Vital speechwriting takeaways from the political conventions
When compelling messages and engaging delivery merge, sparks fly and light up the sky. The RNC and DNC offered essential lessons for those who pen and render soaring oratory.
Anyone who has watched even a small portion of the political convention coverage these past two weeks would realize that there are speeches and there are Speeches.
As corporate communications professionals, we are often called upon to help leaders prepare and deliver carefully crafted messages, not unlike what is done at these conventions. The topics may differ, but the concepts are similar.
What can corporate communicators learn from the orators at the conventions? Quite a bit, according to Joellen Brown, a professional communicator and chief speechwriter for Verizon’s chairman and CEO, Lowell McAdam.
“I love conventions,” she says. “They’re like Bonnaroo for speechwriters.”
We asked Brown to consider what the conventions can teach us about a successful speech. Here are some of her thoughts:
On Melania and Michelle
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