Want to deliver a great speech? Then go back to storytelling
Caption: Role model speaker, Anna Maria Garcia Brooks
I was talking to some senior managers over at Republic Bank about conducting some speech writing training modules for their editorial team. I mentioned that I found their general manager, Anna Maria Garcia Brooks, a role model of a speaker. It is not only because Brooks has an excellent command of the podium but because she knows that the best way to connect with the audience is through storytelling.
I know only of a handful of executives who do this. Instead, at the lectern, they present a laundry list of facts and data delivered in isolation or they look at the data/text on their power point presentation and have the audacity to read word for word. How boring!
A speech is an opportunity to connect, deliver important messages to a receptive audience and elevate your personal brand. It is not an opportunity for your audience to day dream.
There are many varied techniques a speechwriter can use and one of the best is to tell stories. Audiences remember stories and they remember the messages behind them. Ill give examples in later postings, but the message here is that your goal as a presenter is to always be to strive toward being interesting, striking, useful and relevant. Believe me storytelling helps.
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Judette Coward Puglisi (MSc, Dip IR, BA), Managing Director. Find out more 
Granted, I am young and we are notorious for having a very limited attention span. But I believe my lack of ability to retain boring...yes I said it boring power point presentations has less to do with age than it has to do with preference. I prefer to have someone engage me than recall a textbook verbatim, I prefer to have someone appeal to my emotions than spew facts at the drop of a dime and I certainly prefer a tall tale which nicely illustrates a point over notes or even handouts.
These are the lecturers I most remember and it is the learnings from these classes that are permanently etched with me.
So next time you write remember to add a story involving a conversation you had with a colleague, client, customer or friend that makes your message come alive. I am happy to share some examples of my own off line. Oh! I just remembered. Click on http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/... for Steve Job's address to Stanford a couple of years ago. His entire speech was done through storytelling.
I have to say though my formulae in college for lecturers who read from the book and refused to add an iota of critical thinking and analysis to the material? Skip the class. I was renowned for having study groups at the same time as the lecture and booking year 3 students to act a s a guide. Sigh. That way before they made singing in mandatory.