For me, the apex of excitement is the moment just before I take the stage. I have a compelling and timely topic. I’ve added a splash of humor to the presentation. And I am ready to bring a level of energy and enthusiasm to connect with the audience.
During the past two years, I have been fortunate to keynote or serve as a panelist at a myriad of profile industry conferences. In 2013, it was the Inbound Marketing Summits in San Francisco and Boston. Last year I graced the agenda at the Mid Atlantic Marketing Summit, Digital East and Government IT Sales Summit.
Each event afforded wonderful visibility for Strategic Communications Group (Strategic), and conferred credibility to my standing as an expert in content marketing, social media engagement and digital communications.
You can review videos of my event keynotes and panels at this link. As you’ll see, my training and experience performing stand-up comedy plays well, and has helped me craft and engaging and entertaining style.
I am now in the process of soliciting conference speaking slots for this year. My goals are to raise interest among marketers in Web2Sales and promote my soon-to-publish book about best practices in this emerging area.
With this in mind, I invested a couple of hours this weekend watching YouTube clips of conference speakers and presenters. I find tremendous value in the study of style and delivery, adding new elements to my own approach.
Check out the video below of Jim Valvano’s motivational talk from 1987 entitled “Cutting Down the Nets.” The college basketball coach and broadcaster who died in 1993 provides compelling insight delivering in a wildly amusing and engaging manner.
The video runs nearly 50 minutes, yet viewing it is time well spent.