I participated in a "dine around" last night with five strangers from the speechwriters conference. Dine arounds are set up by the conference planners to allow attendees to have more networking time. You identify the restaurant you want to eat at and they place you with others who picked the same one. My group was all women, but that was about where my commonalities with the group left off. I was the oldest, the only single person and the only person from a manufacturing company. Two people were from universities, two from insurance companies, and one from a hospital. I was also the only person with a non-public affairs/communications background.
The conversation was pleasant enough. We banged around through our work experiences. I was able to contribute to discussions about video production and infographics since I have done and used both. It was interesting to hear tales from the front lines of people trying to shape the words of CEOs and other highly placed executives. You don't get to be a high level executive without great confidence and therefore, the belief that you are a good speaker. Speechwriters are an interesting group. Through the workshops, I saw a lot of gifted writers in the crowd. But a part of me kept secretly thinking, "speechwriter is just a fancy word for spin-master". The job of a speechwriter is to polish up the speaker so he/she makes compelling points. Attending this conference was a bit like peering behind the wizard’s curtain. I’ll never look at an executive speech the same way again.
My dinner companions openly shared their stories and I learned from them. But when the conversation turned to breast feeding and best techniques for mothers on business travel I was like, "oh, look at the time!"
The conversation was pleasant enough. We banged around through our work experiences. I was able to contribute to discussions about video production and infographics since I have done and used both. It was interesting to hear tales from the front lines of people trying to shape the words of CEOs and other highly placed executives. You don't get to be a high level executive without great confidence and therefore, the belief that you are a good speaker. Speechwriters are an interesting group. Through the workshops, I saw a lot of gifted writers in the crowd. But a part of me kept secretly thinking, "speechwriter is just a fancy word for spin-master". The job of a speechwriter is to polish up the speaker so he/she makes compelling points. Attending this conference was a bit like peering behind the wizard’s curtain. I’ll never look at an executive speech the same way again.
My dinner companions openly shared their stories and I learned from them. But when the conversation turned to breast feeding and best techniques for mothers on business travel I was like, "oh, look at the time!"