How Toshiba’s Executive Keynote Address Won Big in Las Vegas

The health of a business often boils down to how it handles high-stakes moments. A product launch, executive keynote address, rebrand, or tradeshow are all make-or-break opportunities for organizations. These pivot points allow brands to present new narratives and galvanize their purpose in the eyes of their customers, investors, competitors, and employees. When successful, brand identity, story, and values coalesce to leave a lasting impression. However, the reverse is also possible for presentations that miss the mark.

Larry White, President & CEO of Toshiba America Business Solutions, had a “go big or go home” moment when he was tasked with hosting the company’s flagship sales conference, LEAD Beyond 2023, the first of its kind after a five-year absence. In the interim, global events like COVID-19, supply chain shocks, and shifts toward more informal workplace culture revealed an entirely different landscape than the one Toshiba left behind pre-pandemic.

To complicated matters further, the brand itself was also at a crossroads.  

Known for consumer electronics, Toshiba now stood as a global leader synthesizing digital and print mediums to capture emerging markets. Simultaneously, it envisioned a future that kept pace with technological advances without losing sight of foundational company principles. Communicating all this in an engaging manner to Toshiba’s diverse workforce, global leadership, and robust client base would require a Herculean effort and the utmost grace to thread the needle. Long before the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, was selected as the venue, right away, Larry could feel the heat.  

But thankfully, he didn’t have to do it alone. 

With so much on the line, reaching out for time-tested support went a long way toward lowering the temperature. Larry and his partner in hosting the event, Kerstin Woods, Vice President of Solutions & Outbound Marketing for Toshiba America Business Solutions, had both worked with Duarte in the past, and were thrilled to take the relationship further in planning for LEAD Beyond 2023. This opened the door to a fruitful collaboration on panel discussions, video production, visual creative, speaker coaching, and of course, the keynote address.  

By working with Duarte to carefully understand the expectations and essential takeaways, Larry and Kerstin were able to meet the moment and produce an award-winning event that cemented Toshiba’s success as an industry leader.  

And they did it all with a dash of humor. 

The Five Fs: How Humor and Narrative Shaped Toshiba’s Executive Keynote Address

Before the houselights dim and the first words are spoken, telling a compelling story starts with understanding the audience: What are their hopes, fears, dreams, and aspirations, and how should they feel when they exit the venue? Answering these questions can help craft content that centers the audience’s experience by making them feel included in the action. Moreover, coupling careful analysis and consideration with flawless execution can earn and sustain audience attention, an increasingly rare commodity. 

Larry and Kerstin worked with a Duarte expert on their Audience Needs Map™ to help glean the unique goals their presentation needed to achieve for deep, lasting connection. After aligning on crucial must-haves for LEAD Beyond 2023, the team arrived at the following: 

• Communicate Toshiba’s current brand positioning via clear, inviting language to leave a memorable impression for all attendees. 

• Produce event materials that are appropriate for internal and external participants, and serve to align employees, leadership, potential customers, and current distributors.

• Generate accessible, inclusive programming for U.S. employees and international colleagues, with particular emphasis placed on cross-cultural resonance with Toshiba’s Japanese parent company. 

From here, a typical strategy involves charting the company’s progress across proven narrative techniques, like the hero’s journey or appropriate levels of rising and falling action, to guide the audience toward a shared understanding. But something in Larry nudged him toward joining the rare echelon of brave presenters who seek out comedy for inspiration. In fact, he couldn’t shake the idea that laughter was the key ingredient to making his keynote speech shine.  

Riffing off a competitor’s recent gumption to drop an “F” bomb on stage, Larry was inspired by this use of blue language but wanted to launder the thrill for a corporate setting. From here, “The Five Fs” were born. Words like “Future,” “Fiduciary,” and “Philanthropy,” a tongue-in-cheek misspelling that poked fun at Larry’s Texas accent, became the focal points of the keynote address, and helped provide a narrative throughline that strung together Toshiba’s current and future prospects.  

Larry elaborated on “The Five Fs” in succession, unpacking each component to demonstrate how it represented a core aspect of Toshiba’s brand identity, company roadmap, and customer commitment. This not only lightened the mood but also kept audience members alert as they braced themselves for Larry to slip in the big one. Rather than drag a global audience through the gutter, Larry kept his comedic tone business casual and brought the audience along for the ride.

Going for Gold: How a Humor and Narrative Helped Toshiba Take the House 

By choosing this route, the tone of the keynote reflected the change in business culture that had reverberated through the professional world as vast swaths of the workforce went remote. This cooling of stringent workplace expectations around everything from in-person attendance to dress codes signaled to Larry that his keynote address should also aim to loosen its tie. As it turned out, Larry’s instincts were correct.  

The embrace of humor nodded to contemporaneous events in Toshiba’s industry while serving to break the ice for guests. Given the remote-first trends that rippled through much of the tech and service sectors post-pandemic, this helped ease tension for attendees who were perhaps out of practice congregating in-person for professional purposes. These subtle gestures proved powerful rhetorical tools for signaling to the large, diverse audience that their needs and anxieties were being taken into consideration without compromising the tasks at hand.  

After all, who said work needed to be dull? 

But Larry didn’t just apply humor. Doubling down on the conference taking place in Las Vegas, the keynote also linked concepts such as winning, losing, betting big, and taking the pot to Toshiba’s current and ongoing brand efforts. By combining the fast-and-loose structure of a stand-up routine with the evocative cool of Ocean’s Eleven, audience members could be forgiven if they forgot they were on the clock.  

Ultimately, this approach paid off for Larry and Kerstin who not only succeeded in their goal of wowing conference attendees, but the event went on to garner industry accolades that cemented their accomplishments.

Ring-a-Ding Ding: The Reverberating Power of an Executive Keynote Address

Fast-forward to January 2025, and Toshiba is breathing a sigh of relief. Not only was the event a resounding success, but Toshiba even landed a Gold Stevie® at the 2024 American Business Awards® for Best Brand Engagement Event. The hard work and planning that went into preparing for LEAD Beyond 2023 rewarded Toshiba and its leadership with industry recognition and earned media coverage that allowed the event to live on in infamy.

While all this was set in motion by a quick call to a Duarte concierge, Larry’s and Kerstin’s attendee knowledge and risk appetite for light-hearted, direct content helped ensure the team’s combined efforts were a winning ticket. 

But it wasn’t just Larry and Kerstin who walked away with feelings of elation.  

Conference attendees from around the globe who arrived with one image of Toshiba in their minds left with a whole new impression of the company. While brands can hold a variety of meanings, presenting a fully realized vision during high stakes events can help ensure the deck is stacked to yield consistent outcomes for all participants.  

In this case, Larry and Kerstin made everyone feel like they were dealt a winning hand regardless of their role in or relationship to the company. This consensus was echoed throughout the conference showroom and event materials, allowing the brand to reassert itself proudly on the world stage. Where feelings are fickle and ephemeral, a fine-tuned executive keynote address can preserve them in amber, just as a Gold Stevie® can ensconce their success. 

Here’s Larry reflecting in his own words how the keynote played a significant role in the event’s reception: 

“You talk about messaging to your customers, but you’re also messaging to the analyst out there who is going to write about your event. And some of the feedback that we received and that they wrote about it wasn’t just that it was one of the best events they’d ever been to. It was the best event they’d ever been to. You cannot buy that type of affirmation from an individual who is unbiased or a group of people that are unbiased.”

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This experience helped demonstrate why it’s important to have a trusted partner when the chips are down. Knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em isn’t a skill we all possess, but it makes all the difference when it comes time to take the house. And more often than not, having a crew with complementary skills is essential to pulling off the perfect job.  

Just ask Danny Ocean.  

While this meant getting production assistance, speaker coaching, and keynote wordsmithing from Duarte experts, Larry and Kerstin’s courage and collaboration were also mission critical. Because at the end of the day, a good partner is there to help you shine, and whenever possible, steal the show. 

If you would like more insight into how Duarte helped Toshiba rise to the challenge of hosting LEAD Beyond 2023, dive into our recent webinar with Larry and Kerstin. Or if you’re looking for expert guidance on how to make the most of your next executive keynote address, drop us a line. 

We always play to win.