NSANZ keeps me busy...

It's been a busy morning, in this hot (35 degrees) humid, Christchurch Day.

I've got my first survey out, of NSANZ members, via Survey Monkey. Good to see the responses coming in - finding out why people are members of NSANZ and how we can plan to serve their educational needs in the coming year.

And I have been sending out information about a major speaker training event coming up, the Speaking Professionally one-day conference event on 5th March 2009. It's great to see the registrations pop back in.

I'm really looking forward to the day - there's been a heap of work organising it, but it's going to be great. Like NSANZ membership itself, it’s targeted at people who speak before audiences as part of their day-to-day work, or who plan to develop their career in that direction.

Here's the story: It’s the ideal chance to hear from professional speakers and experts how to improve your effectiveness in front of an audience, and build a professional speaking career.

There will be keynote sessions on

• Motivating Learning
• Preparing and structuring content for maximum impact.
• Harnessing the power of stories to connect with your audience (that's me!)
• Using Visuals to add impact – no more “death by PowerPoint”

And workshop choices from:

• The business of speaking
• Body language
• Organisation for successful speaking
• Humour

Speakers include NSANZ National President, Martz Witty, Ralph Brown of Media Associates, Wendy Davie - the Organising Guru, Roydon Gibbs – visual learning expert,David Clarkson from Canterbury Speakers – Christchurch’s professional speakers bureau., Mark Pfeifer of Bishop Toomey Pfeifer.

The venue is the Holiday Inn on Avon, Christchurch, and the cost is a very reasonable $295 (including GST).

With all that wonderful stuff - you of course need to register now at www.nsanzch.co.nz.

Let the trumpets sound!

If Wendy Davie can put a little trumpet blowing, so can I.  At our end-of-year function for National Speakers Association Christchurch chapter, we had our annual awards presentation.

And....yours truly received the President's Award for commitment to the chapter.  

What did I do to deserve it?  Well,  I've been Education Director, and on the national working party reviewing accreditation and membership (sometimes a background as a lawyer specialising in corporate governance issues comes in handy!)   I have also been active in preparing business plans, sourcing and working with our event management team for a one-day conference next March 5th, called Speaking Professionally.   

All of that has taken a huge amount of time, and I don't begrudge one minute of it.   The NSANZ Christchurch Chapter is a group of hugely energetic, creative, active and inspiring bunch of people who I continue to learn from.  The more I get involved the more I benefit.  It is nice to get the award, but it isn't half so much a reward as I've got from getting involved in the first place.

I also competed on the night in the Orators competition.  I've been focussing on bringing more gravitas to my speaking.   I have been told I have a light and entertaining style.   I never need to try and be comic - my timing just takes over and suddenly people are laughing at places I didn't plan for them too, which inevitably lightens things up.  I put a bit of work into my speech, listening to the great speeches of the world, including Barack Obama's recent speeches, and trying to make my style more oratorical.  I'm proud of how I spoke - I did a good job.  

I also had the joy of watching Ralph Brown speak.  After about 15 seconds I knew I wouldn't win.  Ralph is my speaking idol - the consummate professional, without being at all flashy or over the top.   He was a deserved winner.  Congratulations to Ralph, and to all the other award winners this year.   I'll post my thoughts on the topic: "the magic of words", along with the video, some time soon. 

The other awards on the evening (copied from Wendy Davie's blog) went to: 

Unsung Hero Award and People's Choice - Wendy Davie

Orator                    - Ralph Brown

Shy to Shining       - Jennifer Manson

Rookie of the Year- Nanny van den Oever

Top Cat                  - Martz Witty

Quill                        - Dr Rodney Ford

                                - Ralph Brown

                                - Anne Howie

- Wendy Davie

Congratulation everyone, and let all our trumpets sound.

A to Z of Luck : J is for Juggling

I've been posting an A to Z of Luck, and today J is for Juggling.

When I first started juggling training at the Circus Space in London with Jebb the Juggler I was told that there were three rules:

1 - Don't stop till you drop
2 - When you do drop in a passing routine never say sorry. Mistakes are part of the process, every mistake is getting you closer to success. Just pick things up and keep going.
3 - Don't wait till you've perfected a trick to move on - always try something a bit more complex. When you come back to the initial trick you'll find it you can do it with ease.

The benefits of juggling are many. The constant failure forces you to get comfortable with mistakes. It's great for overcoming the crippling perfectionism which stops us taking risks and trying new things. I found juggling helped me to be more relaxed, more resilient, and more creative. And, in one scientific study at the University of Regensburg in Germany, brain scans showed that those who had learned to juggle had increased their brain matter after practising juggling for 3 months.

It's a general principle: the more you try, the luckier you'll get. Juggling is a great way to help you keep trying new things, and to persist. Throwing balls or clubs around can help you toss ideas around too. I love juggling with other people - and it can be a great social pastime, whether or not you're doing it for sport or as a performance.

I decided to use J for juggling today , as we've been planning the timetable for a conference "Speaking Professionally" run by the NSA Christchurch Chapter. I have a 5 minute break-out energiser juggling exercise which I learned in a workshop from the wonderful Denis Paumier. I cannot do 1/100th of the things Denis can do, but this exercise, which involves 1 ball per person to start with, is a lot of fun, and good for the brain and mood.