Hear! Hear!

Being able to truly inspire an audience is one of the most daunting aspects of many senior executive’s working life. That is why IBM is working with Writing Machine to ensure that its high-level personnel optimise the impact of a raft of keynote speeches across Europe.

Speeches may not be written, designed and printed in the same way as some other marketing collateral. None the less, IBM recognises that their creation and delivery are just as important - and take just as much effort.

Most recently, Writing Machine has researched and written high-level speeches for IBM that have been delivered in Slovenia and Prague.

“Our speeches are generally very high-profile,” says IBM’s Executive Communications Manager Judy McKenzie. “They are also a great opportunity for us to really inspire an audience and to encourage people to believe in what we do.
“Working with Writing Machine has enabled us to produce well-researched speeches which deliver a clear message.”

Paul Ayling, Writing Machine’s Managing Director, says that even with a very clear, powerful message, the job of keeping an audience engaged for perhaps as long as forty minutes is very daunting for any writer. “The task demands a very special kind of structured, dramatic writing,” he says. “It will often involve story telling techniques and abrupt changes of direction within the substance of the copy in order to retain interest over a prolonged period of time. At the same time, we try hard to create a single leitmotif which will work throughout the entire speech, and which should remain with the audience for days to come. A speech, after all, is a kind of performance. And most great performances are only made possible with a great script.”

Click here to read an excerpt of an IBM speech written by Writing Machine.