By random polling of friends at South by Southwest Interactive, one of this year’s best sessions was a Saturday afternoon talk delivered by Frank Abagnale, the former confidence trickster, check forger, impostor and escape artist who inspired the film “Catch Me If You Can.”
Though his presentation isn’t what you’d expect to find at an event celebrating the web, Abagnale’s 30-minute re-telling of his teenage escapades set the stage for his public service announcement on identity theft, a topic that’s important in his current career with the FBI. He also stressed the significance of parenting – before running away, he was close to his father – and opened the floor for a 30-minute Q&A.
Audio of Abagnale at SXSW can be found at sxsw.com, and a video of his talk was posted on YouTube by an audience member. For sake of video quality, however, I’ve embedded a video of him delivering a very similar talk at an event in 2010. Having missed out on his session, I’ve taken in both the audio on sxsw.com and the video embedded below, and I’m confident it would’ve made my top sessions list, as well.
Thanks to our sponsor