The tenth European Speechwriter Network conference, in conjunction with the UK Speechwriters’ Guild, will be taking place at Westminster College, Cambridge from April 15-17 2015 – in the middle of the UK General Election campaign.
The conference offers a unique way to understand the challenges of writing speeches by spending three days in the company of some of the top speechwriters in the world.
Pre-conference training will take place on the Wednesday.
Erich Schnure, who wrote for Al Gore, will be delivering a workshop on Wisdom from the White House.
Washington-based communications consultant, Denise Graveline, will be delivering a workshop on how to write ‘TED-quality talk’.
Martin Shovel and Martha Leyton from CreativityWorks in Brighton will be coaching delegates in persuasion.
At the main conference the speakers will include:
The chief speechwriter at Disney in Florida, Tom Morrisey, who will be talking about The Staying Power of Story.
Alan Leaman, Chief Executive of the Management Consultancies Association, will be talking about his time working for Lord Ashdown.
Hal Gordon, former speechwriter to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, will be speaking about the man who taught Churchill to speak.
Alexander von Reumont from the German Speechwriters’ Guild will be speaking about charisma.
Jesper Langergaard from the Danish Ministry of Science will be speaking about humour.
Lucia Hodgson from the UK Department of Education will tell us about how Whitehall speechwriters work.
Hanneke Kulik from the Dutch Ministry of Finance will be speaking about speechwriters’ ethics.
UK Business Communicator of the Year and pensions guru, Steve Bee, will be speaking on how to avoid jargon.
Rev Kate Bruce from St John’s College, Durham, will be giving some insights on the skill of preaching.
The breakout sessions will include:
Roger Lakin from BP on corporate speechwriting.
Writing for non-native speakers and multilingual audiences with Sarah Lynch from the European Union.
Roger Evans from the Scottish Parliament will speak on How do we promote a positive culture for speechwriting.
Organiser of the event, Brian Jenner, said: ‘If speechwriting is part of your job description, you’ll enjoy our conferences.’
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