Tips For More Effective Seminars and Speeches
Special Events and Seminars
By Bob Weiss
April 2005: Our marketing effectiveness surveys have long indicated that seminars and speeches are the single most effective way to develop files for a defense or business practice, and that they also create cases for contingent fee lawyers.
Here are three tips to improve your next seminar or speech:
1. If possible make it qualify for continuing profession education credit (nurses, human resources managers, therapists, CPAs, realtors, adjustors, insurance agents and many others need ongoing CE credits to maintain licenses or credentials.) Think about who might attend your presentation and get it approved for as many in your potential audience as possible.
2. Keep the audience small, less than 20. Harvard University studied communication effectiveness and found that speakers made far many more and far better connections to audiences of this size than to an auditorium full of folks. If you wind up in front of a bigger group make sure you get down off the stage and into the crowd afterward, if not during, your talk.
3. The most effective advertising technique is a demonstration-- that's why they show you the Kitchen Magician as "it slices and dices" on TV. Build a demonstration of what you do into your presentation (case studies with props, if possible.)
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