Mark G Murray
Executive Speechwriter + Creative Director
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markgmurray@mac.com
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Professional Statement, Experience, Education, References, More
Outcomes + Results, Publications + Media, In Their Own Words
Portfolio, Entry I
Intel + McAfee
FOCUS15
‘New. Next. Now.’
Guest presenters include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Author Malcolm Gladwell.
“This theme…New, Next, Now…is exactly the right conversation for any company today if it wants to remain relevant in the future.”
Malcolm Gladwell
FOCUS16
‘The Second Economy.’
Seven minutes into his Day One keynote, the CEO announces the spin out and standup of a new company. In that moment the entire conference changes livery from Intel blue to McAfee red.
Intel Blue
The CEO’s pocket square switcheroo wins the social media day.
McAfee Red
Guest presenters include VC Investor Ashton Kutcher, and Journalist and Author Ted Koppel.
MPOWER17
‘Together Is Power.’
Multiple innovations set this event apart. First, a zig-zag stage in the center of a sprawling ballroom with two overhead and mirrored widescreen displays, each one facing one half of the audience.
Second, we prepare and rehearse two keynotes for each C-suite, SVP, and VP presenting across two days, so the audiences choose, in live time (see above), which topic are brought to stage. With polling complete, corresponding graphics and downstage notes files are pushed to screens.
Finally, unique here is the CEO’s handwriting, digitized, to show how his thoughts evolve from a ‘back of the napkin’ idea, to a richer ‘whiteboard’ view, and eventually to an integrated ‘company strategy’ depicted in classic technology architecture (not shown). This roadmap is the unifying force of the conference, from workshops and training, to technology demos, product user certifications, and analyst interviews.
The program also includes Cybersecurity Journalist Brian Krebs and VC Investor Kyle York.
MPOWER 20°1’8″
‘Make Your Mark.’
(Secondary themes include ‘Chart Your Course’
and ‘Map Your Future’.)
A cartography-themed event has the CEO migrate across a stage inspired by ‘shards’ from the McAfee brandmark. Numerous parallelograms combine to create a logo-inspired ‘mainland’, a jutting ‘peninsula’, and an ‘island’ amidst the audience (where speakers advance both graphics and downstage notes using an iPad, shown above) before returning ‘home’ to the mainland for a powerful close.
Guest presenters include Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web (also shown above); Author Walter Isaacson; and WSJ Reporter Rob Sloan.
MPOWER 20°1’8″ BY THE NUMBERS
4 Cities (Las Vegas, Sydney, Tokyo, Rome)
6,500 Customer and Partner Attendees
7,000 Employee Streaming Views
4 C-Suite Keynotes
1,200 Full-Screen Graphics
24 Title Animations
12 Shock and Awe Animations
18 Brand Animations
12 Primary Themes
4 Walk-In Loops
15 Interstitial Videos
MPOWER 20°1’8″ INTERSTITIAL VIDEOS
‘Built On Sand‘ (1:29)
‘Deluge‘ (1:43)
‘Hometown‘ (1:26)
‘Indelible Record‘ (1:40)
‘Shock and Awe‘ (00:25)
‘Vague…But Exciting‘ (1:27)
Mobile World Congress18 (MWC18)
‘Aftermarket Afterthought?’
The keynote in Barcelona begins in darkness with one sentence, “Alexa, launch McAfee.” A familiar blue ring onstage flickers to life and software launches to find a connected lightbulb at risk of being hacked. Using the concept of ‘kaizen’ made popular by car manufacturer Toyota, the keynote applies the same idea of quality management to cybersecurity. The CEO appearance is one component of the company being awarded the top prize for innovation at the global conference with 108,000 attendees.
RSAConference 2019
‘Lightning in a Bottle, or Burning Down the House?’
A highly technical keynote which includes deep fake video, custom code presented in live time to thwart an attack, and a tag-team approach between a CTO and an award-winning data scientist. Rehearsals (shown) include a third presenter on standby, given major health concerns of one of our presenters. The day goes off without a hitch, and they are back in full health today.
CyberWeek 2019
‘Balancing the Equation’
The keynote draws parallels to technology protecting Venice, Italy from rising tides, even as the cyber landscape is inundated with evermore imperiling threats. In 2018, the same stage sees the CEO present on Israeli aquaculture with comparisons made for the need to share cyber threat intelligence on a global scale. In both years the keynotes follow opening remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
MPOWER 20:19:00
‘It’s about time.’
Given the outsize role of ‘time’ in cybersecurity, main stage keynotes feature clock and watch face-shaped stages, images of temporal phenomena in the natural world, and a winding chyron ribbon above the proscenium with 24 timers scrolling two dozen aspects of the digital world. Activated by the CEO on Day One, the numbers track the story of the growing attack surface across the week-long event.
Guest presenters include former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, VC guru and author Roger McNamee, and appearances by leaders from Amazon Web Services, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Microsoft.
In due course the event theme becomes the brand promise of the company.
MPOWER 20:19:00 INTERSTITIAL VIDEOS
‘Out of the Shadows‘ (2:32)
‘Spiked‘ (2:34)
‘Swoosh‘ (2:05)
‘The Last Word‘ (2:47)
Cybersecurity Threatscape
Six views of a dynamic, animated illustration of more than 1,200 cyberattacks organized by category and presented across three decades.
Presenters have the ability to zoom in by type, severity, and frequency. Updated monthly, data behind the image powers a signature set piece in CEO keynotes across several years. The graphic also features in large-scale architectural installations in company and partners offices around the world.
CASE STUDY
MPOWER20 (Virtual Conference)
C-Suite Keynotes (Studio Taping)
A green screen production crew visits two cities to tape three executives in a sterile and socially-distanced studio environment.
Footage is later enhanced using augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (ER) technologies. Dramatic widescreen animations, interactive graphics, and ‘on-stage’ elements (e.g., reflective surfaces and an LED screen rising out of the ‘floor’ with picture-in-picture video) maximize use of the AR and ER toolkits.
C-Suite Keynotes (Remote Taping)
For executives sheltering in their homes during the pandemic, or ‘stranded abroad’ during border closures, hygienic ‘out of the box’ production kits are shipped globally for remote taping.
Technical teams assist with executive set up of light kits, cameras, and external hard drives. Return labels for nearly 70 kits ensure all components arrive at various global destinations for a period of intensive post-production work.
Technical Leadership Keynotes (Studio Taping)
An additional ten executives are taped on green screen and placed in post-production into a smaller, more intimate stage setting using AR software.
ER effects include picture-in-picture graphics, full-length embedded demos, and co-presenter inserts.
MPOWER20 BY THE NUMBERS
60 Hours of Pre-Recorded Content from 69 Company Presenters and 10 Customers, Including Executive Reveal of New Products, New Capabilities, and Industry Awards, in Addition to Showcase of Positive Analyst Ratings
45 Hours of Additional Content, Including 16 Technical Demos, 28 Spotlight Sessions, Live Fireside Chats, Training, and Targeted Group Meetings
1,200 Graphics Across 100 Video Assets
Programmatic Assets Dropped in 3 Waves Across October and November
12,000 Attendee Registrations (3X Typical ‘Live’ Audience)
– 7,000 Customers
– 3,100 Partners
– 1,800 Employees
– 100 Press and Analysts
8,000 Keynote Views and 3,000 Breakout Views in the First 24 Hours
67 Sterile 4K Camera, Light, and Laptop Kits for Remote HD Taping Shipped Globally
$$$ Despite Many Unknowns, Complex Technical Demands, and Pandemic Obstacles, the Event Comes In Under Budget
THE ‘SYSTEM’
Example of CEO Mainstage Graphics + Downstage Monitor Speaker Notes (Shown Here, One Atop the Other)
High-impact graphics designed for clarity and understanding with core messages streamed downstage for presenter reference. With advance preparation, the notes slides are used only as the barest of prompts.
Here, part two of a two-day keynote totaling 90:00. Day One ends with a ‘cliffhanger’ that the audiences finds both unexpected and exciting. Everyone returns on Day Two to learn how the story ends. (NOTE – The CEO good-naturedly accepts the challenge presented by his head of sales in the invitation to speak for 1.5 hours across two days.)
Photos are from the real world, metaphors are relevant, and the topic is personal to the presenters – a sports fan, and strategic thinker. Business content is presented in a straight-forward format with no distracting visuals. The ending is both universally inspiring, and personally meaningful. With the CEO’s Twitter handle visible on each slide, social engagement and resopnses remain active throughout the presentation(s).
Numerous executives today continue to use this system to present executive content in their subsequent positions at various companies.
LINKS (Public Content)
CEO Keynote – CyberWeek 2018 The Blue Economy
CEO Keynote – CyberWeek 2019 Balancing the Equation
CEO Keynote – RSA 2016 Louder Than Words
ABSTRACT
Our challenges are considerable—billions of smart devices lack baseline protection; intensive customization limits the effectiveness of our threat defense; the talent shortage we face is real…and growing. How does the industry move forward? Do we invest in threat intelligence sharing across sectors? And what is the government’s role vs. the private sector’s? Chris Young maps out a new model for cybersecurity, and shares what’s already underway.
CEO Keynote – RSA 2017 Sweating the Small Stuff On a Global Scale
ABSTRACT
Our history turns on the smallest of details, yet it’s a macro view of the world that consumes our time and treasure. The results? Misplaced decimals cost businesses millions, miscommunicated units of measurement thwart our exploration of space, and baby monitors are deployed as drones in a sophisticated bot army to disrupt digital commerce. Chris Young makes the case for how to balance the macro view with attention to the micro details in our cybersecurity future state. It’s never been more important to sweat the small stuff for big impacts in our world.
CEO Keynote – RSA 2018 OPERATION: Dateline
ABSTRACT
The literal hijacking of air travel changed the ways in which the world connects. What can we learn from the Underwear Bomber and the rule of 3-1-1? Cybersecurity’s equivalent of the federal air marshal is the CISO and SecOps manager, but cybercriminals increasingly corrupt or control our flight manifest. It’s time to we learn from the past in order to go farther, faster in protecting the digital world. It’s an idea whose time has come, because what matters now, is that now matters more than ever.
CTO Keynote – RSA 2019 Lightning In a Bottle, Or Burning Down the House?
ABSTRACT
Fire. In the wild, it’s a force for destruction. Controlled, it powers civilization’s forward evolution. But containing phenomena—natural or manmade—is a devilish challenge. Innovations that strengthen our defenses can also fuel targeted attacks, so the weaponization of AI to amplify the impact of cyberattacks is enough to give anyone pause. Discussion of its delegation at scale across our organizations is a worthy conversation. What is the path forward to advance and protect human progress? How do we nurture sparks of innovation without burning bridges to the future?
CTO Keynote – RSA 2020 Time to Tell
ABSTRACT
The sun rises and sets like clockwork, and yesterday’s innovations are gone tomorrow. Except, it appears, in cybersecurity. Cyber-defenses from a generation ago linger front and center, even as the coming wave of quantum computing is poised to reshape the digital world. Steve Grobman, CTO for McAfee, will make the case that our current defenses share far too many traits with legacy immunology practices. It’s time to get smart. To move beyond intelligence, because the way it’s always been shouldn’t always last. It’s time to ask, can we act in time to change the future?
CEO OpEd – Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2017 How to Build Public Trust in Our Data Powered Universe
CEO OpEd – Silicon Valley Business Journal, June 4, 2020 Just a Start to Real Change
Portfolio, Entry II
Novavax
First-Ever Intranet Design + Content
The left three columns, or 75% of the novanet homepage, features ‘things to know’. On the right, in the fourth column, ‘things to do’.
Global pages for core information join 42 additional pages for functional areas. Real-world photos from Novavax labs, scientifically accurate illustrations, and ad hoc graphics are color timed to align with the brand look and feel.
Rollout includes a library of more than 2,000 image files + a style guide with technical specifications.
Standardized Templates
The company brand system is broadened to include a global stable of .ppt and .key presentation templates, plus design assets for print media, webcasts and lower thirds, social media, analyst call materials, BOD decks, and produced content across other channels (e.g., recruitment campaigns, swag, event and hospitality merch, ad hoc signage, and wayfinding). The portfolio extends across a global integrated Content Management System (CMS) using centralized push technology to feed an array of screens according to type and use. Dashboards, training materials, video stingers, business cards, and letterhead also follow relevant standards regarding font, color, and layout.
Brand Expression
A Multi-Sensory Expression of the Novavax Brand on Corporate Campuses Elevates the Onsite Experience of All Employees and Visitors by Following Core Tenets From a Global Playbook.
Form + Color + Light + Dimension
Curated components integrate to create an instantly recognizable environment, anywhere.
Warm wood, cool blues, bright light, soft neutrals, and consistent finishes, fabrics, and familiar atmospherics express the Novavax brand everywhere the company flag flies.
First-Ever Mission Statement + Values
MISSION STATEMENT
We never rest in our quest to protect the health of people everywhere. Novavax is here to make a difference. We’re focused on developing vaccines to fight infectious diseases – and we’re determined to have a transformative impact on the world. Solid science advance by decades of research sets us apart. Proven technology makes our products safe and highly effective. And global partnerships help our vaccines reach everyone who needs them.
The Mission and Values are founded
on discovery during more than fifty 1:1 interviews with employees, leaders,
BOD members, and global partners.
VALUES
A ‘Values Walk’ anchors the HQ experience (each value treatment matches the color palette of the neighborhood it is adjacent to). Other options include interactive light installations and vinyl or painted, but still high-impact designs. Values videos, featuring employees and partners, stream via a global Content Management System (CMS).
Dynamic Installation
Novalution Map
A dynamic LED light sculpture maps stories and presence with interactive micro-sites accessible via mobile devices. The wall is programmable to sync with company milestones and novanet news.
Wayfinding
Custom wallpaper features shapes unique to the company’s vaccine nanoparticle technology. An embedded ‘legend’ at ‘neighborhood intersections’ (shown below) defines the meaning behind each shape, from nanoparticle and T-Cell Receptors, to a proprietary Matrix-M Adjuvant, more.
Bespoke icons and color prominence + a set of custom signage icons make navigation between work neighborhoods intuitive.
Portfolio, Entry III
Oracle
CloudWorld 2022
Multi-media opening experience with both a live performer + animated data textures choreographed to a specially-composed soundtrack capturing the vitality and challenge of today’s cloud technologies.
CREATIVE BRIEF
ANIMATIONS + ATMOSPHERICS
Oracle’s DNA – its technology – is on full display from the starting line in our opening moment. Animations comprised of 100s of millions of pixels glow and recombine in an endless cavalcade of light and shadow. The gesture, the cloud, the faces and motions of real people…all are brought to vivid, undeniable life through the wizardry of the industry’s keenest animators and digital artists. What’s more, our performer – a proxy for the 10s of 1000s of Oracle practitioners at CloudWorld – is both seemingly immersed by the screenscape surrounding them, but also responds to and directly affects onscreen movements through interactions that are both concrete and lyrical. More than 700′ of linear screen surface are enlivened by our central canvas which is the primary focus, but as with any immersive experience, the animations and subtle movements that surround our audience on the periphery exponentially build on the impact of our mainstage performance.
THE GESTURE
Oracle’s elegant brandmark is a perfectly symmetrical, expansive ‘O’ symboling the epic breadth and reach of Oracle’s technology portfolio, and its all-encompassing vision for a better world through meaningful connections, not to mention a space for collaboration to deliver an elevated human experience for all who are touched by their technology. Oracle’s global community improves the lives of those they serve across every sector the world’s economy. While Oracle is a business, it is first a company for whom people are the central raison d’être. Collaboration and commitment to a better tomorrow for all of humankind is a guiding force for everything they do today. These are the reasons why the Oracle ‘gesture’ is central to our opening moment, shimmering and rising, pulsing and growing, enveloping and framing the very faces and lives of real Oracle customers, the practitioners of technology that underpin the very reason for Oracle CloudWorld to launch in our opening moment.
SOUNDSCAPE
The excitement of walk-in is heightened by a curated track of music that grows in volume until its obvious the moment has arrived. Smoke and fanning arcs of light from rigging overhead match the sense of an anticipation. Finally, the music cuts, the lights settle and didm, and the opening bars of our composition fill the air. In darkness, our ‘THX-inspired’, technology-centric sound signature grows in volume until it reaches at the peak of the crescendo our performer is revealed in a hot downspout. In that moment of suspense their movement begins even as our track shifts to its main theme of rhythmic, pulsing drumming and chords following a steady beat. Familiar instrumentation gives our performer a human canvas against which to move and interact with our screens, both informed by its animations, but also inspired to affect those same patters of light to follow the lead of our soundtrack and its deep intent.
MOVEMENT and INTENTION
Our performer is both narrator and translator. Using their body they defy the bounds of gravity to help our inky blue sky transform to pre-dawn shades of azure. Motions seem to pull the screen’s surface from a deep pool until it hovers, enrobing them. Then, with uplifted arms while spinning, swirling and twisting, they bring the Oracle gesture to life. With energy and rhythmic intent they replicate our gesture until its multiples fill the sky. Hero gestures frame slo-motion footage of those who are touched by Oracle in the wider world, both practitioner and everyone they serve. our performer’s own gestures and movements are digitally extended by ripples and fractals onscreen to emphasize the energy and life that Oracle technology empowers. The flowing performance culminates with an onscreen stillness even as the brilliant white gesture flares a final time. Our performer exits stage left in a beat of silence before the opening video unspools.
CloudWorld 2023
Screen array options, including 400′ main screen canvas with vanish screens rising and arching over the front quarter of the audience.
Client opts for 15-screen array totaling more than 500′ wide.
Below, two of 12 script options drafted for the opening video of Oracle CloudWorld 2023 Partner Success Summit.
SCRIPT ONE
<BEGIN>
1 + 1 = More
1 + 1 = (in sequence) More Solutions Innovation/More Business Impact/More Customer Success
No fancy algorithms.
Just one simple equation for a complex world.
Where too many overthink too much.
And when too little gets done too often.
The customers we serve together deserve more.
And more is what they get.
More investment in technology that matters.
More collaboration to make every heavy lift a lot lighter.
More innovation.
More impact.
More success.
It’s Oracle raised to the power of you.
And it’s one more way the story is in the numbers.
1 Oracle
+
1 Partner Success Summit
=
Unlimited Opportunity
You can count on it.
<END>
SCRIPT TWO
<BEGIN>
It’s funny how opportunity shows up disguised as hard work.
That’s why most of the world just walks on by.
But not you.
Like Oracle, you know the hard thing…
…is the only thing worth doing.
Because when you solve the world’s hardest problems…
…you leave the world a better place.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy…
…because the world is complex, confounding, confusing.
Yet, with the right technology on your side, anything is possible.
And that makes the customer stories we share even more meaningful.
Because the customers we serve show…
…that we accomplish more together, than apart.
…that solution innovations mean we deliver more, faster.
…and that when we do more…
…we make a profound impact across every dimension of global business.
It’s called customer success.
And it all starts with doing the hardest thing of all…
…unlocking the boundless potential of customers who look to us.
To Oracle, and to you.
So let the rest of the world walk on by…
…and thank you for choosing to do the hard work that moves this world forward, one crazy day at a time.
We’re proud to stand with the Oracle Partner Network and to you welcome you to this year’s Partner Success Summit!
<END>
Portfolio, Entry VI
Other Projects
EXTERNAL
Armed Forces Communications & Electronics Association (AFCEA), San Antonio – 2018-2019
Collision Conference, Toronto – 2019
Google Cloud Security Forum, Seattle – 2019
Huffpost – 2017
Intel Developer Forum, San Francisco – 2016
International Consortium of Minority Cybersecurity Professionals, Dallas – 2019
Security Through Innovation Summit, D.C. – 2016-2019
The Next Web (TNW), New York – 2017
INTERNAL
Keynotes, Webcasts, Videos, Blogs, Recognition, Special Projects (IPOs, Acquisitions, Re-Brand, Culture, DEO)
C-Suite Communications + Events – CTO, CMO, CFO, CRO
Executive Leadership Communications – EVP, SVP, VP
Human Trafficking Initiative
Office of the CEO Communications + Events
Sales Kick-Off and Club – 2015-2020
MEDIA PREP KIT
Bloomberg Radio
Forbes
Harvard Business School
Mad Money on CNBC
Wall Street Journal
Yahoo Finance
Mark G Murray 