The New Year brings new opportunities for speechwriters to attend conferences and seminars that will help them hone their skills, network with colleagues, meet potential clients and learn how to pursue freelance assignments or corporate speechwriting jobs.
Since I can’t attend all the excellent events out there (although I’d like to), I’m basing my decision on the answer to one question: Which conference will best help me build my freelance speechwriting business?
An overview of each event’s presentation topics will help me decide.
First, there’s the annual Speechwriters Conference sponsored by Ragan Communications and PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America), February 10-12 in Washington, D.C. I’ve attended this conference in the past and found the participants – both presenters and attendees – dynamic, engaging and informative. I walked away from this two-day event with lots of contacts, new ideas and action steps to take.
This year, keynote speakers include Paul Murphy, chief speechwriter at GM; an all-star panel of female speechwriters, and presenting speechwriters from companies and organizations as diverse as BP America, Eli Lilly, the Department of Transportation, Edelman, Intuit and the U.S. Army.
The two-day conference has two tracks – Track 1 is Basic Speechwriting; Track 2 is Advanced Speechwriting. Sessions in Track 1 include how to find and use evidence to drive your arguments home; strategies for becoming a thought-leader; finding new inspiration for your speechwriting; tips for young speechwriters, and using humor in speeches.
Track 2 includes presentations on getting your executive to master tough talk in hard times; the importance of body language in speaking; writing speeches with business impact; using social media to magnify the impact of your speeches, and what freelance speechwriters wish they knew.
In addition, there are meals, cocktail parties and networking events. All in all, sounds like a wonderful and meaningful couple of days.
A second upcoming conference is sponsored by Communitelligence, Vital Speeches of the Day and the Phoenix chapter of PRSA. It’s called “Executive
Communications and Speechwriting in the New Media Age.” It takes place in Phoenix February 24-25.
Sessions on the first day include preparing your executives for speeches with trust and ease and a speechwriting “jam session,” in which attendees will hear excerpts from contemporary and classic speeches which reveal how leaders are addressing today’s business, political and social issues.
On the second day, attendees will learn: what your CEO and senior executives should be saying now; how to make your executive communications program really strategic; understanding and managing the new social reputation; protecting your reputation when all hell breaks loose, and how to localize your global brand.
The luncheon keynote, presented by the president and CEO of Henkel Consumer Goods and his vice president of corporate communications, is: “My boss and I: What a great CEO – communicator team looks like.” In the afternoon, experts will lead discussions on real-world communications issues and their solutions.
David Murray, editor of Vital Speeches of the Day, will moderate some sessions, and speakers include Steve Soltis, director of executive communications at the Coca-Cola Company; Brian Danielson, head of strategic executive communications at UPS; Ken Askew, former White House speechwriter; Al Maag, chief communications officer at Avnet, Brad Whitworth, senior communications manager at Cisco (invited); and Shane McLaughlin, communications manager and speechwriter, Nokia.
This event also sounds wonderful and very beneficial. However, there’s no track for freelance speechwriters like me.
The final speechwriters’ event I’ve reviewed is a seminar offered by Joan Detz, in my mind a speechwriting “guru.” Ms. Detz has a long and sterling reputation as a “go to” person on speechwriting. When I was at IBM, several speechwriters were sent to her class. I recall it was an excellent session on the nuts and bolts of speechwriting, plus how a speechwriter could be creative, imaginative and truly shine.
Ms. Detz currently offers a number of speechwriting workshops from her home base in Philadelphia. One of them, slated for April 10, is “The Business of Six-Figure Speechwriting: How to Succeed…on Staff or Freelance.” She’s got my attention already.
The seminar will show attendees how to identify lucrative assignments; tap into the market for international speeches; learn about openings for staff speechwriters; handle the speechwriting interview; prepare a professional portfolio; know what you’re worth – either freelance or on staff; get referrals to grow your business; handle and charge for “rush” jobs; survive even when you lose your best client (my situation exactly); spot problem clients before you agree to work for them; work as part of a speechwriting team; use media attention to build your professional profile, and find virtual assignments so you can work from anywhere.
In evaluating these speechwriting conferences and workshops, I returned to my original question: Which event will best help me build my freelance speechwriting business?
I think the answer is Joan Detz’s workshop. The other conferences sound fabulous and if I were at a different point in my career or had more funds, I might have made a different choice or attended more than one.
But Joan Detz’s seminar speaks directly to my situation as a freelance speechwriter and I believe I’ll come away knowing much more about how to identify potential clients and market my services to them.
This year, I hope you’ll also have the opportunity to take a class or attend a conference that will help you meet your speechwriting goals for 2010.
Happy New Year.
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Hi Cindy - thanks for sharing your thinking on this. I think you made the right decision. I wish I could go to Joan’s seminar too, although I am already doing something special with our daughter that weekend. We’ll have to compare notes! Thanks for reminding me to keep focused on the “freelance” element - it really is a different beast.
Hi Cindy:
Thanks for summarizing the Agenda for these events.
I’m presenting at the Ragan Conference in DC on Magnifying the Impact of a Speech with Social Media. I’ve created a Presentation Home Page where an outline of my talk, and draft slides are available. For anyone not able to make the event, this is one way to access the content. You can also follow the conversations at the event with the #ragandc hashtag in Twitter.