Fighting Talk
By Graham Davies The attention span of every audience, at every event, in every country is shorter than it has ever been before. In an industry that is all about providing the best possible environment for live communication, we have to be outstanding in the way that we convey our own messages. In the international meetings fight club, there is a never-ending battle for people’s time and attention. The main evil you have to combat is the almost uncontrollable urge for them to look at their Blackberry.
This is the sort of presentational challenge that I relish. At the start of my Keynote, I ask everyone in the audience to take out their phones and switch them ON. I tell them that if they decide that an incoming caller is likely to be more interesting and useful to them than what I am saying, then they should go out and carry on with the call.
“In the international meetings fight club, there is a never-ending battle for people’s time and attention.”
Whether it's in a Conference Keynote, Boardroom Meeting or teleconference, we all have a continuous need to be sharper, leaner and faster in the way that we persuade others to share our point of view. Fighting Talk will demonstrate how to save time and still make an impact, using a robust and repeatable methodology that can be adapted to any presentational situation. I also use examples from both business and politics to show the disastrous (and sometimes hilarious) consequences of getting content and delivery wrong.
My mission is to show you how to be as professional in your spoken communication as you are in every other aspect of your business.
Join Graham Davies for Fighting Talk, a session at the 2010 Meeting and Events Conference. Register now.