This is the year you come

Here’s part of what’s going to happen at the 2016 World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association:

The psychologist who wrote the book on the structure of the “political brain” will teach speechwriters how to influence it.

In an “emergency session” on the U.S. presidential campaign, a panel of campaign speechwriters to candidates Clinton, Bush, Kerry, McCain, Palin and Obama will help us fathom this unfathomable season.

The man who who created an official TED program inside a Fortune 100 company will tell us why and how.

A former megachurch preacher-turned-professional speechwriter will tell how he draws heavily on his first job, for his second.

A cabaret singer/speechwriter will sing and speak about how her night job informs her day job.

A moviemaker will show speechwriters how to make leaders look good on video.

The world’s leading thinker on measuring the effects of communication will teach speechwriters how to know for sure whether they’re making a strategic difference.

The Pied Piper of freelance speechwriters will teach independent scribes how to find clients, and the leading matchmaker of speechwriters will help executive communicators find the right freelancers.

Speechwriters will hear from a woman who believes speeches can be written differently to make the world a better place.

The first African American White House speechwriter will help us understand why speechwriters are less culturally diverse than the people they write for—and how we might go about changing that situation.

Every conference participant will have the chance to share their best ideas with their colleagues through innovative “crowdsourcing” sessions.

Speechwriters will congratulate colleagues who won 2016 Cicero Speechwriting Awards at a happy toast during a “Cone of Silence” cocktail session.

PSA executive director David Murray will whisper a preview of the results of the soon-to-be released PSA state-of-the-profession survey.

From speechwriters from around the world, we’ll receive reports on the state of global speechwriting and rhetoric.

We’ll get an update on on the growth plans of the Professional Speechwriters Association.

We’ll discuss a proposed and now vetted speechwriting code of ethics.

Participants will have the chance to discuss issues they’re facing that the PSA might address.

And an award-winning speechwriter who has left the profession to become a leader in her organization will tell us what she does and doesn’t miss about her old job—and what she thinks speechwriters should know about the lives of the leaders they serve.

And that doesn’t even include the coffee breaks and the lunches and the dinners and the nightcaps.

If you’re a professional speechwriter, you can’t miss this. In fact, if you’re a professional speechwriter, you won’t miss this.

So you might as well get the best price on it. Sign up by Thursday, to get the early bird discount.