She started her keynote by giving a eulogy

In 2025, Amy Webb opened her annual Trend Report keynote at SXSW by telling everybody to place a little wooden block under their butts.

The year before, she started the Trend Report with a photo of an exposed woman's thong from the year 2000: "The year we wore our underpants on the outside."

This year, dressed in a long black veil, she gave a surprise eulogy for her annual Trend Report keynote -- the reason why 1,500 audience members showed up! -- because "sometimes you get to burn down what you built and make way for what the future demands."

When you create a lengthy keynote, or even 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦-𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, you have a choice: 

Do I start it cut and dry like everybody else?

Or do I do something different while still making my point?

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘁, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗹𝘆, 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗼.

Give it to them.