If you’re in the professional world long enough, odds are pretty high that you will have to make at least a few speeches. While some people tense at the thought of public speaking, others take to it like ducks to water. However, the real keys are organizing your thoughts and practicing.

Regardless of your comfort level, one frequent challenge for everyone is making the speech interesting and engaging. We all know that business topics can be a little dry and crammed with information. The question is how to take what may be a dull topic and turn it into an attention-getter.

In its e-newsletter for communicators, Ragan recently offered five good tips to follow and featured a video of a speech that embodied this approach.

The speaker:

1. Began with a story
2. Created the framework for his talk
3. Took his time
4. Gave the audience a roadmap of what to expect
5. Didn’t rely on PowerPoint

Chances are there is a military veteran in your family or you know one. Today, as I was reflecting on the tremendous sacrifices these men and women have made for all of us, I decided to learn more about the holiday itself, which was first called Armistice Day.

I came across a Washington Post article that offers some background and traditions as well as some powerful numbers on veterans, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau:

• In 1954, the holiday became known as Veterans Day when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation making it so in order to honor veterans of all U.S. wars.

• In 1921, the United States laid to rest the remains of a World War I American soldier — his name “known but to God” – in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on a hillside overlooking Washington, D.C. It became known as the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” and was meant to symbolize reverence for the American veteran. Today it is known as the “Tomb of the Unknowns.”

• At the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery, at 11 a.m. each Nov. 11, a color guard composed of members of each of the military branches renders honors to America’s war dead. The U.S. president or a representative places a wreath at the tomb and a bugler sounds taps.

Veterans
21.8 million – The number of military veterans in the United States in 2010.
1.6 million –The number of female veterans in 2010.
2.4 million – The number of black veterans in 2010.
9 million – The number of veterans 65 and older in 2010. At the other end of the age spectrum, 1.7 million were younger than 35.

When They Served
7.6 million – Number of Vietnam-era veterans in 2010. Thirty-five percent of all living veterans served during this time (1964-1975). In addition, 4.8 million served during the Gulf War (representing service from Aug. 2, 1990, to present); 2.1 million in World War II (1941-1945); 2.6 million in the Korean War (1950-1953); and 5.5 million in peacetime only.

49,500 – Number of living veterans in 2010 who served during the Vietnam era and both Gulf War eras and no other period. Other living veterans in 2010 who served during three wars:

• 54,000 served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam era.

 

Living veterans in 2010 who served during two wars and no other period:

• 837,000 served during both Gulf War eras.

• 211,000 served during both the Korean War and the Vietnam era.

• 147,000 served during both World War II and the Korean War.

 

I admit it: I’m not the cool kid who is always first to get the latest electronic gadget. In fact, I like for the bugs to get worked out and to see if the invariable “next generation” is hot on its heels. Sometimes the latest is a big improvement; other times it mainly serves to drive the price down of the prior model that I will then give a try.

My temptation right now is the iPad. I know people who can’t leave home without theirs. And recently, one of my favorite radio stations, WZPL, started having iPad Thursdays where it gives them away periodically throughout the day.

But iPads are not just a personal or social item. You see more and more businesspeople bringing them to meetings or using them at their desk. In fact, the Fort Wayne City Council made the news today by announcing it was getting iPads to avoid the mountains of paper it reviews at each meeting, estimating it will save $10,000 annually on paper costs. You can’t beat that, right? Perhaps I should send a note to management here: iPads save money and trees! Wonder if it will work.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since the world as we knew it – one in which terrorism was scarcely given much thought – was turned upside down.

A native Hoosier, I had moved to Connecticut three years prior to the attacks and commuted daily to my job in New York City. These are my personal recollections from that day.

… Many of us went to the windows that pointed south toward the World Trade Center. It was one thing seeing it on TV, but to look out and see firsthand the large plumes of smoke was completely surreal.

Unease was officially setting in throughout the office. 

My mind was playing what-ifs and drifting to my two recent visits to the Twin Towers complex in as many weeks: One for pleasure – shopping at the vast underground center – and the other a breakfast business meeting at the Marriott hotel, which sat between both towers and was connected to them….

Full story here.

I was a kid when the Colts moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis, but do have vivid recollections of watching the events unfold on TV. Just over two decades later, I was a lucky spectator at the RCA Dome witnessing the team beat the New England Patriots en route to the 2007 Super Bowl win. In short, I pretty much can’t remember what my sport’s life was like without the team.

For the Chamber’s September/October issue of BizVoice ® magazine (available here on Friday), we explore the deal that made it all happen. Below are some bonus quotes not found in that story.

Bill Hudnut, then mayor of Indianapolis and current Maryland resident:

“I was elated! I remember signing the papers on that Wednesday afternoon and then Thursday morning I did not announce it because I did not want to scare off (Colts owner Robert) Irsay or antagonize him by doing a premature announcement. His people had to do it first and they did middle of the day on Thursday. So I said how terrific it was and I had a news conference that afternoon.”

David Frick, then deputy mayor and attorney for the city of Indianapolis, on his role and the local movers and shakers involved:

“There was a small group the mayor convened called the 706 club; that was the room number at the Columbia Club where we used to meet. The mayor had brought together Herb Simon, Jim Morris, P.E. MacAllister, who was chairman of the Capital Improvement Board, and Tom Moses, who headed up the water company. Of all people in our community he (Moses) probably had the most connections with NFL owners; he used to work for the Murchison family that owned the Dallas Cowboys for a number of years.

“I would sit down with that group and we would talk about where we were in the negotiation, what changes we would want to make to our offer and get their input on steps to take. I’m fortunate in getting credit for bringing the Colts to Indianapolis, but there were other people heavily involved in the process who helped guide that negotiation.

“I really made my living both as a lawyer, and then I’ve spent the bulk of my career outside of being a lawyer, doing deals. And each deal has its unique characteristic. … But this is clearly the one that has had the most impact on the biggest number of people. It wasn’t the toughest, but to get the Colts deal done in a compressed timeframe (six weeks) and to have such a significant impact was very personally satisfying to me.”

Home football game this weekend for the Colts – OK, it is preseason. But excitement is still definitely building for NFL fans. After all, Indianapolis is hosting the next Super Bowl.

With that milestone event coming up, it’s a good time to reflect on the Colts and how they came to be our team.

In the September/October issue of the Chamber’s BizVoice ® magazine (in the mail and available online August 26), we do just that. I spoke to those who were most heavily involved in the big move – and they had many great recollections. Here’s one amusing story in detail not found in the magazine article.

Michael Chernoff¸ then legal counsel and negotiator for the Baltimore Colts, on the media and the actual relocation:

“When I flew from Indianapolis to Baltimore to supervise the move, one of the executives of Mayflower (the company that moved the team) flew with us. When we landed in Baltimore, the press was already there. My guess was somebody in the tower called the press and said the Colts plane is on its way in. We got off of the plane and were met by one of the Colts people in a car that originally was going to take us to the complex, but with all the press there and everything, I didn’t want to go there.

“So instead he drove us to a motel down the road from the complex and we checked in there. It was a two-story motel; he went to his room and I went to my room. We talked a little bit and every time I would open my door to go out, the TV antenna on the trucks would go up, they’d turn on their motors and they were ready to go. I couldn’t go anywhere without bringing them with me.

“I called the guy from Mayflower and said, ‘I know where your room is, go across to the motel next door and when you get there, call me and let me know if anybody saw you.’ They didn’t. I said, ‘Sit tight, I’ll have somebody pick you up.’ I then sat around for a couple of hours. By this time I was getting hungry, so I went across the street with the (press) entourage to have a bite. I called the complex and they said, ‘Don’t worry, the press is already here. You might as well come out.’ So, I did. We finished up the move well into the night. … And then we picked up the franchise certificate that the NFL issued to the Colts many years before, put it on the plane and the group of us flew back to Indianapolis to set up shop.”
 

Being the sports nut that I am, it was pretty cool to interview NFL legend Terry Bradshaw last Friday for the Chamber’s BizVoice® magazine. The four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and current Fox NFL broadcaster  is the featured speaker at our 2011 awards dinner this fall.

The excitement over the Super Bowl coming to Indianapolis should be building come November 17 when Bradshaw takes the stage at the JW Marriott. He said to expect some good stories, reflection and humor in his speech entitled, “Why Not Your Best.”

Thankfully, today it now seems assured we will have a football season. When I spoke with Bradshaw, he didn’t hold back on his feelings regarding the labor negotiations between the players and owners, the general public’s perception of it and how things used to be:

“To a fan, it’s greed vs. greed, but I’ve wanted to tell the fan this for years, for decades: The players were held in bondage. They were like Exodus in the Bible. The Israelites wanted out and the pharaoh wouldn’t let them go, and finally Moses came and performed his miracles and set his people free. That’s kind of what happened with the players. We didn’t have the freedom to move from team to team, we didn’t know what players were making, and we didn’t know what the teams were making and whether or not that little $40,000 check I got at the end of the year should have been making $400,000 or $500,000. The (first) CBA (collective bargaining agreement) forced them to open up the books.

Like any worker out there, if you’ve got a four- or five-year contract and it expires, and some other organization says ‘We want you to come over to our place,’ the Indiana Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have the right to say, ‘Wait a minute, we have a right of first refusal.’ You take the best offer and you part company. It’s all about money; always is. If somebody offers you twice what you make now, you’re leaving. This is the American way; it’s capitalism at its best.

The players only get roughly two negotiation periods in a football career, because the average life is only four years, I think. I’m definitely more inclined to support the players in this.

When it’s all said and done, the players are still going to be taken care of. The older people (retired players) are going to be taken care of; the pensions are going to be taken care of. There’s a lot of great things. And that’s why the CBA is taking so long. I do not blame the players for taking their time as I would insist they do, to make sure. Because it’s 10 years before they can come back and revisit. ‘Well, you didn’t talk about the helmet issue,’ … then it’s too late.”