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In my Basic speechwriting seminar, I show the participants how to tie a speech into historical events from “this week in history.”  Perhaps one of this week’s events will provide a hook for your next speech:

1861     Birthday of Dr. William J. Mayo (Mayo Clinic … Rochester, Minnesota)

1906     Pure Food and Drug Act was put into law.

1918     Birthday of Ann Landers.  My favorite Landers quote?  “Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.”

1966    Medicare went into effect.

Have a happy and safe July 4th!

The anniversary of free National Health Care in England (July 5, 1948)

National Ice Cream Month

National Recreation and Park Month

National Picnic Month

Captive Nations Week

Freedom Day

Independence Day

I dedicate my “quote of the month” to our First Lady, who had the common sense (all too uncommon) to put a vegetable garden on the White House lawn:  “I know of nothing that makes one feel more complacent, in these July days, than to have his vegetables from his own garden…. It is a kind of declaration of independence.”  (Charles Dudley Warner, author, My Summer in a Garden)

Working on any presentations this week?  Consider these anniversaries:

1783     Continental Congress (faced with soldiers who were furious about not being paid) quickly wrapped their Philadelphia session and fled to Princeton

1903     George Orwell was born in India

1936     President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his “rendezvous with destiny” speech 

1941     Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union 

1945     UN charter was signed (in San Francisco)

1970     18 year olds received the right to vote in US elections

Last week, I taught my annual Advanced Speechwriting seminar in Philadelphia.  In my Advanced seminars, we discuss “what to omit” from a speech. 

Here’s an example of a speech that should have omitted a particular detail:

I recently attended ”Junior Day” at a highly respected (and very expensive) liberal arts college.  The college’s goal?  To attract the best/brightest 11th graders … hoping they’ll submit applications and form a successful Freshman Class for autumn 2010. 

The college’s representatives were all personable and skilled presenters.  But one presentation hit a wrong note.  The presenter cited various educational institutions located within just a few miles of this prestigious campus (a Bible college, a tech school, a regional public school, etc) … and indicated prospective students might consider this a plus for socializing. 

But the audience’s body language showed a different reaction.  My guess is that status-conscious parents paying $50,000+ a year to a top private liberal arts college did not particularly want their sons/daughters socializing at public/tech schools.  And students who had earned high SAT scores saw little attraction in socializing at less prestigious schools. 

Bottom line:  It was a marketing mistake to include the names of those other schools in the presentation.

Again, at an advanced level of speechwriting, the question is not:  What can we put in the speech?  The question is:  What should we take out? 

Guideline:  Know your audience.  And omit any detail that would hinder audience rapport. 

1215     Magna Carta signed at Runnymede, England (codifying the Anglo-American concept of freedom)

1752     Ben Franklin used a kite to prove that lightning contains electric current

1837     Charles Goodyear received a patent for his rubber production process

1885     Statue of Liberty arrived in New York harbor

1914     First transcontinental phone line was completed in the US (5 years after the project was started)

1947     First round-the-world airline service was accomplished by Pan American Airlines, flying from LaGuardia Field in New York

1963    First woman in space (orbited by the Soviet Union)

1977    Oil began to flow via the trans-Alaska pipeline

1867     Birth date of Frank Lloyd Wright

1929     Birth date of Anne Frank 

1935     Anniversary of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous

1939     Baseball Hall of Fame opened

1967     President Lyndon Johnson nominated the first black Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall)

1971      Pentagon Papers were published by New York Times

Recently, I received a wonderful email from a speaker who chose to present in Spanish (instead of her native English).  She went to the extra work to polish her foreign language skills because she wanted to build a strong rapport with her Latin American audience. 

I’m sharing excerpts from her email below, so you can benefit from her excellent advice: 

“… I mentioned that I was preparing a workshop for a conference in Latin America , and that my goal was to present the workshop in Spanish.  It is called ‘Podemos Hablar?’ (Can We Talk?) and it is about resolving/preventing conflict through empathic listening…. So far, I have learned some valuable lessons about giving a speech in another language.

Lesson 1 — Start with a presentation you have already done or know very well.  I chose to do this, and I am so glad that I did.  I can tell exactly where I am at in the presentation, even when the slides are in Spanish, because they are the same slides I have used (in English) before. 

Lesson 2 — Don’t rely too much on online translation services!  They provide a good start, but they are far from perfect!  Thank goodness I had a co-worker who was willing to correct the translated version for me!  I also learned that two people can translate the same words differently.  I had the speech translated by one person, the powerpoint translated by another person.  My speech translator chose to use more formal language than what is on my slides, so I’ve had to reconcile the two a little bit.

Lesson 3 — Practicing in advance is even more important when you’re going to speak in a different language.  I’m good at reading Spanish–but I don’t want to read to my audience.  It is really hard to memorize key phrases, word pronunciations and inflections, and still have enough energy for a compelling delivery.  I hope that my audience will be kind to my sincere attempt–and forgive me if I mess up a word or two (or three). 

Lesson 4 – Delivering a speech in a different language takes 2-3 times more energy than doing it in your native language.  The first time I read through the speech, I was amazed at how much energy it took.  The more I practice, the better it gets, but it’s still pretty draining!” 

Cathy Standiford, 2008-2009 President-elect, Soroptimist International of the Americas.  (Soroptimist is an international volunteer organization for business and professional women who work to improve the lives of women and girls, in local communities and throughout the world.  For more information, visit www.soroptimist.org.)

Perhaps you can generate attention for your speeches by tapping into:

Dairy Month

National Safe Boating Week

National Little League Baseball Week

World Environment Day

Architects’ Day

Flag Day

D-Day

Fashion Designer’s Day

Ignorance Day

Freedom of the Press Day 

Budgeting Day (Now, in this economy, there’s a hook for you!)