The National Speakers Association of Northern California November Meeting

Last Saturday NSA/NC held an outstanding Chapter meeting. A full day of invaluable information for speakers and executive communications professionals. Over 120 members and guests attended the event sponsored by the Pro-Track program, now enrolling for January 2011.

Facilitation: The Secret Weapon of Professional Speakers, with Kristin Arnold

NSA National President Kristin Arnold started the day with a compelling presentation on facilitation. This is her area of expertise, since she has 20+ years experience and is the author of Facilitation Skills.

She distinguished facilitation (high process, low content) from keynoting (high content, low process). Her recommendations included:

• Never do for the team what they can do for themselves
• Type up meeting minutes as a value-add
• Guide the meeting along the path from generating to organizing ideas, deciding on responsibilities and acting on them
• Create an action plan, listing the who, what and when that will make things happen
• If you ask for someone to volunteer for an action, be silent until you get a response.

The Power to Inspire: The Non-Verbal’s of Dramatic Presentations, with Michael Grinder

Michael presented on both side of lunch for a total of 90 minutes of instruction. He’s the master of non-verbal communication. His claim is that an average communicator informs; a good communicator persuades and a great communicator inspires. Michael is clearly a great communicator.

Michael showed, in fine-grain detail, how a speaker’s posture, voice, gesture and breath combine in the three phases of a conversation: speaking, listening and pausing. Understanding when and how to vary these tools allows a presenter to move between credibility and approachability. Not knowing undermines your message. For example, asking “Any questions?” in a monotone, with chin locked and palms facing downwards, creates a much less favorable audience reaction than asking the same question in a modulated voice, nodding your head and holding your palms up. No-one likes to interact with a dictator.

I loved his demonstration on the podium which showed how speakers should be aware that “Locations have memories”. If you have bad news to deliver as part of your talk, move, literally, to a different part of the stage. Then avoid that place for the rest of your talk.

I purchased Michael’s package The Elusive Obvious which includes DVDs, flash cards and his book The Science of Non-Verbal Communication. His material lists 21 non-verbal secrets found at the heart of all communications, no matter how differently they might appear on the surface.

The content takes speakers through the four stages of professional development:

• Content: the verbal level or the “what”
• Process: the non-verbal or the “how”
• Perception: timing or the “when”
• Receptivity: permission or the “if”

The first two levels are part of the Science of communication, where the speaker is searching for the words to speak and deciding how to deliver them. The Art of communication assumes you know the tools of the Science and need to be conscious of when to deploy them appropriately. The highest level, Receptivity, is when speakers harvest the power of effective communication in terms of reputation, name recognition and high esteem.

Speaking to the Big Dogs: Getting Things Done with Executives, with Rick Gilbert

Past NSA/NC President Rick Gilbert closed the day by sharing his insights around speaking in the Board room. Rick’s framework for planning a C-Suite presentation is based on the advice from interviews with 23 Silicon Valley executives. They said that when they hear from a mid-level manager they expect that person to:

• Have done extensive homework before the meeting
• To get to the point immediately
• Use data over stories
• Make the numbers bullet proof
• Reduce PowerPoint slides
• Be prepared to have their time cut and topic changed without notice
• Know how to deal with conflict among a group of executives
• Know how to present bad news
• Focus on strategy over style.

Rick’s framework for a Board room presentation lists some key points an aspiring middle-manager should use as a checklist prior to presenting:

• Set the context for the meeting, confirming the topic and the time available
• Cover the bottom-line “ask” for the discussion up front
• Give solid reasons and list the value and benefits of the proposal
• Present evidence (facts and data) for no more than two key points
• Summarize these key points
• Repeat the bottom line
• Repeat the reason
• Close with action steps.

That’s it – get in, and get out. Save squishy interactions for ordinary mortals, like, umm … your family.

Also, understand that you are not in charge and that you are in a time constrained environment. Presentations to senior management require the ability to improvise. You are dealing with people who control others for a living.

As someone once said, either have a plan, or be part of someone else’s plan.

Legendary speechwriter Ted Sorensen passed away on Sunday.

I was fortunate to see Sorensen present at the 2009 Ragan Speechwriters Conference. I enjoyed his book, Counselor.

The world of speechwriting has lost a stellar figure.

Of the many obituaries none is more insightful than this appreciation by American University speechwriting teacher Bob Lehrman who has given me permission to reprint this as a guest posting in my blog.

Former chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore in the White House, novelist and speechwriter Bob Lehrman has written speeches for dozens of political figures, teaches public speaking and speechwriting at American University, and is author of the much-praised new book, “The Political Speechwriter’s Companion: A Guide for Speakers and Writers” (CQPress 2009).

Ted Sorensen’s ‘signature’ marks the aspirations of every speechwriter

By Bob Lehrman

JFK’s ‘voice’ is stilled for a moment, but not for the ages.

In Teddy White’s pioneering The Making of a President 1960, he refers in diplomatic terms to what Ted Sorensen actually did. “His introspection, his reading, his elegant writing, had stimulated many of Kennedy’s finest thoughts and expressions.”

Today, 50 years later, the Washington Post is blunter about Sorensen, who died on Sunday, and who was due to speak at American University in March for the 2011 Speechwriters conference jointly sponsored by Ragan Communications and American University.

“JFK’s speechwriter,” the headline begins over the Post obituary, saying that Sorensen “provided his chief with many of the words and thoughts that still resonate through American life.”

He didn’t just stimulate them, the Post says. He provided them. Which is, of course, true, though Sorensen himself was always circumspect about saying that. The change is a mark of how much he influenced people like me, who never met him. Those were the days when politicians usually didn’t want to admit that others wrote the words they uttered.

Sorensen changed that, not just because his boss was so important, but because his language was so exquisite. This went far beyond the lines everyone quotes—like the “Ask not,” antithesis of the JFK Inaugural. I remember as a grad student, teaching speech from my Monroe and Ehninger text—yes, the Monroe of Monroe’s Motivated Sequence—and noticing a JFK commencement speech from his Senate days. How concrete, witty, and researched it was.

That speech took place at Syracuse University. Kennedy was still a senator. The writer—I don’t think I knew who it was, then—had found a story about Elihu Root that he could have told in two sentences. Instead, he’d taken a hundred words to build up the drama, infuse it with detail and give the punchline impact.

And the rest of the speech! Full of witty quotes, wry comments about political life and funny examples of ridiculous things politicians had done before a final, passionate litany of what politics can accomplish. It wasn’t a politically influential speech—but it influenced me.

You can see things to imitate in the most routine speeches. JFK gives John Glenn a medal for orbiting the Earth. His remarks only take up five paragraphs, but Sorensen notices that it is the anniversary of the day the Marines raised the flag on Mount Suribachi—and draws the parallel to a day when some “Marine or a Naval man or an Air Force man will put the American Flag on the moon.”

In the famous speeches, look for the things that aren’t famous—like the 1962 speech at Rice University about that effort to send a man to the moon, remembered for the phrase, “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” The best part of that speech? JFK’s attention-getting opener with an imaginative analogy comparing the history of human beings to a 24-hour day. Not original. But great.

It doesn’t demean JFK’s memory to acknowledge that Sorensen did more than produce “words.” It enhances it. It says something about JFK that he could attract someone so talented, see the worth of material he dredged up, and be willing to use it.

Kennedy appreciated him, too. As modest as Sorensen is in “Counselor,” his memoir, written with the help of now-Obama speechwriter Adam Frankel, he clearly relishes recounting the time he was so late meeting Kennedy at an Air Force One landing strip that photographers got pictures of an “impatient” president, “checking his watch and walking restlessly outside the plane, until I finally arrived.”

If the things Sorensen did weren’t unique, they were new in the way that all art blends what artists have seen with what we’ve never seen. He studied Lincoln’s inaugurals and drew from them before writing Kennedy’s. He never hesitated to draw from the language others had used well—for example, the Woodrow Wilson line (“Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right.”) that he used in the Cuban Missile Crisis speech.

Though other presidents did these things occasionally—in the first 100 years of the country, they usually spoke fewer than 10 times a year—Sorensen made them routine.

Today, they form the staples of national political rhetoric, whether the litanies that end convention speeches, or the many things Barack Obama loves: the short, colloquial sentences, the historical analogies, and the antithesis that combines wordplay with insight.

The image of what Sorensen did with JFK—the long trips they took together, the accounts of them huddling over drafts—give people an inaccurate sense of how most speechwriters go about their business, in these days where speechwriters are often held at arm’s length by their bosses.

But in the accounts of the days leading up to the Cuban missile crises, don’t they demonstrate the usefulness of that kind of relationship? Of having a speechwriter not just at the keyboard but in the meeting? It’s chilling to see Curtis LeMay call a blockade “almost as bad as … Munich,” and the Joint Chiefs confidently predicting a mission-accomplished airdrop that would “mop up Cuba in 72 hours with a loss of only 10,000 Americans, more or less.”

I especially like that “more or less.” Luckily, Sorensen was there, able to supply other words.

Words can’t be produced independent of thoughts. When some speechwriter makes a graceful line out of some piece of hamburger, the thought, too, changes. If someone hands you, “We travel to outer space, because it is so difficult it challenges the very limits of our potential,” and you turn it into, “We go not because it is easy, but because it is hard,” that’s not the same thought.

Sorensen’s contribution was that during that crisis, he didn’t just contribute words. He contributed thoughts. We’re lucky he did.

And speechwriters are lucky for being able to appreciate both.

So maybe he would forgive me for looking up Oct. 30, and seeing that Ted Sorensen died on the 259th birthday of Richard Sheridan, the playwright who once reportedly told a woman: “Come into my garden. I’d like my roses to see you.”

Those of us who wanted to see him speak at American University in March would no doubt have approached him timidly, with books to sign. We won’t get that chance. But any time we think we’ve written a line that looks a little bit like a rose, the chances are that if we look closer, and think harder, we’ll realize where we learned to do it.

He won’t sign our books. But lots of our speeches already bear his signature.

This article was first published on ragan.com.

National Speakers Association White Paper

National Speakers Association (NSA) President Kristin Arnold has published a remarkable document. The Professional Speaker’s Imperative: Bringing Value to Today’s Global and Tech-Savvy Marketplace is a 20-page White Paper on the past, present and future of the speaking profession.

Seven NSA members assess current trends implications for the future of the speaking profession. Each of the speakers brings a specific area of expertise to the table, looking both into their rearview mirror and crystal ball as best they could.

Each chapter of the document covers a specific topic:

• The History and Growth of Professional Speaking
• The Evolution of Professional Speaking
• Breadth and Depth of Today’s Speaking Industry
• Today’s Professional Speakers
• Other Practitioners Who Speak
• Putting the “Profession” in Speaking
• Audiences and Clients of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
• Implications for Professional Speakers
• The Use of Technology
• The Value Is in the Solution
• Conclusions
• Recommendations and Next Steps

The opening chapter looks back at the folk roots of the profession of speaking:

The roots of the speaking profession can be traced to the Greek and Roman sophists, orators and lecturers, and then to a nomadic group of entertainers, often called gypsies, who traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East to perform for various townsfolk. These early professional speakers also used their vocal expertise for gossip, satire or political commentary.

The impact of technology, which began with amplification, proceeds into every aspect of the network as a platform for speaking:

Speakers are delivering presentations to audiences face-to-face, virtually or as a hybrid of the two. With online conferences, web-based seminars, self-directed learning modules, and a wide variety instructional formats with the ever-increasing possibilities delivered by constantly changing technical capabilities, the platform is evolving upon which professional speakers deliver their words of expertise. Increasingly, there will be in-house or core people gathering in the conference room, while geographically dispersed stakeholders will be linked into it—or will replay a download later.

The single most valuable chapter is “The Value of the Solution” which details how speakers can convey value to their clients before, during and after a meeting. There’s a whole range of ways listed to engage with an audience, apart from the moments when the speaker is on the podium. These include starting a virtual conversation via blogs, social media and community networking sites. Following-up with coaching and the provision of online resources suggested.

The paper concludes with a reminder that “…it always comes back to the message.
Professional speakers―keynoters, trainers, facilitators and consultants—deliver valuable messages. Their primary mission is to deliver content and inspiration through the spoken word face-to-face or virtually.”

I encourage anyone with an interest in professional speaking to download this valuable paper.

Melinda is an enthusiastic, effervescent motivational speaker, coach and management counselor with over three decades of experience in the dental industry. She is a past board member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and a DiSC certified trainer.

Since 1986, she has been assisting Dental Professionals and coaching winning teams. As a specialist in communications and operations, she has trained, coached, and counseled numerous winning teams and worked with over 500 professionals in a variety of disciplines.

Her expertise employs practical experience as well as innovative strategies to help dental practices deal successfully with today’s industry challenges, specializing in professional development with an emphasis on productivity, efficiency, and personal growth.

Her unique strength is the ability to enhance communications within dental teams and create a more productive, satisfying work environment. She accomplishes this through a personal, collaborative, upbeat approach when teaching dental teams how to implement essential systems. Doctors and staff report that they like having an approach that is tailored to their specific personalities and needs.

Melinda is a member of the Pro-Track class of 2010 sponsored by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association.

I asked her how she got into the business of consulting to dentists and what advantages Pro-Track has brought to her business. To hear what she told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:18 — 784.1KB)

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At the recent PRSA Conference in Washington DC there were over 30 sessions on Social Media.

I was intrigued to hear what the PR professionals at the conference thought of the impact of social media on public relations, so I asked a random collection of people I met in the halls what the thought.

Take a listen to what they told me by clicking on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:19 — 1.5MB)

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At the resent PRSA Conference in Washington DC I attended a presentation by James Walker on Diversity and Social Media. He’s a Gen-Y Communications professional interested in Public Relations, Diversity, Marketing and Social Media. In 2010, James combined two major interests to launch Socially Diverse , a six month online journey seeking out diverse conversations, discussion leaders and ways to connect through social media channels.

Socially Diverse: Engaging With Diverse Communities Online

Embark on a journey through social media — both the blogosphere and social networks. Explore the findings of the presenter’s six-month journey through social media, during which he engaged with active members from several online communities. Gain understanding of how to identify, analyze and engage with active participants of diverse communities and social interactions, and also learn how to create a social media home base from which all online activities can operate. Find out how to create a sustained online presence, and continue to develop relationships. The knowledge and insight gained from this session will prove invaluable as you move through the process of brainstorming, pitching and execution.

Following the talk I asked James to share some insights on diversity in social media. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:19 — 1.5MB)

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The annual Public Relations Society of America International Conference was held October 16 – 19, 2010 at the Washington DC Hilton.

3,129 PR professionals met for the four days and attended a series of main stage keynotes, break out sessions and informal workshops.

Over 1,000 attendees generated over 6,000 tweets under the hashtag #prsa_ic. (An additional 134 mobile phone users, frustrated with the difficulties in using a hashtag with an underscore, created 300+ tweets under the hashtag #prsa10. Read some of the debate this caused below.)

Twitter is ephemeral. It only maintains 10-14 days of content, so this information will soon disappear. However, here’s a useful permanent archive all of the tweets. It’s with deep gratitude to all the attendees who posted their messages that this content has been made available worldwide on Twitter. Thanks!

Building on an idea of listing of “top tweets” I’ve experimented with at other conferences, I’ve curated a list of 227 tweets I found most content-rich and interesting; adding links where appropriate for easy reference; consolidating others; editorializing as indicated by [ … ]. Removing the re-tweets (RT’s) alone reduced the number of total tweets by 33%. The list below is in alphabetical order – no judgment is implied by being #1, #10 or #110.

I feel that this summary listing demonstrates the power of social media to magnify elements of an event that would otherwise have been lost.

Please share your own experiences of the event in the blog comments (or on Twitter!). I apologize in advance if I omitted your favorite tweet – feel free to search the archive and add it to the comments below.

Enjoy!

1. @chriskemper “Being out of control” is similar to the old PR fundamental: honesty and openness are powerful persuaders – @CharleneLi
2. @NikL1212 “By a show of hands, how many of you visit porn sites?” – @BillTancer Ha! Not a single hand raised.
3. @LJohnsonPR “Prepare for failure.” Know how to be comfortable not controlling the message to build social media relationships – @CharleneLi
4. @BUPRSSA “$5 a month can feed a kid everyday on the WFP.” For the price of a cappuccino, we can feed a child for one month.
5. @HeyRatty @Newseum might be the best museum I’ve ever been to. Did 2.5 hours; could have done another 2 if camera didn’t die/feet didn’t hurt.
6. @ericschwartzman @sallyfalkow & @lieblink SEO is PR podcast
7. @NeekBarnes 19 products drive 80% of total revenue, 60% of businesses sell to other businesses…we deleted the consumer.
8. @derekdevries 2 B effective in new world, orgs need to make social media part of reg org structure/process – not treat as novelty – @CharleneLi
9. @davispr 3 changes in media per Jim VandeHei, Politico: exponentially more diffuse, age of niche and people are exceedingly fickle.
10. @ElizHoltan 8 seconds (average attention span) to hook, 110 seconds (average elevator ride) to sell: the new elevator pitch is 118 sec – @JeffreyHayzlett
11. @bobdittmer 80% of major sports teams house social media in marketing.
12. @BLassiter 93% of journalists get their next story idea from Google or Twitter searches, not e-mail.
13. @Carriejs A lot of info gathering w/college aged is happening on social networks. Communication is many to many instead of 1 to 1 (ie. email).
14. @JustinSHubbard A lot of measurement tools/companies on exhibit that don’t seem to get. To be useful, be more than just a news aggregator.
15. @stephskordas A lot of people who are influential aren’t digital, especially in DC, says @cheeky_geeky
16. @mattkellypr A reminder for myself and PR friends who scoff at the credibility of advertising — from IPR.
17. @jonathan_rhudy AARP’s audience is the fastest growing group on Facebook.
18. @epope According to compete.com, Facebook now drives more web traffic than Google.
19. @derekdevries Agree w/ @charleneli – we need to worry less about what could go wrong w/ social media & focus on what can go RIGHT.
20. @HeyRatty Agreed. They should be listed in printed Program! RT @dfriez @prsa can we get Twitter handles for speakers at #prsa_ic?
21. @prsa_ic Annual Grunig Lecture: Remembering the Relationships in PR
22. @lieblink Answers to the 7 top social media PR questions I was asked at #PRSA_IC – @lieblink
23. @PRSA Are you following Conference news? We have the latest!
24. @RileyComm Article is a funny word when you hear it a lot.
25. @LYLEHALVORSON Be an informer, not a meformer – @annwylie
26. @BonnieRiechert Be forthright, authentic, transparent in your dialogue – @CharleneLi
27. @rdonley Be in control, control the message – @CharleneLi
28. @prsanews Be yourself online: don’t need multiple profiles – don’t say anything to upset your grandma – @geoffliving
29. @Ashley_Walters Behind the Scenes: Talking Politics with POLITICO in D.C.
30. @derekdevries Being effective org w/ SM requires 1) discipline 2) culture of sharing 3) asking right Q’s re: value 4) prep 4 failure – @CharleneLi
31. @derekdevries Best Buy handing control to employees via Twitter has produced & 12 examples of failure & thousands of successes – @CharleneLi
32. @sandrafathi Best question ever asked by speaker at a conference – @CGraves: “How many of you have ever had sex, or shot heroin?”
33. @MikeMcDoug Best-ever Kodak spot. Simply incredible.
34. @cheshirelad Beyond just providing twitter handle, how about a Social Media Homepage for each presentation?
35. @PRSAtactics @BillTancer demonstrating the data he loves. This slide: Prom Dress Obssession.
36. @bonnieupright Build strategies not around technology, but around relationships – @CharleneLi
37. @bonnieupright C-level needs to know this RT @DavidSpinks: Just because something is important doesn’t make it newsworthy-@michaelsmartpr
38. @richardbagnall ‘Campaigns come to an end, movements live on forever’. How can you inspire a movement with social media?
39. @derekdevries Can the nation’s largest healthcare insurer have a grassroots campaign that isn’t astroturf? [Will anything to do with American healthcare ever make sense?]
40. @ElizHoltan Can’t predict elections from Internet searches; crossover traffic comes from researching opposite viewpoint, says @BillTancer
41. @40deuce Case study @shonali is using now shows a company dropped it’s ad spend from $500k to $50k, but using SM brought revenue up 30%.
42. @epope Case study on recall search terms: pet food searched 10x more than recall info on children/infants – @BillTancer [Our values on display]
43. @dcaplick CEOs understanding what is really newsworthy could save PRPs a LOT of headaches. – @bonnieupright [Is that their job?]
44. @derekdevries Charlene Li cites @twelpforce as ex of empowering employees to take ownership of communicating for company via tech support.
45. @jaclyngrossfiel Charlene Li on social med measurement: organizations will not find value in social media unless they value relationships.
46. @derekdevries Charlene Li’s slides fr #prsa_ic lecture avail @ slides@altimetergroup.com, blog: charleneli.com/blog, email: charlene@altimetergroup.com
47. @CSUFPRSSA Check out @BillTancer blog
48. @colbcox Check out this SlideShare presentation : PRSA 2010 – Branded Content
49. @PRSA Check what bloggers & reporters are writing about #prsa_ic.
50. @JessLeeds Cognitive Dissonance is often a problem in research-people answer based on what they perceive the researcher wants to hear – @BillTancer
51. @adscriptskathy College students and 55+ demographic relying less on e-mail, more on social media to gather info
52. @NSyzdek Coming to PRSA conf. is like going to church. You’ve heard the sermon 1 mil x, but you prob need to hear it again. [And everyone bows their head, praying to the iPod Gods]
53. @PRSAtactics Conference Recap: @billtancer on listening to the conversation
54. @prsa_ic Conference Recap: @JeffreyHayzlett on the Mirrror Test.
55. @prsa_ic Coombs & Holladay Discuss the Kindle Crisis
56. @ghidotti Create sandbox covenants – balance between being open and closed in your leadership – @CharleneLi
57. @crwilcox Creative people should never have to compromise to carry out their vision – @JeffreyHayzlett
58. @stephskordas Crowdsourcing is MOST difficult job we do in PR. When you overmanage crowd, you kill it. Example: Digg.
59. @dskaletsky Currently 1mm traditional journalists in world, but 35mm online influencers (per Kevin McFall from Cision).
60. @ElizHoltan Data is truly the basis for good PR practices; without listening, it’s impossible to understand an audience.
61. @dianeschwartz Did you know 75% of tweets are ignored? Are you gonna ignore this one or re-tweet? [It was not ignored…]
62. @derekdevries Did you know Hilton Washington where #prsa_ic is called the Hinckley Hilton b/c it’s where John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Reagan?
63. @TedNguyen Do PR pros get Twitter engagement? Official hastags of #prsa_ic and #pr_leaders with underscores underscore confusion.
64. @kathybarbour Does your org have something like the US Air Force Blog Comment Policy? You need one.
65. @CubanaLAF Dominate news coverage for your specific audience – focus is more influential than ever.
66. @derekdevries Don’t concentrate on measuring influence, unique visits – measure outcomes. Outcomes = Income$.
67. @ghidotti Don’t feed the trolls in online communities. Tell them they aren’t welcome – @CharleneLi
68. @Carriejs Editing video is a bitch. Focus on short & sweet videos & shoot so you don’t have to edit. Reshoot until you get it right.
69. @40deuce Even if you’re writing a blog for a client the client still needs to provide you w/ content or else it’s not authentic.
70. @BUPRSSA Facebook is more popular than porn – @BillTancer, Experian Hitwise.
71. @NanClarke Facebook rewards writing at a 5th grade level & Twitter at 6.5 via@annwylie
72. @prsanews Financially, social media is not the way to make $; needs to be integrated into other programs: @geoffliving
73. @jakprpro Forget viral. Social media goal is to build community over time.
74. @davidjolson Found out the highest circulation magazine in the U.S. is – drum roll, please – AARP The Magazine, by far.
75. @Fancy_Lad Free Twitter analysis tools recommended by @BillTancer, Hitwise: Tweetcloud.com and search.twitter.com
76. @kdpaine Funny how a simple underscore in a hashtage #prsa_ic can be so hard to find on a phone keypad. Good lesson to learn.
77. @iBridgeforth Goal of Many Marketing Campaigns Should be to Gain Hearts and Minds of Target Audiences.
78. @HeyRatty Google is your brand’s homepage & Wikipedia is your brand’s About Us page – @ednaruano
79. @sarahsmbrown Got love a keynote that starts with kiss that shit goodbye. This’ll be good!
80. @amandamogul Got my @charleneli interview up!
81. @jddavenport Great new online presentation tool #prsa_ic may make you kick ppt to the curb.
82. @ElizHoltan Great public speakers must be at least 50% comedian, I think.
83. @CSUFPRSSA Grossman: the first week of January breeds the most at internet searches for diet. Volume cuts in half by Jan. 5
84. @Fancy_Lad Harder to hate on Farmville now. RT @40deuce: World Food Programme raised $1.5M through Farmville in 5 days for Haiti #PRSA_IC
85. @Hill_KnowltonUS Here is our interview with Don Wright
86. @rdonley Hmm, hate it when presenters use slides you can’t actually read. i got an idea – enlarge the important part. Size matters.
87. @sarahsmbrown How much time do you spend setting conditions of satisfaction with clients? Up front planning saves time at the back end.
88. @pujasheth http://Love146.org has a heartwrenching story behind how they found their brand name. They’re trying to stop sex slavery and explotation.
89. @sbwalt78 I believe sardines may have more room in their can than we do in conf rooms.
90. @toryk I find it hilarious to look around a huge ballroom full of people, a prime time for networking, to find everyone on their phone.
91. @YoTodd I mostly tweet & share just so I can find the info again later RT @prsanews Influencers: Arent we just talking to ourselves online #prsa_ic
92. @rdonley If filled up 20 gallon gas tank at $4 / gallon with printer ink, would cost $462,000!, says @JeffreyHayzlett. Slams HP.
93. @aribadler If we can put a man on the moon, we can find a way to bring WiFi into a hotel.
94. @mvallbona If you don’t value relationships you won’t value social media – @CharleneLi
95. @Carriejs If you’re a solo practitioner & only do 3 things @bgindra says to start a blog, get on Twitter & develop a blog commenting strategy.
96. @pujasheth Influence can be made. Passion can’t.
97. @sallyfalkow Influence comes from providing real value to your community.
98. @prweb Influence is a lot about listening–It’s also about educating: @geoffliving
99. @toryk Influence is about being a daily servant to community: @geoffliving
100. @derekdevries Interesting diversity of opinion on whether/not ppl read more/varied news due to serendipity enabled by sharing thru social media.
101. @francishopkins Interesting recurring themes at #PRSA_IC: monitor social media for ROI, PR is driving marketing more & PR must be integrated with web.
102. @rdonley Internet has become pervasive, e-trail we leave is rich, listen to conversation, we are what we click – @BillTancer
103. @derekdevries Jim VanDehei discusses journo/mass medua/ad landscape: barely scratches surface of web 2.0 potential – still relies on old biz model.
104. @40deuce Just in case you didn’t know; Twitter is the best place to promote a blog.
105. @visionspr Just learned about free online polling tool for a small group by using texts.
106. @dskaletsky just saw someone using a Palm Pilot at #prsa_ic. Seriously. I did. With the stylus and everything…why do I feel nervous for him?
107. @40deuce Know the difference in Terms of Use between personal use and advertising use in social media.
108. @BLassiter Know which of your company’s top 100 website referrers are media outlets.
109. @rdonley Kodak is not in the film business, but in emotional technology business – @JeffreyHayzlett
110. @JessLeeds Kodak’s waterproof camera was difficult to name-a popular Twitter contest made that happen – @JeffreyHayzlett
111. @swissnexSF Lady Gaga has more twitter followers than some publications total subscribers.
112. @CSUFPRSSA Least busy day for adult entertainment is Friday. Traffic increases when weather is colder.
113. @jwmorganjr Lee Odden says to be sure to monitor wired journalists and muck rack.
114. @prsa Life and Work: Cheryl Procter-Rogers Talks Balance With @ontherecord
115. @dcaplick Look 4 reg. daily events 2 test crisis comms cntr setups now, b4 U-know-what hits the fan; also develop crisis equip kit & practice.
116. @PRSAtactics Looking at trending search terms is part of listening to the conversation – @BillTancer
117. @jennalanger Love that ppl are talking @Livefyre at #PRSA_IC. Want in to the private beta? Sign up at http://livefyre.com & we’ll send you an invite!
118. @LaraK Loved @prblog’s take on #prsa_ic’s hashtag identity blues
119. @PRSAtactics Luescher says Western world is lucky; don’t know ;bleach in the stomach feeling of real hunger that 7 mill ppl that UN helps face.
120. @NikL1212 Luescher: We’re giving girls extra cooking oil. It’s enough for their families 2 allow them 2 attend school.
121. @davispr Luescher: What you miss in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, you can never make up.
122. @CubanaLAF Making news free was journalists biggest downfall. (Information is always worth something).
123. @Infoition Many consumers hit 25+ news sources daily. Absolute necessity to truly understand which sources matter – Jim VandeHei
124. @AnnWylie Measure on shoestring: Google alerts, Twitter results, Survey Monkey, LinkedIn polls, Twitpolls – @shonali
125. @prsa_ic Mining Search Trends San Antonio: Byline Blog – @BillTancer
126. @Lainie_Bradshaw Monitoring of SM should be: 1. Timely 2. Credible. 3. Relevant. 4. Trustworthy.
127. @PRVille Most needed skills for PR pros according to new PRSA Survey? Social Media and Crisis Comm. Media Relations #7th- @McClennan
128. @saidlikefarrah My 1st conf session ever to discuss menstruation & sanitary napkins. P&G’s cause to keep girls in school in 3rd wrld countries.
129. @derekdevries New (more accurate) news readership data Pulling the curtain back on 100 years of overcharging for advertising – @hatchjt
130. @40deuce New business can contact you through social media easier than by phone or email sometimes.
131. @NSyzdek Newer pros spend more time in social and media rel. Senior pros focus on global comms and issues mgt. Interesting.
132. @derekdevries News organizations need to get over it; stop worrying about Google and start worrying about yourself – @hatchjt
133. @derekdevries News orgs need journos more than vice versa. Everyone now has ability 2 publish; news has brand…for now – @hatchjt
134. @Kentarawil No Free Wifi at PRSA International Conference – Here’s Why [Borderless Networks? Not quite there yet]
135. @40deuce Not every company needs it’s own twitter handle. If your employees have one, just create a company hashtag and have them use it.
136. @pvolmar Now listening to @cheshirelad [That’s me!] present about Speechwriting in the Age of Social Media Slideshare PPT.
137. @pujasheth Odden: Add links that matter to your site. Relinking is the electricity of the web and Google.
138. @richardbagnall On going theme of this conference is the speed of change + the need to embrace it.
139. @stickycat Once again, session is not what I thought. Public Affairs is NOT about the Chilean Miner w/wife & mistress. Booooo.
140. @kkimberl Paid Search teams are working more closely w/ PR to know the conersation about their brand.
141. @bonnieupright People answer surveys how they think you want them to answer – @BillTancer
142. @BUPRSSA PR has the best uses for internet search data, helps you listen to what’s out there.
143. @NatashaSeitz PR has to be constantly evolving-what we did three months ago doesn’t work and what we do now won’t work in three months – Jim VandeHei
144. @ashleytravels PR has to be constantly evolving-what we did three months ago doesn’t work and what we do now won’t work in three months.
145. @jania99 PR people are analytical but creativity is what gives us an edge.Yay PR!
146. @krisTK PR pros must be able to work w all media. Trad media will be around for next 10-20 yrs. After that, we’ll see, per @politico
147. @kkimberl Press releases aren’t dead if you use SEO and SM. Its about the whole strategy, not the tools.
148. @JustinSHubbard PR’s value has more than one metric. Stop looking at just sales – @kdpaine
149. @PRNewsonline PRSA Conf: Ian Griffin, speechwriter for Cisco–writing tip: Use LinkedIn Groups and Polls for target audience research.
150. @prsa_ic PRSA Conference After Hours.
151. @prsanews PRSA Conference: a few observations via crisisblogger
152. @podcasteve PRSA_IC needs to give training in how to use/not use Powerpoint. Reading huge text slides to me is a big fail.
153. @prsa_ic PRSSA Inaugural Ball Awards Ceremony.
154. @dcaplick Pub Info Officers are the counselors to the CEO Tony Haywards of this world to try to prevent sound bites like his.
155. @EAHolzhauer Public Relations is NOT a TACTIC…Public Relations is a Strategic Communication Counseling Tool…Exactly!
156. @derekdevries Re: Save PR – look @ trust poll #s trad news has little cred to confer on blogs. New model: 1-to-1 trust bldg thru soc networks.
157. @Carriejs Re: pr agency websites: As an industry we aren’t walking the walk. Stop with stock photography & tons of copy. Show your work.
158. @derekdevries Reaching audiences, esp young ppl means demonstrating direct relevence to their daily lives; teaching reverence 4 news won’t stick.
159. @toryk Realize that alone is nothing, together it’s what we do. Community.
160. @Ashley_Walters Relevance + sharability = buzz.
161. @daveyarmon Reporter on @NasdaqOMX panel admits to threading Lady Gaga into story on utility stocks to boost SEO rankings.
162. @prsa_ic Save the PR Industry: Support Traditional Media.
163. @jonathan_rhudy See how your website stacks us with competitors via http://www.compete.com
164. @kdpaine Seems like EVERYONE (or at least every exhibitor) is now in the social media monitoring business at #PRSA_IC.
165. @MaurenKunz Show it, don’t tell it says @CGraves re: storytelling.
166. @sallyfalkow SM adoption now over 80%. Future will be savvy ppl in cos rather than agencies.
167. @kristoferkarol Small companies can now thrive because they can adapt to change easier – Jim VandeHei
168. @prsanews Social media brings PR back to the days before media relations & client emphasis on getting into the WSJ – @geoffliving
169. @sacevero Social media is enhancing & supplementing traditional media-trad. media isn’t dead-@kyestrance on the convergence of PR/marketing
170. @kellichristman Social media is more effective when it has a solid website to back it up. Yeah for the new http://Cerner.com!
171. @OnTheRecord Social Media is not new tools, it’s a new environment we need to learn to use – @jack_holt
172. @Lainie_Bradshaw Social media means anything w/a comment box, even an Amazon book review.
173. @stephskordas Social media puts us back in the role of ombudsmen so our clients can better navigate, connect with customers – @goeffliving
174. @toryk Social media returns us to old PR, puts us in touch with influencers.
175. @derekdevries Social Media will flip organizational leadership in favor of those who know how to use the tools & be authentic – @charleneli
176. @kplemon Social tech offers opp to build new relationships-the one constant among changing landscape – @CharleneLi
177. @kkimberl Social technologies will come and go, but the one constant is the relatioships you build – @charleneli
178. @jaywalk1 Socially Diverse Interview with @PapiBlogger
179. @BLassiter Start viewing your press release as a web page (embed links, videos, etc.) & have the consumer in mind as part of your audience.
180. @prsa_ic Staying On-Brand With Social Communication.
181. @davefletcher Staying On-Brand With Social Communication.
182. @jonathan_rhudy Strong communications should create a movie in the listener’s (or reader’s) mind – Oglivy CEO @Cgraves
183. @stephskordas Successful communities have more voices than one. Inspire, create, don’t infuse with brand messaging – @geoffliving
184. @prsa_ic Talking ROI at the PRSA Conference via @prnewser
185. @derekdevries Telling reality: Murdoch hasn’t pulled the trigger on de-listing from Google (all hat and no cattle).
186. @derekdevries Telling sign: American Society of Newspaper Editors has changed name to American Society of NEWS Editors
187. @JustinSHubbard The bottom line is not sales. It’s profit. Prove you can lower cost. Again, it’s business value – @kdpaine
188. @derekdevries The Internet has been great for journalism; it hasn’t been great for the journalism *industry* – @hatchjt
189. @40deuce The real measurement of social media comes from if your followers actually take some sort of action.
190. @ghidotti The same campaigns keep getting highlighted in these #prsa_ic sessions. Maybe #prsa should better screen presentations.
191. @CubanaLAF Thumbs up to PRSA for supporting the Barcelona Principles.
192. @stephskordas Time management tips: use filters in hootsuite to bring in good info from people – @dbreakenridge
193. @PRVille To journalists, 3 examples translates to a trend – @DavidSpinks
194. @statenewswire Top Newspaper Facebook Fan Pages
195. @kevin_sangsland Top skill desired by employers hiring PR candidates: writing. Relection of the value or writers or the scarcity?
196. @statenewswire Top U.S. Newspapers by Website Traffic.
197. @derekdevries Trad news industry / PR should worry more about audience apathy more than challenges to market share from blogs.
198. @cubanalaf Traditionally – Branding is associated with an object, not a person. Reputation is what personal branding is.
199. @40deuce Treat your blog like your own client and you’ll see it work a lot better.
200. @JohnFriedman True value of PR not measured in column inches or minutes of air time (or even tweets) but in changes in attitude/behavior.
201. @kdpaine Twitalyzer, Tweetdeck, Hubspot, Blog Grader to determine what people are talking about and who’s doing the talking – @sandrafathi
202. @Gabb_b Twitter was strategically used as a logistic aid tool, not just awareness, in the Haiti disaster.
203. @Carriejs Unfortunate that while speakers have been great, nearly all of the presentations at #prsa_ic use boring PowerPoint. And too much copy.
204. @40deuce Use Facebook to express your companies creativity and personality because people on FB are less interested in business there.
205. @AnnaRoseRotondi Use the 4 E’s to Get Social: Engage, Educate, Excite & Evangelize to build brand ambassadors – @JeffreyHayzlett
206. @jillpreston Use the language your customers are using in your communications. Know your key words or your communication is irrelevant.
207. @40deuce Use your company blog to show your company is a thought leader.
208. @alexpriest VandeHei: Even in 2006 people didn’t see the rapid changes in media coming.
209. @prsa_ic Video: Bettina Luescher, chief spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme interview.
210. @BonnieRiechert We are what we search and we are what we click. – @BillTancer
211. @davispr We should all be so good that our abilities outweigh our foibles – Ferne Bonomi, APR, Fellow PRSA, 2010 Patrick Jackson Award
212. @Cecy_M_Padilla We tend to overvalue the things we can measure, and undervalue the things we cannot – @CharleneLi
213. @amandamogul What Does It Mean to Be a Social Media Influencer?
214. @stephnewton What is the impact on society if we can so specifically choose the news we want that we are not exposed to new ideas?
215. @prsa_ic What Was the Best Lesson You Learned from Your Professor?
216. @jody_donohue When communications aren’t integrated it’s because of ego or a turf war-both of which are stupid.
217. @tammyRhoman When looking at data, open your eyes. Don’t let your notions overshadow the actual data – @BillTancer
218. @AshleyTravels When responding to negative criticism online 1) accept blame 2) show response & solution 3) take the discussion someplace else.
219. @derekdevries Why do conferences have speakers to announce the speakers who are announcing the *real* speaker? That’s 5 mins of Q&A were missing.
220. @heatherread Wishing all the speakers from #prsa_ic would publish a combined list of all the books and twitter feeds that they’ve recommended.[Like this?]
221. @sandraburrowes With 200 million mobile phones worldwide, PR pros need to ask How does my site look?; and How can it be found by mobile devices?
222. @prsa_ic Words That Get People to Do Things.
223. @Ashley_Walters World Food Programe used Twitter for internal operations during Hati relief, updating each other w/ road closings, food drops, etc
224. @Matt_Hopkins Write up on lecture by Dr Rawlins.
225. @NikL1212 You must embrace emotion – @CGraves on effective storytelling.
226. @jwmorganjr Young public relations professionals who work in ad agencies are lucky to make $35,000 a year.
227. @SarahBondKSU Younger audiences learned effectiveness of communicating many-to-many (status updates) vs. 1-1 comms (email)- @CharleneLi

Nancy Duarte has done it again.

Her new book, resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, is a prequel to the best-selling slide:ology, which set a new standard for excellence in PowerPoint design. Resonate is the book to read before you read slide:ology, because it explains how to understand audiences, create persuasive content and structure a talk before firing up PowerPoint.

The book equals slide:ology’s beauty, sharing the same high production standards and stunning graphics. But don’t be seduced by its design or the misled by the subtitle. My one complaint with resonate is that the subtitle is too limiting. It’s far more than a book on how to “present visual stories”; rather, it’s an extensive listing of the secrets and essential truths of the best storytellers and public speakers, whether they use visuals or not.

Whereas Duarte’s first book explored the intricacies of design and the contrasts of the color wheel, resonate explores the intricacies of storytelling and effective ways to build emotional contrasts into the core of the speakers’ message.

The book not only opposes the cultural norm that presentations are nothing more than written reports, filled with mind-numbing detail; it also stands firmly on the side of the speaker who tells a story, crafted to produce an emotional response and deliver a memorable experience. Stories, Duarte explains, have conveyed meaning to audiences through the ages. They’ve been a tool of persuasion since the earliest myths were told around campfires.

Hearts and minds

The fundamental secret of changing the audience’s minds, Duarte tells us, is to tell a story that resonates with them:

The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them. Skilled presenting requires you understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what’s already there.

The strength of the book is the clarity with which Duarte explains, step by step, how to change the minds of an audience. From the screenwriter who opens a movie with an inciting incident to an understanding of the stages of the hero’s journey in a novel, Duarte explains how to deliver presentations where something magical happens. Of course, that means her suggestions can be used for good or evil; for example, she explains how Enron executives used presentations as a propaganda device to spread lies and defraud thousands. Fortunately, her other case studies describe presentations which change the world for the better, with inspirational messages that convey feeling, emotion and meaning.

‘Sparklines’

Duarte has invented a powerful analytical tool she calls a “sparkline” to map the structure of any speech. A sparkline is a graphical representation of a presentation that shows the points at which it moves between describing “what is” to describing “what could be.” Color-coding and text-positioning on the sparkline reveal the “shape” of a particular presentation and map the audience response by noting laughter and applause. No two sparklines are alike, because no two presentations are alike.

Sparklines offer communications professionals a way to make an impact in the C-Suite. Anyone with the time (and courage) to create a sparkline analyzing executive speeches in your own organization will now be able to deliver a report on the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation that can be grasped at a glance.

Turning information into stories

If you are responsible for executive communications in the corporate world, you’ll appreciate the practical steps Duarte shares that turn abstract information into emotionally appealing stories. Her case study on how her company—Duarte Design—transformed a single high-tech product slide into a story with a “hero” who faces conflicts and challenges that the product then solves, shows what can be achieved with a little creative effort.

The creative process that Duarte Design uses with clients such as Cisco Systems, Google, Adobe and Microsoft is outlined for all of us to learn and apply as we grow in our careers. As Dan Post, the President of Duarte Design, says in the foreword:

If great presentations were easy to build and deliver, they wouldn’t be such an extraordinary form of communication. Resonate is intended for people with ambition, purpose, and an uncommon work ethic. Applied with passion and purpose, the concepts in this book will accelerate your career trajectory or propel your social cause …. Few pursuits in professional self-improvement have as much professional leverage.

Changing the world

Duarte’s real heroes are those people who give speeches that change the world, none more so than Dr. Martin Luther King. Her sparkline analysis of his I Have a Dream speech is worth the price of the book. She analyses the “shape” of King’s speech as it moves from what is to what could be, highlighting the use of repetition, dramatic pauses and metaphor to change the minds of his audience and ultimately change the world.

This review was originally published in ragan.com.

Dennis Bumstead was General Manager of, and is now an adviser to, the Global Cooperation Project. He is an adviser to new initiatives, Four Years Go and the Green Tea Party, and a seed group member of his local Transitions Town initiative in Lake County, California. After teaching, at M.I.T., and at London and Antioch Universities; consulting to Fortune 500 corporations and working for The World Bank, for the past decade he has been recovering, by, amongst other things, working in the non-profit world – since 2006 with the Global Cooperation Project, promoting the ideas in Not-Two Is Peace by Adi Da.

The Global Crisis is Deadly, Dangerous – and it can be Overcome
by Dennis Bumstead, PhD

“The future is either going to be catastrophic disaster, or it is going to be the turnabout moment in human history, in which humankind will step out of its dark ages of “tribalism” into a new mode of human cooperative order.” Adi Da, Not-Two Is Peace, The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order.

While there are many encouraging grass roots efforts to change the monstrous trundling to destruction of the old global order, (take Avaaz, for just one), as yet there is still no widespread, really full consideration of our seriously threatening situation. Nothing seems to address the global totality of the escalating crises we are in.

Even thoughtful economist critics, such as Krugman, Stiglitz, Roubini and Sachs, who indicate that proposed economic solutions are not enough, confine most of their proposals to the economic and political sub-sectors of the total system.

We need change which is economic and political, but also social, and cultural, and psychological and spiritual. Truly transformative change.

The dire situation in the Third World

For those in the Third World, the escalating global crisis comes on top of system-endemic depredations of poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation. Some two billion people are trying to survive on just two dollars a day. They also suffer the effects of the many wars which are conducted, sponsored or ignored (and always armed) by the so-called “developed” nations. Globally, we are making the absurd decision to let a third of humanity starve, if wars or preventable diseases don’t get them first. This is the great civilization, which we tell each other and our kids in school, has been “evolving” magnificently since the Renaissance!

The establishment global institutions, the corporate / governmental / military and “security” apparatus, the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and big media obviously do useful and even many well intentioned things. But essentially they sustain the status quo, and its accruing benefits to the “developed” nations, and principally to the 2% who own and run these institutions. There is far more reporting on the “shape” of the recession (flat, double dip, etc.) than on the daily fact that under present rules of the game, the recession is a death sentence for millions of people in the Third World. These are people who would not need to die if the global system were managed for the benefit of all, instead of for the few.

Al Gore has been a sustained and effective communicative voice for environmental change. But that is only part of the problem and environmental challenges are not soluble without radical change in other arenas. Many alternative writers and activists like Hazel Henderson and David Korten likewise address critical sub-sets of the issues. Paul Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest suggested some years ago that there is a mostly invisible movement already tackling many of the issues. That is encouraging. But most of us who have been part of that world for years or even decades know how frustrating and difficult it is to move on to the level of change needed.

A full alternative: The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order

In Not-Two Is Peace Adi Da addresses the issues comprehensively.

The book spells out:

• what the problems are
• why the existing global system cannot and will not continue
• that it will be determined, by our understandings and actions, “in the next handful of years” whether catastrophe or regeneration ensues
• a proposal for the formation of a Global Cooperative Forum, functioning on the basis of “prior unity” and managing the globe for the benefit of all instead of the few.

(The book does not spell out a detailed action program. That must come from intelligent, creative and necessarily cooperative response and action.)

Adi Da points out that the world’s political economy simply cannot continue, built as it is on a model of growth for the developed and depletion for the “developing”. The system as is simply unsustainable, as more and more nation-”tribes” try to get in on the so-called “good life”.

These ideas make sense to “early adopters” – those who are already have noticed that attempting to reinstall the status quo is not working and who are already exploring and engaging real alternatives.

The book is fundamentally very clear. But its offers plenty of challenges to us all – because it calls for change we all fear is impossible and it addresses the way-deep conventions of global life that we all carry into the fray.

“Something new must emerge”

Adi Da spoke and wrote about these issues all his life. Beginning with a speech on prejudice and tolerance that he gave in high school in the 1950s, in various books, and summarily in Not-Two Is Peace. He spoke about the seriousness and urgency of the global situation on the last day of his earthly life, November 27, 2008. What he said was recorded and appears as the last chapter in the current edition of Not-Two Is Peace. These are the last paragraphs :

Civilization is in crisis. The human world altogether is in crisis. The notions of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life are showing themselves to be illusions–very tentative, and able to be enjoyed by only a relative few. And the relative few who enjoy such life-conditions do so at the expense of others–and, in fact, on the basis of the suffering and exploitation of others.

Something new must emerge. That something new is not going to emerge from the pattern of nation-states, or even from the gathering of nation-states (in the form of the United Nations). That something new can only emerge from everybody-all-at-once–the power of humankind as a totality.

Humankind as a totality must relinquish the old civilization. It must accept that the old civilization is dead, the old civilization is gone, useless, non-productive. The old civilization can no longer provide security, longevity, freedom from need, and life-enjoyment for people. Less and less can the old civilization do anything useful at all. The old civilization is now profoundly degraded, and will only get worse with time.

A new mode of social contract must emerge–a mode of social contract not founded on egoity. There must now be an egoless mode of social contract–based on cooperation, tolerance, and universal participation and accountability. Such is the nature of the necessary global cooperative order.

In order for such a global cooperative order to come into being, there must be a core institution based on the universal participation and accountability of everybody-all-at-once. I call that core institution the Global Cooperative Forum. The Global Cooperative Forum is the necessary transformative movement on Earth. (pp307-8)

So……

We have some time – a few years – and we need to act, boldly. Immediate global catastrophe (as predicted frequently in the blogosphere) is not likely – in the short term. For just “a handful of years”, we will see continuing economic recession together with “moderate or localized disasters” (oil spills, local wars etc.) not in the least moderate for those directly affected, of course, but not yet the complete local and global catastrophe. For now, since the South American economic crisis of ’97 and on other occasions including the global crisis of ’08, the powers-that-be have demonstrated some significant, if last minute, capacity to prevent total global meltdown and sustain some functionality, in the interests of …. the illusory status quo.

Of course, it’s true that “in the long run, we are all dead” as Mr Keynes famously said, (and as Buddhists and other wise traditions have been saying for 2,500 years or so), but if the Global Cooperative Forum, as proposed in Not-Two Is Peace, is launched within a few years, significant improvements in global functionality can be made including some, like climate management, which will take an extended time for effective reversal of damaged systems.

There are thousands of large and small efforts underway, all working for global change. Efforts like Transition Towns, to give just one example. Many of them are collected together on Hawken’s Wiser Earth site. These efforts can come into effective cooperation through a Global Cooperative Forum. No utopias are to be expected, but there are much better ways than business as usual! If we take such cooperative action the planet can reach a state of equanimity so all of us can begin to live truly human lives.

What better to do with the next couple of years?

Not-Two Is Peace: The Ordinary People’s Way of Global Cooperative Order, by Adi Da can be read on-line at http://www.da-peace.org/