What made President Obama laugh at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit tonight

Well the adrenaline here at the Mellon Auditorium is pretty high.

President Obama serves as tonight’s closing keynote at the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit; and from a public speaking vantage point, I’m salivating from excitement!

…more soon as the president takes the stage.

UPDATE
The president underscores: “Our economy can not compete unless our citizens can compete as a workforce.” He’s emphasizing giving girls especially the confidence to pursue math and science to fuel the country’s talent pipeline.

HILARIOUS
Just now, there was a big clang of metal at the president’s podium. He’s realizing it was a metallic name plate (of his name) that detached from the podium and fell off. He’s cackling out loud, as in he’s still laughing. And he just said (while laughing): “you know someone responsible for the podium area is sweating bullets now.”

ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
He’s emphasizing now the challenges women who launch tech startups and them getting VC support (70% less funding is received by women of tech startups than those led by men).

3 THOUGHTS: the president’s delivery
It’s official…the president and his speech writers know speechcraft. Kidding aside, it struck me that:

1) He opened with a personal story that related to this audience ie his Grandmother’s challenges in business.

2) His overall speech was story-centric. The arc of the president’s remarks involved multiple stories from the women cabinet leaders in his administration to award recipients at tonight’s ceremony.

3) He was cognizant of the summit’s theme ie building a legacy.

Plus: his delivery was conversational and his voice flexible, relaxed

What an incredible experience.