SPEAKER SERVICES NEWSLETTER, September 2002 http://speakerservices.com To unsubscribe: susan@speakerservices.com Remove in subject line Get Listed in the Directory: http://speakerservices.com/adv_pkt.html Content: 1. New & Renewing Speakers 2. Promotions/Advertising 3. Tips and Advice 4. A Note from the Publisher, Susan Levin 5. Articles: 1. When...You Run Out of Time On The Platform by Lilly Walters 2. Enhancing Volunteer-Driven Education by Doug Fox ***************************************** New Speakers for Sept '02 Entire List of Speakers http://speakerservices.com/categories/allspeak.html Alexandria K Brown: http://speakerservices.com/free/brown_alexandria.html Boost business by publishing your own e-mail newsletter! Carol Chanel: http://speakerservices.com/free/chanel_carol.html Life coach creates alignment with your soul's deepest values Dianne M Daniels: http://speakerservices.com/free/daniels_dianneM.html Consultant's color and image workshops improve profit and employee morale J J Flizanes: http://speakerservices.com/free/flizanes_jj.html "The Trainer of the trainers" solves your exercise equation Jeff Rubin: http://speakerservices.com/fee/rubin_j.html Journalist-entrepreneur creates success by combining marketing and basic human values. ************************************ PROMOTIONS/ADVERTISING Cartoon Resource provides affordable cartoons on all niche speaker/author topics. Stock and custom cartoons are available. Review thousands of outstanding cartoons on their searchable cartoon web site: www.cartoonresource.com. Clients include: Dr. Tina DuPree, Rita Risser, Larry Winget, Edna Junkins and scores of other successful speakers and authors. Contact: Andrew Grossman, Director: andrew@cartoonresource.com. 757-220-3076/757-220-3079 fax __________________________ John Alston, CPA, CPAE says, "I get e-mails from people who appreciate receiving our newsletter. I talk to people who say it's of value to them. It adds to our professionalism. It's an expense, but it's more of an investment. It generates good will and bookings." Get similar results by hiring Jeff Rubin to do your newsletter. Call/e-mail for great sample packet. Jeff Rubin 877/588-1212; jeff@put-it-in-writing.com. http://www.put-it-in-writing.com. __________________________ Introducing a simple, inexpensive way to find free and low-fee speaking opportunities! Simply Speaking is a new online service that simplifies the process with a database of organizations actively searching for speakers. The database may be searched by topic, date, or location. For more information, visit http://www.simplyspeaking.com or contact info@simplyspeaking.com. Phone: 866-372-8768. ****************************** TIPS and ADVICE Many professional speakers are also professional writers. A new edition of 'U-Publish.com' by independent publishing guru Dan Poynter and online marketing expert Danny O. Snow is now available at http://www.u-publish.com. This guide to new methods for book publishing and promotion helps authorsproduce books more economically, and sell more of them, using the latest technologies. __________________________ Cupid's Coach is an innovative web-based matchmaking service, offering FREE online registration. Clients aren't 'browsed' publicly, rather are referred discreetly and personally by founder, Julie Ferman, to other relationship-oriented, professional Clients. www.CupidsCoach.com 877-345-LOVE Bringing people together with high tech and high touch... ************************************************** A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER, SUSAN LEVIN As of this writing I am preparing to go on vacation to Oregon to visit family and friends. That's why you are receiving the newsletter a few days earlier than usual. If you have any interest in the speaking industry and would like to ask questions of the experts and you live in Los Angeles I encourage you to attend a Q & A Marathon: The Business of Speaking September 10 with Heidi Parr and me for only $35! Our classes have been selling out weeks in advance and I do have room in this one. To check the entire schedule take a look at http://speakerservices.com/services/la.html. If you feel that you would like assistance with designing a program for your specific needs I invite you to call me at 310-822-4922 to discuss your needs. One of the new venues that we are offering is a Speaker's Showcase. This is designed specifically for speakers who want to try out new material before an audience and receive feedback from Heidi Parr and myself and the other speakers. We know that it is scary if you haven't spoken before an audience. The first two dates are October 19 or December 7 and limited to 10 people. Call me or e-mail for details. Are you familiar with my online directory http://speakerservices.com? Did you know that I've had the web direcotry since 1994? Did you know that my vision is to support professional people in growing their businesses through speaking? Speaking is the best way I know to grow your business. Want more speaking engagements? Consider joining speaker services see Get Listed in the Directory: http://speakerservices.com/adv_pkt.html. This month I'm including an excerpt from Lilly Walters book What to Say When You're Dyin' On the Platform addressing When...You Run Out of Time On The Platform! Time integrity is a big issue. Also Doug Fox writes an interesting article on Enhancing Volunteer-Driven Education. The reason I've included this for your review is to see the perspective from a meeting planners, program chairs place and also because he talks about interaction as the key to retention and that is the very best way to keep your audience involved and most importantly retaining the information you are sharing. Regards, Susan Levin __________________________________ When...You Run Out of Time On The Platform! Excerpt from What to Say When You're Dyin' On the Platform! by Lilly Walters To Prevent It from Happening Organized material is delivered more quickly and is received with more clarity. Practice your material in "real time." Actually give your presentation out loud, and time it. Timing Devices Buy a watch with a large face and place it on the lectern. If you wear your watch, slip it around so the face is on the inside of your wrist. It is much less obvious to the audience when you are checking the time. Or wear a timing device that you can pre-program, like a pager, to buzz or zap you at crucial moments. (Well, I guess pagers don't really zap you. Maybe "jiggle you" is a better way to put it.) If your speech is to be 30 minutes and you want to know when the halfway mark is reached, you pre-program the device to buzz or jiggle at the 15-minute mark. You might want to be buzzed again when you only have 5 minutes left. Human Timers I always have a human timer stand in the back of the room and give me the halfway mark, a 10-minute warning, and a time-out signal. I train the timer to keep trying each signal until he or she sees me nod slightly. Otherwise the timer will just assume I have seen the signal. Often my adrenaline has me soaring so high I would barely notice the building fall down around me. You need to encourage timers to be persistent and aggressive. What to Do If you are conducting an interactive exercise, or something else that requires feedback, it's best just to tell people what they learned as opposed to having them discuss it. They will learn more if you allow them to discuss the concept, but discussion takes more time. __ ADVICE FROM -W MITCHELL In longer sessions, remember that small groups (two or three people-dyads or triads) can get through an exercise quicker than bigger groups. As you see time running out, cut discussion groups down to smaller sizes. Whatever you do, don't apologize for running out of time; it makes the audience focus on the "great stuff" they are missing. I don't say anything, I just cut to the close. __ ADVICE FROM -JOHN KINDE Always remember that the audience doesn't know what you're going to say until you've said it. If you leave something out, they'll never know. Your speech does not have to be delivered exactly as you planned. __ ADVICE FROM - PHILIP CROSBY Always finish on time, even if those ahead of you have taken more than their share. It is better to have them begging for more than blaming you for being late. __ What to Say (QUOTES USED BY SPEAKERS) First of all, let me tell you my lite speech has been word-reduced and contains no cholesterol. -TERRY PAULSON I'm going to keep my comments brief because I believe in getting right to the point...and my babysitter has to be home by ten. -From Speaker's Idea File, May 1993 Last night I tried to eliminate anything in my speech that seemed in any way dull. So in conclusion... -From Using Humor in Business Speaking, by Michael Iapoce (submitted by Terry Paulson) I'm sorry, but it looks like I have a surplus of speech and a deficit of time. -ROGER LANGLEY I need to go. They don't even know I left the hospital. -GENE MITCHENER, THE WHEELCHAIR COMIC Go to our web site for autographed copies, http://www.walters-intl.com/ Or to Amazon for a discount price: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070680396/waltersspeakerse __________________________________________________ Enhancing Volunteer-Driven Education EventWeb Newsletter, Doug Fox, dougfox@eventweb.com Many conferences and educational workshops rely upon volunteers to make presentations and conduct training programs. If you are exploring ways to enhance the quality of such adult learning opportunities one of your major constraints is that you don't want to increase costs in your efforts develop more engaging and interactive programming. I'd like to offer a recommendation for improving these types of educational programs that is mindful of the budgetary constraints within which you have to operate. My recommendation is, I hope, straightforward: I start with the following premises: - Most adult educational programs can be improved if participants have more opportunities for meaningful interactions amongst themselves and with presenters. - Most volunteer presenters are content experts who are not experienced in fostering interaction among attendees in the form of collaborative exercises, role-plays, problem-solving, brainstorming and simulations. - All adult educational programs fall somewhere on a continuum that runs from one-way delivery of information to one-hundred percent interaction. For instance, imagine a horizontal line with hatch marks at the far left and far right. On the far left, you would write "one-way delivery of information" and on the far right, you would write "100% interaction." Then, for each of your educational programs you would put an "X" somewhere on this line. If the session consisted of 50% content delivery and 50% audience participation, then the "X" for this workshop would be placed in the middle of the line. As a provider of adult educational programs, some of your sessions and keynotes are sure to consist mostly of content delivery (and the "X"s will be on the left), but you want to do everything you can to ensure that as many of the "X"s as possible are on the right side of the continuum. The Game Plan 1) Transform the call for presentation process. If you would like more interaction at your programs, then you have to let presenters know that that is your objective. So when inviting speakers to present or designing your calls for presentations, you may want to make the following changes: - Name the process "calls for presenters and facilitators." (My name suggestion is more descriptive than engaging. But the goal is to create a title that conveys the idea of fostering interaction). - On your presenter/facilitator proposal form, draw a horizontal line as described in section 3 above. Have presenters write in their own "X" that indicates how much interaction will take place during their sessions. - Encourage teams of at least two presenters to submit joint proposals. Have each member of a presentation team indicate on the form whether he or she will be primarily responsible for delivering content or facilitating interaction. 2) We've already set the initial groundwork by demonstrating to presenters that we are serious about delivering highly interactive sessions that rely less upon PowerPoint presentations and more on collaborative exercises. There's just one major problem. As I said above, most content experts don't feel comfortable facilitating discussions or they don't know how to do it. So you need to provide some guidance to the presenters who agree to facilitate interaction: - As part of your call for presenters and facilitators, include easy-to-understand recommendations on how to conduct interactive sessions. You don't have to get fancy. For example, give industry-relevant examples of how to conduct a brainstorming or role-playing exercise. And describe how to incorporate these exercises into a successful workshop. - Expand these helpful tips for facilitators and place them on your website so that all presenters can learn how to make their sessions more interactive. - Pool your resources with other adult education experts either directly or through associations. Creating suggestions and examples of how to facilitate educational programs is a time-consuming process. So if you can harness the expertise of others in your position, you can speed-up and improve the results. That's my game plan. It's important to bear in mind that quality education is a major draw for many meetings. If you can get your participants involved in fun, dynamic learning experiences, you will attract a larger audience. *********************************************** PROMOTIONS/ADVERTISING RATES: Get your message out to speakers 4,000 plus and meeting planners in this fast growing newsletter. $50 a month, 25-50 words of text and a link to your website,or 6 months for $275 paid in advance. Terms: Deadline is one week before the end of each month Payment must be received in advance To get started: 1- Email your advertising copy to susan@speakerservices.com 2- Provide payment by credit card-specify length of time ************************ Previous issues are available at http://www.speakerservices.com/nl/index.html To contribute information to this newsletter send via e-mail to: susan@speakerservices.com. Letters and comments are happily accepted. To remove yourself from this newsletter send an e-mail message to susan@speakerservices.com with remove in subject. ************************ Book Speakers: http://speakerservices.com. Get Listed in the Directory: http://speakerservices.com/adv_pkt.html Workshops: http://speakerservices.com/services/la.html Video Production Services: http://speakerservices.com/videoprod.html Speaker Audio Tapes/Books http://speakerservices.com/products/index.html ************************ Speaker Services Susan Levin 4023 Meier Street LA, CA 90066 310-822-4922 FAX: 310-822-9025 Toll free- 877-773-2800 e-mail: susan@speakerservices.com website: http://speakerservices.com