Thoughts about Keynote Speaking
After been active as a keynote speaker for more than 20 years you start to recognize ‘2 kind’ of speakers.
One kind of speakers are what I call ‘Trend Watchers & Reporters’. They are great in seeing the trends that are happening in our world. Whether it is in technology, health care, automotives, education, energy, climate change, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence or ‘you name it’. The best speakers I know are great story tellers and are able to enlighten participants in what is happening and what could happen (‘Thought Leaders'). I’m not this kind of speaker. I don’t have the passion to watch the trends & report. I’m rather a user of what is happening the moment I need it. Trend Watchers & Reporters have a great time today … everything is changing so fast they almost can’t keep up with adapting or switching their content.
I’m a keynote speaker of the ‘second kind’. The ‘Persistent Keynote Speaker’. They are persistent in finding solutions. I’m persistent in finding a solution to change organizational cultures into real learning and disruptive innovative organizations. It’s a ‘quest’. If you look at my keynotes from 20 years ago and now, you will still recognize the same quest but also a great evolution in answering that question. Every year and every keynote brings me closer to the solution. But maybe that’s the real meaning of ‘entrepreneurship’. To never give up, to be persistent! Most entrepreneurs I know are persistent.
Without this persistence, ‘Trend Watchers’ would have no stories to tell.
On the right you find a campaign poster from GTE in 1984(?). I still have it …