Something is rhetorical in the state of Demmark

This week I spoke, along with Ryan Heath, former speechwriter to the European Union President Josรฉ Manuel Barosso, to about 60 Danish speechwriters, in Copenhagen.

I donโ€™t know about Heath, but I felt Iโ€™d more than met my intellectual match among the organizers, the other speakers and the attendees of the 2011 Logograf Conference. Though these โ€œtaleskriversโ€ struggle to produce great speeches for reticent Danish speakersโ€”see my report on British and European scribes I met in Septemberโ€”they do not doubt, as so often we do, why they do what they do.

Deeply grounded in rhetorical philosophy, the Danes talk theory much more fluently and enthusiastically than their American counterparts, who tend to tread a different continuum, between pragmatic organizational realities and thought leadership dreams.

The Danish theory talk isnโ€™t dull. Each more than the next, the partners and consultants at the leading Danish speechwriting consultancy Rhetor love to talk speechwriting. How can I tell? When the beer begins to flow, the subject doesnโ€™t change, except in volume.

If youโ€™re ever in Denmark, look up my friends at Rhetor, Peter, Kell, Jesper, Christian and the rest of the gang. Theyโ€™ll be glad to talk to youโ€”in English.

But bring your A-game, because youโ€™re going to need it.

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