PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

The art and craft of speechwriting: How to persuade, motivate and inspire audiences—and get results

You know the drill: You do internal comms, write marketing brochures or oversee the intranet, and then you get the call: “I need you to write a speech.” How can you go from being a generalist to a speechwriter in less than three hours? In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn everything you need to know to write powerful speeches, including how to connect with your speakers and see the world as they do, marshal the language and arguments that get results and amplify your messages beyond the auditorium’s walls.

You will learn:

• Strategic communications: What speeches can do, and how to find the ideas that will advance your organization’s goals
• Connecting with leaders: How to get inside executives’ heads—before even setting foot in their office
• The language of leadership: The verbal techniques that make speeches clear, powerful and memorable
• The tools of persuasion: How to make your case and support it with compelling evidence
• Open, close, structure: How to grab an audience’s attention, hold it and drive your points home
• Beyond the four walls: How to use speeches as the linchpins for communications campaigns

Lunch break

For more engaging executive communications, just add video

For many, the C-suite is an unapproachable, unattainable ivory tower where executives eat gourmet lunches on tables with white tablecloths and have their own personal bathrooms. These execs come off as robotic and awkward in email and other written communication, making the job of humanizing them very hard. Does that sound familiar? You need this workshop. The fastest and easiest way to communicate empathy and emotion is through video, but you need skill and creative communication to pull it off. From getting stiff execs to loosen up on camera to convincing them they have to ditch the script and just talk from the heart—that’s what this workshop is all about.

In this session you’ll learn:

• Tips and tricks for getting your CEO to say yes to being on camera (and when to talk him or her out of it)
• How to get executives to loosen up and feel comfortable on camera
• What you need to do to prep your exec before the shoot
• Formats that really work, both internally and on social media
• The art of the executive “selfie video” and why it’s so effective

Get to the point! Training your executive – and yourself – to sell ideas, not just share them

Many leaders are making speeches, but too few are making meaningful points. Why? Because most communicators don’t know their point. They don’t even know what a point is – often confusing it with a title, a theme, or an idea. Not having a point real renders them pointless. And being pointless is the biggest cause of rambling, audience disconnection, and communication failure.

In this important and interactive workshop, learn fresh techniques for successfully identifying and conveying valuable points that create impact. You’ll learn how to:

• Identify, hone, and effectively “sell” a point
• Instantly engage an audience
• Use “Power Periods,” volume, and pauses to enhance points
• Avoid weak habits like uptalk, vocal fry, and power fail
• Interact effectively with notes and PowerPoint presentations
• Start and finish with confidence and impact