Tech Stack: These Tools Elevate the OMR Keynote "State of the German Internet" to a New Level

1. How does "State of the German Internet" happen? - Our approach and tools used
2. As soon as the rough topics from the OMR editorial team are set, we as a creative agency are involved to start the first elaborations. At the time of the Keynote "State of the German Internet", the content frame is not yet finalized.
3. At first, we create in
4. As soon as the visual basic concept of the chapter is in place, we proceed to
5. We know: Keeping the
6. In this project phase, there are only a few days left until the keynote on the Conference Stage of the OMR Festival, the big stage of "State of the German Internet". The individual keynotes are now combined into one file.
7. 
After the keynote is before the keynote: When Philipp is on stage presenting the final "State of the German Internet", our work is not over. Because here we gather important insights for next year's keynote. In an internal

This question is constantly being asked after the OMR Festival 2023: "What tool did you use to create the presentation for Philipp Westermeyer?"


Referred to is the Keynote "State of the German Internet", where OMR's Philipp Westermeyer presents each year's digital industry trends, marketing challenges, and pioneering case studies - always accompanied by powerful, impressively animated slides.


Admittedly, even after six years, we as a digital agency No Agency get nervous every time Philipp Westermeyer steps on the OMR Festival stage to present the marketing world trends in "State of the German Internet".
What many do not know: behind this approx.50-minute presentation there's months of work, numerous brainstorming sessions, tricky iterative loops, and discussion-filled meetings with a team of around 20 editors from OMR, designers from No agency, a presentation coach, and a project manager.

The tools we couldn't do without in our creative team and how they contribute to the complex creation process of the final presentation result can be found in this article.

Full house: Philipp Westermeyer's presentation of the "State of the German Internet" (Photo: No agency)

How does "State of the German Internet" happen? - Our approach and tools used

With every new presentation, our joint ambition grows to improve the result both in content and visually compared to last year's keynote.

Our challenge as designers remains the same: it's about presenting complex content clearly, entertainingly, and appealingly.

When implementing the keynote of "State of the German Internet" we use a variety of tools. Keynote from Apple proves to be our most essential tool. The software is free for Apple users, but its value is not to be underestimated. Over the years, we have learned numerous tricks and tricks that allow us to fully exploit the visual potential of the tool. Of course we also react to current trends and media usage preferences. In the last three years, for example, we have increasingly focused on

motion design and animation used less text, and worked with striking visualizations. This year we also incorporated AI tools like ChatGPT more into our workflow.1. Coordination with the OMR editorial team

As soon as the rough topics from the OMR editorial team are set, we as a creative agency are involved to start the first elaborations. At the time of the Keynote "State of the German Internet", the content frame is not yet finalized.

Editorial, storytelling and graphics are developing in parallel. In a fast-paced world, it may happen that a case study is already outdated after a short time. Therefore, the implementation must be flexible and agile.The briefing usually takes place via a shared

Google Presentation.

The topic incl. the derivation, the cases, tables, infographics, pictures, and sources are collected here by the editorial team.The collaboration between the editorial team from OMR and us as digital agency No agency takes place during the complete project phase in close and fine-meshed exchange over the

Design-Sprint Methodology. Every two weeks we meet with the entire team in hybrid meetings to discuss the contents of the presentation. We then realize individual chapters in close collaboration with the respective editor visually and in terms of storytelling. For smooth communication, we use Slack as a communication channel during the elaboration phase. At the next sprint meeting, the result is presented to the entire keynote team. This allows us to evaluate directly whether the story is understood and where we need to make improvements.

2. Storytelling and visual rough concept

At first, we create in

Keynote a library of modules, symbols, icons, mockups and logos, which ease the implementation of the work, because certain elements repeat themselves again and again. This keynote template serves our team at No agency as a master file. Structurally, the keynote is the same each year. There's the macro part with the "winners" and "losers" of the last year, as well as a part with innovative marketing hacks.

For this reason, we create a separate keynote file for each chapter, which we share with the responsible editors. The

collaborative working method is essential for us within the creative team. This way we can work parallel and together in one file and are always up todate. Furthermore, the editors have the possibility to make remarks in form of comments directly in the keynote, which helps us avoid annoying change lists. Before we elaborate on a chapter, we think about a

visual design concept, which runs like a red thread through the topic. For a quick

idea finding we use ChatGPT. If no suitable idea is found here, we also solve this with small brainstorming sessions within our creative team.Brainstorming in the creative team of No agency (Photo: No agency)

3. Elaboration

As soon as the visual basic concept of the chapter is in place, we proceed to

content elaboration of the slides. Within our creative team at No agency, it often happens that several people work on a topic simultaneously. This makes the work even more enjoyable and everyone can fully bring their strengths. In tightly timed status meetings we discuss the slides and sometimes implement them directly and together. As the primary tool, we continue to use

Keynote from Apple and for efficiency reasons we also try to implement as many design elements in this tool as possible. However, we rely on additional tools at many points. Only this way does "State of the German Internet" become an innovative, multimedia presentation.Primarily as an addition, the

Adobe Creative Cloud comes into use – mainly Photoshop and Illustrator. Especially complex illustrations, icons, shapes or photo effects can easily and quickly be revised and integrated into Keynote. Francesca Veit tweaks a design element for the keynote (Photo: No agency)

4. Finalization of the design & Motion Design

We know: Keeping the

attention of the audience is not easy. That's why we've set ourselves the goal of making the keynote very entertaining. This is where visuals with recognition value and, above all, the use of motion design come in handy.A "State of the German Internet" keynote without

animation is unthinkable. The implemented fade-in effects in Keynote have strongly developed in recent years and offer a lot of potential for exciting slides. Not only do they bring movement to the presentation, but they also enable a gradual build-up of a topic. Especially the newly integrated Keynote transition "Magic" makes our work a lot easier: it automatically calculates a sensible animation between two slides and creates an exciting motion effect.In addition, we enhance the keynote with further

videos. Especially with the intermediate slides, we create animated visuals in the form of loops using After Effects, Premiere Pro, Cinema4D or Blender. 5. Final iteration in the rehearsals

In this project phase, there are only a few days left until the keynote on the Conference Stage of the OMR Festival, the big stage of "State of the German Internet". The individual keynotes are now combined into one file.

The moments when the final content is presented for the first time along with our design in

rehearsals are particularly insightful for us. Although it usually becomes clear here that many topics have to be shortened and thus some ideas and working hours have apparently been invested in vain, these rehearsals are immensely important for the final result. Here, we manage to find the right balance for optimal storytelling in short iteration loops. This means for us: The audience is simultaneously informed and entertained.The team behind the OMR keynote consists of editorial, design, coaching, and project management (Photo: No agency)

6. "State of the German Internet" live on Stage


After the keynote is before the keynote: When Philipp is on stage presenting the final "State of the German Internet", our work is not over. Because here we gather important insights for next year's keynote. In an internal

recap workshop we exchange our learnings afterwards and are already looking forward to the kick-off of next year's keynote. As a workshop tool, we have been using

Miro for several years. This allows us to note our thoughts via post-its and remember them a year later. (Jetzt kostenlos anmelden)‍
Fun Fact

: The well-known title "State of the German Internet" is derived from the spontaneously created working title by me when I presented the very first drafts for the keynote designs six years ago. ‍The name of the keynote seems to have a certain standing, as now various keynotes bear the title "State of …". We are proud that with our agile

design workflows and a wide range of tools like Keynote and ChatGPT we create a presentation that excites and inspires the audience. For us, it's a little piece of art we create anew each year. Our goal is to continue creating innovative and impressive presentations that present the "State of the German Internet" in a new light.
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⁠Hence, we are curious to see which tools, media, and trends will influence the keynote next year!⁠
⁠Deshalb sind wir gespannt, welche Tools, Medien und Trends nächstes Jahr die Keynote beeinflussen werden!