Introducing John Donahoe
Last week, I introduced John Donahoe, the President of Ebay at the Shop.org Annual Summit. Several interesting items:
It was the largest crowd I've ever spoken in front of (1,500+). It didn't feel all that different from speaking to 100 - the lights were bright enough you couldn't see clearly out beyond a few tables. It looked like a special effect where the back rows had been cloned many, many times :)
He was very relaxed backstage - he's been a CEO for a long time, and was clearly comfortable in this format (speech/interview). He was looking for information on the mood/flavor of the conference that would allow him to connect from stage.
He was very relaxed onstage for that matter, pulling out a Flip phone to record a video blog for Ebay employees.
He also didn't have an issue making statements that were going to pull press attention "auctions are not a religion", "we're doing $380MM in mobile sales" and some commentary about Amazon and Wal-Mart.
He was very focused on "servant based leadership" and I heard "blessed" used to describe Ebay several times.
Ebayink has a good writeup - as does Scot from Chanel Advisor - who got reimbursed $10 for breakfast.
Labels: ebay, john donahoe, Shop.org, Shop.org summit
