Here's the link to the next UK Speechwriters' Guild conference, in London on 23 Feb.

The theme is Make it Stick: Techniques for Leaders to Get Their Message Across. An excellent line-up of speakers/presenters, not least a cameo appearance by myself, and a disgracefully good bargain at £249 for the day.

I'll be talking in the later morning about the problem speechwriters have in making a speaker sound spontaneous. Too many speakers are given a text which gives them no room for improvisation, and does not help them express to the full whatever capacity for good speaking they may have.

The draft speech needs to be written in colloquial language and then laid out in a way which helps the speaker have a conversation with the audience, not give a lecture.

Easier said than done, of course.

Be there. Or be square. Not many tickets left.