“Every Presentation Ever”
The painfully true, incredibly common disappointments from beginning to end of a typical conference presentation.
I’m asking: Is there anything more worthless than those real-time reaction lines to candidates’ speeches?
If you watched last night’s primaries on CNN last night you saw something that I thought surely had been relegated to the “nice try” bin four or eight years ago. …
Finally, an index of great speeches by women
“The Eloquent Woman” blogger collects speeches from Aimee Semple McPherson to Wilma Mankiller. The database is 46, and growing.
Peggy Noonan, listen to yourself!
All writers should read aloud everything they write, and no writers know this better than speechwriters. (For instance, if I read the previous sentence aloud, I’ll change “know” to “understand,” …
Nixon to Speechwriter: “If you think I oughta resign, put that in, too”
Working on a speech on the firings of H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, President Nixon appealed to the judgment of scribe Ray Price.
Real writers don’t take kindly to being edited
Over the holiday break I read the new Kurt Vonnegut biography, And So It Goes, and was tickled to find a couple of references to Vital Speeches friend Bob Lehrman, …
A light opening for a heavy speech
Ghandi was asked what he thought of Western Civilization. By all means, he said, “it would be a good idea.” Apply this to your speech subject.
Six steps to solid speech editing
First, let the draft rest. Then edit for content, organization, style, language and grammar—in that order!
WATCH: How do you like your PowerPoint now?
Amazing visual technology demonstrates what REAL visual aids would look like.
Get the year off to a proactive start
Get up to speed on the conferences taking place, and conferences starting their planning cycles in January.