So, enotions walked away with the runners’ up prize for the Outstanding Business of the Year award at the annual Salisbury Chamber of Commerce awards Friday night.

Last year we came fifth so we’re moving up the ranks. Hey next year we’ll win it!

But what astounded me, and what I wanted to blog about, was the overall quality of the speakers. Hey, this might not be London’s media heartland but Salisbury has a bustling business centre with some pretty impressive companies functioning within it. So what’s with the awkward and uninspiring speeches?

At award ceremonies, like the one the other day, businesses use such events to both check out the competition and the overall health of the local business environment - and by health I mean attitude, energy and thinking. There was a lot of talk about inspiring business and how Salisbury is bucking the business-trend, but judging by the quality of the speakers, the words and the energies of the speakers were diametrically opposed.

I know that Salisbury is a great place to do business. It’s got a lot of forward thinking people who are also incredibly down to earth - in my view a winning combination. So why is it I always come away from these business events disappointed with the speeches?

I think the answer is two-fold.

Firstly, do dynamic businesses bother getting actively involved with organisations like the Chamber of Commerce? Yes, but they know it doesn’t make financial sense to sponsor these events and therefore they don’t get asked to make speeches. The dinosaurs of the business world, long established and set in their ways, are always the sponsors because they’ve always been the sponsors and always will be the sponsors. And therefore the dinosaurs who work within these dinosaur institutions make the speeches.

Secondly, people generally don’t know how to give good speeches, especially from companies who still apply processes from 1843.

Giving good speeches is the easiest, but also the hardest, thing in the world. Apply basic good presentation techniques and know what it is you want to say and you’ll give a perfectly good speech.

But top-drawer speakers command high rates because they know how hard it is to give a truly killer speech.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 9:02 am and is filed under Non-web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.