"Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely."--Edward Tufte

I then went into some of the breakout sessions in my quest for quotes and came up dry. Picture if you will a speaker at a podium staring into a laptop computer with PowerPoint slides on a screen. At the adjoining table are three or four panelists, each with a laptop and surrounded by seemingly more wires than McDonald's has Freedom Fries. Each time a new panelist is introduced, a weird seated dance occurred. The laptop at the podium is clumsily passed left and the new speaker's laptop passed right with eight desperate hands trying to deal with the hopelessly tangled skein of wires. Finally, when the new speaker and laptop get to the podium, a long pause occurs as the screen goes blank, then to a test pattern, then to the boot-up pattern of the new speaker's computer. After fussing around with the cursor, the new speaker clicks on an icon and on screen appears a series of unreadable mousetype bulleted points that the speaker starts reading to the audience. For the most part, the speeches were poorly rehearsed and haltingly delivered, with zero eye contact, not one scintilla of enthusiasm or excitement and punctuated with occasional pathetic little attempts at humor.

Enter Harvey "Mr. Make Things Happen" Mackay!

Harvey Mackay is founder of the $100 million Mackay Envelope Company, a syndicated columnist, inspirational speaker and author of four New York Times bestsellers that have sold millions of copies, been translated into 35 languages and distributed in 80 countries. His titles include "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive," "Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt," and "Sharkproof: Get the Job You Want, Keep the Job You Love."

The 72-year-old Mackay, who was a keynote speaker at DM Days New York, marched to the podium, shook hands with his introducer and promptly strode past the podium to the front of the stage and flashed a dazzling smile. Dressed in an elegantly tailored blue suit that was accented by a bright red tie and matching red pocket square, Mackay has a square jaw and a rugged, tan face beneath a full head of beautifully trimmed white hair.