Someone once said, “Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.” Every day in North America, 10,000 or more people stand in front of a crowd and deliver speeches. Twenty-five minutes later, 9,998 are forgotten by everyone except perhaps the speaker and his or her subordinates. Some observers figure the conference business in the United States alone is worth $120 billion per year. That’s a large cost for speeches being slept through by people bored with “bizspeak” and numbed by pointless PowerPoints. Communications expert Tony Carlson knows what it takes to electrify audiences.
