150 Years of Events That Built A Country

I’m flattered. The early response to our invitation for the June 13th T1 Speaker Series featuring moi (mh3) has been amazing.

That’s the good news.
The bad news? The pressure is on!

Seriously, if you’re going to take the time out of your day to come hear me speak, I am one thousand percent committed to ensuring it’s worth your while. To that end, I’m sitting at my sports club on the May long weekend Sunday, reworking the outline of my presentation from the version I gave at CSFX17. I love creating, but I also agonize over these things.

The best part of redoing a previously given presentation is the opportunity to fix things. I think I have given my What Sponsors Want presentation so many times, that I can do it in my sleep. I probably do do it in my sleep. I need to count, but I think I am approaching one hundred renditions. One of them was two days long! I kid you not. That was in Holland and was one of my favourites of all time. So when it came to drafting my book, by the same name, candidly the content was easy. The hard part was writing my verbal manuscript.

150 Years of Events That Built a Country is a presentation that celebrates what each of us do every day. While the shelf life is probably limited to 2017 and our sesquicentennial, the importance of it will live much longer. The first version, which I shared with you at CSFX, was meant to inspire our attendees for a weekend of learning, networking, and experiencing. Many of you provided invaluable feedback on it. Both what you liked and what you wanted more of.

The history buffs loved the details and stories of century-old events they had never known of. The Toastmaster buffs were in disbelief I didn’t use a teleprompter (no notes for this cat ever). The equality buffs felt I didn’t have enough diversity across regions and in other ways. The nothing is ever good enough buffs wanted more learning.

None of you can be as hard on me, as me. Let me give you a sneak peek of what I’m tackling for June 13th, so it has fresh spin. First, I added a few new stories. I almost froze on stage while presenting at CSFX17, because I suddenly realized I had missed a MAJOR MAJOR event. It wasn’t in my deck. I almost performed a disastrous ad lib. Thankfully my calm-down voice calmed me down, and I didn’t wander off. That missed one will be in for sure. Can you guess what it is???

Addition by subtraction is also in order. One of my stories just didn’t work. I can remember being on stage fighting a tug of war with the words. With over five hundred eyeballs and a couple of HD cameras focused on me, that’s never a great feeling. When I rehearse I loved this story, but for some reason, the audience didn’t. So goodbye to that one.

The third area for improvement is to put a bow on the information and tie it all together. What lessons can we learn from our past? How did events shape our country? Why do some events, campaigns and movements succeed, when others fail? Hopefully, it will leave you thinking about what role events will play in our nation’s future. How will that impact your business, your career, and your community? What do you need to do to ensure success for your initiatives?

I am not professing to have answers for you on June 13th, but I can promise you some strong, strong fuel for your own fire. However, I will offer you a fair warning. If you attend on June 13th, you will have to deal with an overdose of MH3 passion. Some people call it bias. I don’t care what you call it. A bias that believes that events build community. A bias that connecting live is the most powerful form of engagement. A bias that what we collectively do has a powerful role in nation building. A bias that our country’s marketing pioneers, builders, innovators, and entrepreneurs have figured something out that others have not.

Second warning, you will be surrounded by a room full of people who feel the same. Many of whom have pitched me on events they feel should be included in my chit chat. Don’t be shy, I am all ears. Fire away with your ideas. I am a week or so away from finalizing the content and then handing it over to my crack creative team to make me pretty.

Talk soon. I need to go shopping for a new outfit for June 13th.

PS. If you haven’t received an invite, connect with my colleague Carli at carli.burr@thet1agency.com. Cheers!