Speaker tells audience it’s a pleasure to be here. “It is also a massive pain in the ass.”

Sometimes I know a speech is going to make Vital Speeches after the first four sentences.

“Being asked to give the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture is a double-edged sword,” began Shine Group Chairman Elisabeth Murdoch at the Edinburgh Television Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland Aug. 23. “It’s a huge honour to be asked, and I thank the committee for considering me worthy of addressing our great industry. It is also a massive pain in the ass. You can’t possibly turn it down and from the minute of acceptance, you agonize about how to add value and provide insight, you wonder how you can make a positive difference and have enough to say to be entertaining without unnecessarily upsetting a large number of the tribes of our industry.”

Speechwriters, what’s the quickest and hardest you ever grabbed an audience’s lapels? Send it along for our amusement and instruction. —DM