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Speaking Tips Resource Guide

Here is a wonderful roster of speaking tips and related websites:

www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html

Strive to Be Creative

I know people who will take courses on topics completely out of their field, who try new dishes at restaurants, and who strive to keep themselves open to new ideas. The odd and wonderful thing is you can do all kinds of new and different activities in your personal life that will serve to stimulate your creativity at work, break free of attachment, and overcome the inertia of immobility when you want to get things done. Here are a few ideas:

At work:
* Take a planned 15-minute break twice daily
* Eat away from your desk
* Brainstorm with people not in your department
* Furnish your workspace with plants, pictures, or art that inspires you
* Learn some aspect of the organization that is completely foreign to you

Away from work:
* Change your magazine subscriptions
* Read a literary novel or epic
* Dress differently for different occasions
* Relax on your porch
* Install a hammock in your backyard

In general, to develop your awareness:
* Take an impromptu weekend trip to someplace you haven't visited
* Enroll in a course
* Join a book discussion group
* Volunteer at a charity
* Take up a new sport

Save Time & Money

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE offers eight tips for corporate meeting planners to save time and money:

Tip #1. After every meeting and event, do an "after action analysis." Write down what went right, what went wrong, what you would do differently if you were planning the meeting today, and who the vendors were who made your life easier.

Tip #2. In hiring vendors, do not always go for the lowest price. Whoever you hire, it affects your image. Reliability and follow-through are more important than a lower bid. Everyone is downsizing and looking for new ways to cut costs, but a vendor at a lower price may not be the answer.

Tip #3. Learn to make other people heroes. Whether dealing with vendors or people in other departments of your own company, if the person works hard and well, write a note of thanks to them and send a copy to their boss.

Tip #4. Make sure your speaker knows the terms used in your associationi.e. these people use "clients" not "customers." Also, alert the speaker to particulars of his/her audience...for example, mention the women in the audience are members, not spouses. One professional speaker was not warned and spoke "down" to his audience, making them feel bad, and the meeting planner look bad.

Tip #5. If you do mailings before a meeting or convention, be sure to put the speaker on the mailing list. This way the speaker knows what else is going on at the meeting, what the various topics are, if the schedule has been revised, and if his/her speaking time has been changed and no one remembered to tell the speaker.

Tip #6. If you are expecting a speaker to arrive the night before an event, leave them a note asking them to let the meeting planner know they have actually arrived. If you know the speaker has in fact arrived, you will undoubtedly sleep better. Leave an emergency number where you can always be reached.

Tip #7. Don't save the best for the last. Often corporations take their top performers to a fancy resort for a meeting of several days. They have one important outside speaker and they want to send the employees back to work with a bang. You will get more value for your money if you schedule the speaker the first day instead of the last. At the end of the conference the employees may be tired, hungover, or worried about packing and making the plane.

Tip #8. Use E-mail. Get on-line with networks of meeting planners who can share their experiences. Find a group similar to yours and find out the names of the most successful speakers they have used and which vendors made their lives difficult or easy.

Call 800 634-3035 or email PFripp@Fripp.com to request other articles.

Warning up the Audience

Some of the best speakers I know employ a tried and true technique for warming up an audience: getting them to offer applause, three times, early in the session. For example, I recall someone effectively using this approach: "Let's give a hand for the food service people who prepared and delivered our breakfast this morning. Also let’s recognized the people at (organization) who flew me in to be here with you. How about a round of applause for them? Last, and certainly not least, how about yourselves? You took time out of your busy schedules to be here. Let’s have a round of applause for everyone here."

At this point, what audience wouldn’t be focused, ready to listen, applaud, and have a good time?

Flying to Your Next Conference?

Airline Travel Trips

If you're flying mid-day, wear your sunglasses because ultraviolet rays from the sun are more potent--especially if you're flying above the clouds. To read, lower the window cover and use the overhead lighting.

Carry your own small water bottle on board to avoid having to ask flight attendants for drinks. Also, when the meal is served before the beverage, you're able to wet your whistle while you eat. Half the battle of flying is remaining hydrated. It's better to go to the restroom four times
because you've been hydrating yourself than to land exhausted and need four days to catch up.

Bring your own snacks (carrots, sliced cucumbers, other watery vegetables; apples, pears, and other fruits), but not candy or dead carbohydrates such as chips, crackers, or dehydrating foods. Even the worst of airline meals will go down more easily if you eat your own nutritious snacks before or after. These will help keep you regular, and your whole trip will go better.

The Wisdom of Staying on Time

Here a few ideas from EffectiveMeetings.com on the topic of staying on time:

* State that the meeting will begin promptly at the scheduled time and that all participants should be on time.

* Send a reminder e-mail thirty minutes before the meeting begins and encourage meeting participants to arrive on time.

* Ensure that you begin the meeting at the scheduled time. If you've encouraged others to be prompt, don't embarrass yourself by showing up late.

* Close the meeting room doors at the scheduled time.

* If your meeting starts a little late, still finish the meeting at the scheduled time. It's inconsiderate to assume the participants' schedules revolve around your meeting, so wrap up the meeting when you promised.

* Consider creating a "latecomer jar" to which meeting participants must contribute one dollar for each minute they arrive late to meetings. At the end of the week, you can buy muffins or donuts for everyone who attended the meeting… courtesy of the latecomers!

Bargaining with Speakers

Are there instances when speakers can legitimately fit an organization's budget without altering their fees? "Absolutely" says negotiating specialist Jim Hennig, Ph.D. Speakers can legitimately charge different fees in different situations:

1. Multiple Engagements: two or more bookings deserve quantity discounts.

2. Dual Purpose Engagements: when the speaker accomplishes several thing at once speech.

3. A Shared Speaker: when an organization cannot afford a speaker, they include another organization to share the costs.

4. Product Sales: book, audio and other products:

5. Trades: Many speakers will trade for a needed product or service from host organization.

6. Different Fees for Special Groups: non-profit organizations, government agencies, etc

7. Time of Year Fees: lower fees for slow months, such as August or January.

Present like Steve Jobs

Writer Carmine Gallo assessed how Apple CEO Steve Jobs makes sterling presentations:

1. Set the theme.

2. Demonstrate enthusiasm.

3. Provide an outline.

4. Make numbers meaningful.

5. Try for an unforgettable moment.

6. Create visual slides.

7. Give 'em a show.

8. Don't sweat the small stuff.

9. Sell the benefit.

10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

For details see Business Week Online

Overcoming Audience Resistance

Noted speaker Nido Qubien has observed that "Barriers resulting from audience resistance fall into two categories: external factors that cause people to tune you out, and internal factors that prevent them from giving you their complete attention."

1) External Barriers
People often form first impressions on the basis of external factors say Qubien. "If the first impression is negative, you won't get the person's attention. Look for characteristics of dress, speech and actions that may be turning people off. If your dress is too casual, frivolous or distracting, you may be losing listeners. If your voice is strident, shrill or guttural, people may find you unpleasant to listen to. In certain areas, regional accents may turn people off. If you speak with a pronounced regional accent and are doing business in a region where that accent is not commonly heard, you may have to look for ways to overcome this barrier. You may want to work on acquiring a more generic accent. Or you may want to spend some time cultivating the person's confidence."

2) Internal Barriers
"Internal barriers to communication may stem from a lack of interest in what you're saying or a lack of understanding," he says. "If you discern a lack of interest, find some way to lead your listener to identify with your message. How does it concern your listener personally? What bearing does it have on the listener's job, income, health, family, or security? Once you establish that point of identity, you'll have attention."

In conclusion, "People have a way of erecting defense mechanisms and emotional barriers when they feel threatened by what you are saying or by the way you are saying it. Studies have repeatedly shown that people, like other creatures, feel protective of their territories. Invade those turfs, or act in a threatening manner, and you will be sure to turn off their attention. When your task is to deliver an unpleasant message or to persuade your listener to take some unpleasant action, look for ways to neutralize the negatives and to reassure the person who feels threatened."

Adding Humor to a Speech

Sprinkle in humorous quotes from family members.

Add a completely incongruous slide to your A/V presentation.

Prepare a ready list of comical "blooper comebacks" for possible miscues.

Offer a Davids Letterman-like "Top-10 list" related to your message.

Devise "What's In and What's Out" parody related to your topic.

Cut Through Dialing Clutter

Planning a meeting and when on the phone do you want to cut down how long you're either put on hold or forced to push an endless series of buttons? Visit www.gethuman.com for dialing short cuts to all the top airline, hotel, and travel sites.

It feels great to actually reach a live person in record time!

The How of Wow

Observations from The How of Wow by Tony Carlson:

* According to Carlson only 1 in 500 speeches is good enough to be remembered. To be among those remembered, Carlson says you need to give audiences insight, enlightenment, meaning, stimulation, wit, and entertainment.

* Few speakers ever rehearse enough. Every extra moment you have ought to go into rehearsing.

* Your opening line can be a shocker that lets the audience know you mean business. Don't be afraid to say something that people already suspect, but noone will say except for you.

* Show your vulnerability early in the speech.

The Laws of Lifetime Growth

Here are observations by author Dan Sullivan, from his book The Laws of Lifetime Growth: Always make your future bigger than your past, that would resonate with any audience:

Always make your:
Law 1: future bigger than your past
Law 2: learning greater than your experience.
Law 3: contribution bigger than your reward.
Law 4: performance greater than your applause.
Law 5: gratitude greater than your success.
Law 6: enjoyment greater than your effort.
Law 7: cooperation greater than your status.
Law 8: confidence greater than your comfort.
Law 9: purpose greater than your money.
Law 10: questions bigger than your answers.

Event Based Websites

www.MeetingsNet.com
www.RentalManagementMag.com
www.SpecialEvents.com

www.BizBash.com
www.Event-Solutions.com
www.ISES.com

Savings Down, so Amenities Up

In 2005, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, the nation's savings rate in 2005 fell to a negative 0.5 percent – most consumers spent all they were paid and then borrowed to spend even more. While there have been quarters in which Americans have shelled out more than they took in, this is the first time since 1933 – the height of the Great Depression – that consumers have done so for an entire year.

Nugget for meeting planners: include more amenities at meetings so that participants don’t end up paying more out of pocket.

Outlook on Conference Centers

Here’s a thought-provoking article on conference centers and why they are sometimes overlooked by meeting planners: Conference Centers: The almighty CMP is loosening up

“Conference centers aren't on many planners' radars, either because they don't know about conference centers, harbor confusion about them, or think they're too expensive to actually book…”

Results Rule!

Results Rule! Build a Culture that Blows the Competition Away, has been published by John Wiley & Sons. It share lessons the author, Randy Pennington, has learned from over 20 years of helping leaders and organizations build cultures focused on results. This book shows anyone – from the frontline to the boardroom – how to build and contribute to an organization that delivers results year after year after year. Results Rule! explains how to:

1. promote honesty and candor as you tell yourself the truth about how your organization is viewed and what is standing in the way of its success

2. pursue the best over the easiest in every decision and action

3. leverage the power of partnerships both internally and externally

4. focus the energy to make the main things the main thing and execute flawlessly

5. continuously learn, grow, and improve because past success proves you were right once

6. show the courage of accountability personally and promote a culture of accountability with others

If you purchase at least one copy of Results Rule! this week, the author will give you more than $75 worth of special gifts including:

a. A complimentary MP3 download of three of Randy's audio programs: Integrity-Driven® Leadership, Make Change Work, and the Results Rule! audio that led to the book ($29.95 value!)

b. A complimentary download of his first book, On My Honor, I Will: Leading with Integrity in Changing Times, in ebook format. ($14.95 value!)

c. A minimum 20% discount off the price of the book. Regularly $24.95, you pay only $19.96 or less!

Go to http://www.resultsrule.com/purchase.asp to get all the details.

Survive a Plane Crash

Here is advice extracted from Mens’ Health on how to minimize the chance of, or survive, a plane crash…

1. Favor nonstop flights: The fewer takeoffs and landings, the safer. Check the weather, including in places you'll land; if the weather could be severe, delay your departure. Call the airline or your travel agent to help you.

2. Reserve the seat next to the emergency exit. If taken, choose an aisle seat in the rear half of the cabin.

3. Pay attention to the safety demonstration, including the instructions on opening the emergency exit. Count the rows between you and the exit in ease the plane fills with smoke. Eyeball an alternate exit as well. Practice opening your seat belt.

To Prepare for Impact

1. Ensure your seat belt is tightly fastened and your seat is fully upright.

2. The best impact position according to the Flight Safety Foundation is the feet-flat-on-the-floor position.

3. Put your forearms across the top of your forehead. If you can lean forward from this position and brace yourself against the seat in front of you, do it. If you can't reach the seat, bend forward, wrap your arms around your shins, and put your face in your lap.

4. If you're over water, loosen your shirt (and tie) so your movement isn't restricted – you could be swimming soon. Be ready for two jolts: when the plane first hits water and when the nose hits.

5. Be ready to help yourself. Most survivors get out of a plane under their own power.