Ragan Speechwriters Conference: Day 1

Quick: What do San Francisco, New York and Limerick all have in common?

Answer: Smoking has been banished from the bars in California, New York and Ireland (yes, even Ireland!). So you can enjoy a smoke-free atmosphere when you go out for a drink. However, in Washington DC you’ll find the smoke-filled room is alive and well.

On my first evening in The Nation’s Capitol I was driven away from a couple of places where I went to slake my thirst by the unwelcome smoke. I even saw a couple of Young Republicans puffing on a stogie. Since all the jokes about Republican’s putting cigars to their proper use are a little tired by now I better report on the proceedings of Day1 of the Ragan Speechwriter’s Conference.

The pre-sessions kicked off today. About 30 experienced speechwriters, some with 20+ years experience, attended Tack Cornelius’s session Flying lobsters and a muse of fire: Practical tips for veteran speechwriters.

Tack has one of those improbable Southern names right out of a John Grisham novel which the British find fascinating. He writes from Gainesville, Georgia and has over three decades of experience in journalism, government and business. His clients include former Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins and two Bellsouth CEO’s: John Clendenin and Duane Ackerman.

The intriguing title of his afternoon class refers to the story of UPS keeping lobsters on ice in their Louisville, KY hub to ‘freshen ’em up before they are whipped off to the four corners of the globe as air freight. An insight to make even the most boring lecture on the modern supply chain come alive for an audience. The Muse of Fire references the opening lines of Henry V – recommended by Tack as a sterling example of the use of sound in speech – as is Macbeth and the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters.

Tack believes in the salutatory effect of writing a speech out in full – the text being a point of departure for key insights that make the spoken word come alive. Other tips include:

  • Be suspicious of adjectives.
  • Sharpen the point of view of any speech by asking the client If you could get two sentences on page one of tomorrows New York Times, what would they be?
  • Suggest CEO’s talk about their experience with specific customers, not just generalities about profit and loss.
  • Write the introduction for your speaker that the MC will deliver – use it to reveal something about them as a person, or even to set up a joke to which they can deliver the punch-line in their opening remarks.
  • Go straight to substance. Surprise, even shock, an audience. Save the platitudes and thanks for later in the speech.
  • Localize speeches – ask about local news and landmarks on the way in from the airport and build them into your opening.
  • Be suspicious of the first thing that comes to mind — a better way of writing the speech can be found with some effort. Sleep on it.

    • Quirky suggestions (from Tack and the audience):

  • Search contrapuntally on photos.com for the opposite of what your theme is, such as chips or chips when your speaker meant chips!
  • Sell your executive on best practices for delivering a speech by using the tried-and-tested ‘feel-felt-found’ sales technique I understand how you FEEL, others have FELT this way, what we’ve FOUND is most effective is if you...

    • Recommended reading:

  • They Made America: Two Centuries of Innovation, from the Steam Engine to the Search Engine, Harold Evans
  • An Empire of Wealth: The Economic History of American Economic Power, John Steele Gordon
  • The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, Joel Mokyr
  • Hamlet
  • Macbeth
  • All The King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren especially page 72 where the newspaper man advises the would-be politico with a hankering to tell his audience more than they need to know about tax policy:

    Yeah..I heard the speech. But they don’t give a damn about that. Hell, make ’em cry, make ’em laugh, make ’em think you’re their weak erring pal, or make ’em think you’re God-Almighty. Or make ’em mad. Even mad to you. Just stir ’em up it doesn’t matter how or why, and they’ll love you and come back for more. Pinch ’em in the soft place. They aren’t alive, most of ’em, and haven’t been alive in twenty years. Hell, their wives have lost their teeth and their shape and likker won’t set on their stomachs, and they don’t believe in God, so it’s up to you to give ’em something to stir ’em up and make ’em feel alive again. Just for half an hour. That’s what they come for. Tell ’em anything. But for Sweet Jesus’ sake don’t try to improve their minds.

    Yep. Sounds like the typical Comdex audience in the hey-day of the dot-com bubble, thank God we no longer have to write for audiences like that!

    • posted by Theboss on 02.08.06 @ 8:37 pm | 2 Comments

    « Previous Page
    « newer