What do I love most about speechwriting? Hands down, it’s the research.
I love it when I first find out about the topic, the audience, where the event will take place.
What do I already know about the subject? Where will I get the additional information? Who is the audience? What are their pain points? What are they expecting my executive to say? Who are the other speakers on the agenda? What will they be talking about? How do my executive’s comments compliment theirs?
Where will the event take place? What town or city, what country? What’s special about this place? Why was it chosen for the event? Can I tie the speech setting to the topic itself?
I especially like tying the place to the topic. Here are a few examples:
I once wrote a speech for an IBM executive to deliver in Coventry, England. Through research, I discovered Coventry was where Lady Godiva made her fabled naked ride. The speech was on IBM’s contributions to new digital video monitoring platforms in England. In acknowledging the concerns surrounding extensive video monitoring, my executive suggested that if such technology were in place in Lady Godiva’s day, her ride would have been filmed and broadcast on the BBC.
In another speech, my executive was talking to the cable TV industry in San Francisco. I linked the cable industry to the famed cable cars which once traversed San Francisco’s streets.
In an IBM speech given in Las Vegas, I linked the sand of its desert with the sand used to make the silicon of computer chips.
Another Las Vegas speech in which my IBM executive spoke to a technology audience at cdXpo, gave me the opportunity to tie the place to the topic in a different way. Here’s the opening I wrote:
“Good morning.
“The selection of this city as the site for the first ever cdXpo is appropriate because both Las Vegas and the IT industry are case studies in innovation, change and renewal.
“Both owe their success to dreamers, pragmatists and entrepreneurs. And both appreciate what a little glitz, glamour and show biz can do for a business.
“First a community of Spanish explorers and then a Mormon missionary settlement, Las Vegas gave us the men who laid track for the Union Pacific and poured concrete for the Hoover Dam. They traveled the Santa Fe Trail, charged up San Juan Hill and created a gaming and entertainment capital from the dust of the desert.
“The computer industry boasts its own pioneers and explorers – we call them engineers, mathematicians and inventors.
“Las Vegas had Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday and Bugsy Siegel. The computer industry had Herman Hollerith, Tom Watson and Bill Gates.
“Las Vegas had the Rat Pack and the voices of Sammy, Frank and Dino. The computer industry had the Homebrew Computer Club and the voices of Wozniak, Jobs and Gordon French.
“Las Vegas and the IT industry started small, grew fast and never stopped striving for the ‘next big thing.’ In Las Vegas, it was mega‐resorts like MGM Grand and Bellagio. In the computer industry, it was the Internet and massively multiple‐user online gaming.
“Both Las Vegas and the IT industry continue to grow and prosper.
“Today, we’ll talk about an area of explosive growth – the anytime, anyplace, on any device, on‐demand world…and the key role of digital media in that world.”
A second speech was given by an IBM executive at a women’s entrepreneurship conference in Istanbul. This is the opening I wrote:
“Good morning.
“The last time I was in Istanbul, I had an experience many people have – I bargained with a street vendor over the price of an Oriental rug. I like to think I got a good deal; I suspect the seller feels the same way.
“It was the most basic of commercial transactions: I was competing with other buyers for the rug; the seller was competing with other rug‐sellers for my business.
“This centuries‐old practice is repeated every day on the Web. Buyers and sellers find each other and conduct business with the same efficiencies as Istanbul’s rug market.
“From a lone computer in her kitchen, a woman whose business is floor coverings can sell her rugs and carpeting to consumers, contractors and architects anywhere in the world. She would be just another e‐business engaged in digital trade.
“She might be part of a Web portal, an “extra‐net,” or a password‐protected Web site where businesses offer their products and services to online buyers.
“Like many other small‐ and medium‐sized businesses, she might also sell her rugs on eBay and other on‐line auction sites where she creates an ad with digitized product pictures and arranges electronic payment.
“She can purchase key words such as ‘Oriental rugs’ on Google or Yahoo. Each time someone searches those words, the ad for her rug business pops up. Each time a buyer clicks on her ad, she pays Google or Yahoo a few cents or dollars.
“Never before have there been so many opportunities for entrepreneurs to use e‐business and digital trade to sell their products and services in an anytime/anyplace world.
“This is going on right now. Let’s look at the ‘Next Generation Internet,’ the network of tomorrow…”
My advice? Have fun with research. Not only is it interesting in and of itself, but it will provide you with material to make your speeches memorable and to make your executive stand out and shine.
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