On the evening of March 24th, Nick and his executive team caught a low-key flight to New York City. In fact, many employees from the company had already been on the ground for days handling setups, and his group was the last batch to arrive.
There was a full dress rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow morning before the actual keynote, which would officially kick off at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. The reason for choosing this prime-time slot was mainly to accommodate the time zones of several other international satellite venues, including London and Paris.
Before Nick had even touched down, Tyler had already returned from his cross-continental trip. After a brief rest, the two of them immediately threw themselves into the intense logistical preparations.
Besides Nick and his internal team, there were also several major tech enterprises and specially invited corporate partners attending this next-generation product launch. For example, Google, as a deeply integrated content and search partner for this new ecosystem, was naturally invited to the conference and had even been allotted a dedicated segment to speak on stage. In addition, there were senior executives representing various premium brands in fields such as smartphones, smart home appliances, and connected automotive platforms that had signed integration partnerships with them.
Of course, more than a hundred media outlets were credentialed for this conference, along with some of the most influential tech YouTubers, independent journalists, and digital media personalities. Finally, as mentioned before, they had opened a total of two hundred seats directly to their core user base and loyal fans. One hundred and fifty of these tickets were drawn through digital registrations in the smart voice assistant's official app portal.
Once an invitation was secured, it was hard-coded to the user's profile and remained strictly non-transferable. If a winner failed to confirm their attendance before the final corporate deadline, the ticket would automatically be passed on to the next user in the digital queue.
As for the remaining fifty slots, thirty were allocated directly to VIP guests and early testers who had supported their development in the past, leaving only twenty tickets to be distributed through a high-profile viral giveaway on social media.
Consequently, the digital competition for these twenty slots was exceptionally fierce. From the moment the giveaway went live until the submission window closed, the total number of entries and shares exceeded five million. It could easily be categorized as the most shared social media post of the new year.
However, what left Nick and his marketing team somewhat speechless was that by the time the twenty slots were vetted, only two belonged to genuine everyday tech fans; the remaining eighteen had been secured by professional lifestyle bloggers and internet celebrities. Of course, it wasn't that the digital lottery algorithm was rigged, but rather that there were too many opportunities for financial manipulation between the conclusion of the automated draw and the final identity verification.
Rumor had it on tech forums that the most expensive invitation ticket had been illegally resold on the secondary market for up to seven thousand dollars, allowing the lucky netizen who originally won it to pocket a massive profit. From this alone, one could easily infer the situation of the other seventeen winning accounts.
Although the executive team was frustrated and even slightly angry about the scalping, there was very little they could do, given how strictly they had limited the capacity of the venue this time. The exact reason they had tightened the number of public invites was because they wanted to prevent messy clickbait marketing accounts and superficial influencers from crowding the room. To ride the wave of a viral tech launch, these creators would do almost anything, even resorting to blatant rumors and sensationalized tech slander just for metrics.
Yet, despite the high barriers, they still hadn't expected them to buy their way into the crowd; these people were truly willing to drop serious cash for proximity to the brand. Of course, for Nick and his team, the company didn't actually lose anything. Utilizing just twenty public invitations to stir up the entire internet and generate millions of dollars in earned media coverage was an incredibly high-return investment.
On the morning of the 25th, a light drizzle began to fall over Manhattan. Nick woke up early. After grabbing a quick breakfast with Tyler to review the day's itinerary, the two executives immediately split up to tackle their respective schedules.
Nick had to run through the full stage rehearsal for the keynote in the morning. Although he was highly capable of improvising when the teleprompter went live, the overall narrative arc and the product demonstration sequence had to remain perfectly synchronized, meaning he still needed to walk the stage at least once to ensure absolute precision.
Although there would be high-visibility confidence monitors running at the foot of the stage, the script for the launch still required some real-time adjustments and modifications to better fit his natural speaking cadence. Some segments needed to feel intensely professional, while others required a more casual, conversational delivery, and specific transitions needed to actively build anticipation and stir up the energy of the live audience.
A genuinely successful tech keynote isn't something achieved simply by walking out on stage and reading a deck; it inevitably requires an immense amount of synchronized backend preparation. For instance, the automated arena lighting, the exact stage positioning markers, the audio cues, the high-resolution background presentation slides, and the cinematic video rollouts—every single detail demanded flawless execution.
Despite having managed last year's introductory launch and several major trade show presentations, facing a high-stakes global keynote of this scale still made Nick feel a bit nervous.
Ever since the industry trend of corporate founders and tech executives personally taking the stage to anchor product rollouts became standard, virtually every hardware launch featured a rotating door of CEOs, presidents, and chairmen. In the past couple of years, even product managers and technical division heads had been taking the stage to pitch their engineering philosophies, throwing out trendy corporate buzzwords and obscure data architecture concepts.
The average consumer in the audience might not understand a single piece of the underlying code, but the jargon and the complex charts make the hardware feel incredibly high-end and premium. What practical use did half of those specs actually have for the daily user? Nobody knew. You just needed to leave the venue believing the device was "revolutionary."
Because of this, tech journalists often mocked these modern launch events as arriving in a daze, listening to a daze of buzzwords, and leaving the venue in a complete daze.
Although Nick deeply disliked that superficial approach and was trying his absolute best to break away from standard corporate theater, within the current tech climate, he still had to respect the format. If you tried to deliver something completely radical, critics would simply label the presentation as amateur or strange.
Of course, Nick still implemented several changes he deemed necessary, focusing on clear language that everyday consumers could understand to demonstrate their software ecosystem, rather than relying on empty hype and leading the audience to repeat corporate slogans.
Although it was merely a walkthrough to familiarize himself with the camera angles and the stage blocking, the entire rehearsal still took three to four grueling hours, finally wrapping up close to one o'clock in the afternoon. Nick hurried back to his hotel suite, caught a quick bite to eat in the executive lounge, and then forced himself to rest for a short while, knowing that a massive corporate battle was waiting for him under the lights tonight.
At 3:00 PM, after he took a quick shower, a professional styling team arrived at his suite to handle his wardrobe and grooming. Although he genuinely disliked the fuss, for a globally broadcasted live stream, there were strict baseline requirements for the presenter's onscreen image. After all, the executive's presentation subtly mirrors the maturity of the corporation and the premium nature of the hardware, making it a critical asset.
Nick hated having styling products on his face, but for the sake of a flawless keynote, he could only endure the process for the afternoon.
Surprisingly, after being styled by the professional team, and combined with his naturally sharp features and a tailored, custom-fit suit, Nick did look every bit the part of a formidable, modern tech executive.
"Not bad, right?" Nick snapped a quick mirror selfie and sent it to Vivian, bragging just a little. But after waiting for five or six minutes, Vivian only replied with a string of ellipses, clearly signaling her classic amusement at his sudden vanity.
Just as Nick was starting to feel a bit defensive, Vivian followed up with a laughing emoji and typed: "You actually look incredibly sharp; I'll give you that. Good luck tonight! My parents and I are literally sitting in front of the TV waiting for the live stream to start."
Nick stared at the screen. Was that supposed to be casual encouragement, or just an extra layer of performance pressure?
"Mr. Nicholas, the production team is ready for you," a floor manager said, knocking gently as he stepped into the room.
Nick gave a firm nod, stood up to straighten the cuffs of his suit jacket, and surrounded by his security detail and executive staff, walked confidently toward the main hall of the convention center.