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We had several fun entries in our dull
presentation story contest. But two stood
out from the rest.
The first comes from
Daniel Foth, Director of Transportation at
Jordon, Jones & Goulding.
I was at an industry meeting where the CEO of the trade
organization (Harry), known far and wide for his
long-winded, short on information, and
unbelievably dull speeches was speaking in his
usual monotone voice.
It was rumored that Harry was taking speaking
lessons to improve his delivery, although it was
clear that there were still many lessons to be
learned. Harry was about halfway (we hoped) through his
speech and apparently decided to pause for
effect. He stopped his speech and seemed to
close his eyes. A few seconds of silence
occurred and the CEO of a major corporation
sitting next to me said, in my ear, “Good Grief,
Harry has finally gotten so boring, that he has
put himself to sleep!”
Our second
winner comes from an Atlanta CPA, who asked to
remain anonymous to protect the guilty.
Last year I was part of a conference call that included
about 15 participants from around the country -
we had conference calls quarterly - this was a
one hour "presentation" that included some
business matters of our group. After the
operator connected all of us, the leader asked
for someone to take notes.......you could hear a
pin drop - it was so silent. No one would dare
volunteer......so I said one of the other
participants names "Joe Smith". The leader said,
"Thank you Joe for volunteering........". Joe
immediately said, "...but that wasn't me!"
"Well, Joe - will you take minutes anyway?"
Joe: "Okay." (everyone enjoyed that....accept Joe)
Now we're into the presentation part of the phone conference
- it happened to be a topic that I had no
interest in. In fact it was a total waste of my
time.
I hit "mute" and was able to do other work while listening
(off and on). Then I realized I could even make
a couple phone calls during the presentation - I
put the conference call on hold and made a phone
call. After about 15-20 minutes, I ended my call
and went back to the conference call and heard,
"Okay....now the music has finally stopped...."
Oops, I guess everyone didn't appreciate the "on hold" music
that I was inadvertently providing them.
Congratulations to the winners. Each
receives a $60 gift certificate to the Buckhead
Life Group restaurants.
At Speechworks we help our clients learn how to
communicate in a way that connects and
persuades. If you’re interested in becoming a
great communicator give us a call at
404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net |
