster survivors to produce the documentation we made necessary to qualify for FEMA home repair funds.  That local insight helped lead our Department, in 2021, to significantly expand the range of document options to prove homeownership – utility bills, or even an affidavit – an early step in our ongoing work to ensure our services, resources, and support are accessible to all, and no one is unjustly left behind. Together, we helped more homeowners get the support they were entitled to. Convenings like this, and the connections made here, are essential to building a better future.  For 10 years, under the leadership of Mayor Patterson-Howard and many others, the African American Mayors Association has been essential to facilitating the partnerships and support our nation’s leaders depend on.  Thank you very much to all of you for being here; thank you for your leadership and stewardship; and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Thank you.

• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
• Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP)