Former Ogilvy CEO Shelly Lazarus offers a perspective that rings true for anyone delivering a presentation. As someone who works everyday with nervous presenters, I thought her insights were great. Enjoy her article.
http://tipsfornervouspresenters.blogspot.com/2014/08/former-ogilvy-ceos-perspective-helpful.html
Pam Bloore, Filament co-founder, has long been considered an industry expert on the subject of overcoming nervousness when presenting. As a semi-recovered nervous presenter, Pam not only has great empathy for nervous presenters but she also has dozens of tools and techniques to help presenters overcome their nervousness.
Those skills were on full display this week when the 4As hosted her for a webinar on the topic of Managing Nerves During Meetings, Presentations and Q&A. The webinar was a tremendous success with numerous agencies filling conference rooms with attendees. One agency even bought an agency-wide pass so anyone at the agency could view the webinar.
Pam has clearly touched a nerve to receive such a flood of participants. She, as much as anyone in our industry, understands the challenges facing staff when they are trying to overcome nervousness. She told a story during the webinar about her first presentation in high school. After giving her first oral presentation, she went out in the hall and got sick. She then passed out. She has since gone on to be a brilliant presenter. If ever anyone understood the plight of the nervous presenter, it is Pam.
The feedback from the attendees has been wonderful. It is very rewarding to help people overcome what for many people is one of the most difficult obstacles in their career.
Many thanks to Maya, Bob and the rest of the staff at 4As for helping to make the webinar such a success.
For twenty-five years, Med Ad News and agency professionals come together to recognize significant contributions to, and celebrate creative excellence in, healthcare communications. On this special 25th Anniversary evening of the Manny Awards, more than six hundred industry peers joined Med Ad News in honoring jury-elected nominees and winners in a range of award categories.
This year there was plenty to celebrate. The award winners this year actually took a back seat to the Mannys themselves. Daniel Becker, Christiane Truelove, Joshua Slatko and Andrew Humphreys worked to resurrect Med Ad News after it was shut down by its publisher late last year. The Mannys was the first opportunity that the industry had to thank the staff for bringing back an icon in our industry.
From our stand point, the awards themselves gave us much to celebrate. Filament clients took home 6 of the 15 awards including awards for products that we had a hand in pitching. Working on a pitch is exciting because during a pitch, anything is possible for the brand. The Manny Awards show how those possibilities can come to life in fantastic work for some wonderful brands and brand teams.
Congratulation to both Med Ad News and the industry for a special evening celebrating the great work in the pharmaceutical advertising industry from everyone at Filament.
Filament Inc., the communication training and pitch consultancy, today announced the appointment of Chris Schnurman as Vice President.
In this role, Chris will bring to bear his expertise in client communication, moderation, and new business for new and existing Filament clients.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the agency/client dynamic and how agencies can be better partners to their clients,” said Chris. “Having seen Filament in action, I know they are particularly effective at helping hone agency thinking so that it has maximum impact when delivered. I’m excited to bring my expertise to a whole range of agency partners as they prepare to share their best thinking with new and existing clients.”
“Chris brings a tremendous skill set to Filament and we are thrilled to have him. The insight he brings from his work in the agency world combined with his great skills as a communicator make her a perfect match for our company and our clients” says Mark, Filament’s President.
Chris joins Filament from H4B Chelsea, one of the most successful agencies in the Havas Worldwide network where he was a VP, Planner and lead strategist for clients representing more than a third of the agency’s business. As a lead strategist, Chris moderated countless workshops to help agencies and clients align on strong creative and strategic work. He was also a highly successful agency lead on new business initiatives both large and small, winning 73% of all pitches he spearheaded over 4 years.
Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School.
Pitch Therapy, Mark Schnurman’s blog on all things advertising pitch related surpassed 20,000 page views this month. Who would have thought that a blog as specific as Pitch Therapy could get 20,000 views. It is not like this discusses critical issues of the day like the Kardashian workout regimen or Justin Beiber’s trucker hat collection.
Apparently there are enough new biz nerds out there that are simply trying to get a little better (or a lot better) at pitches and ultimately up their win rate. If you haven’t read Pitch Therapy, give it a look at www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com.
As Filament continues to grow, look for a new blog from Chris, Filament’s newest hire.
Following last year’s successful AAAA webinars with hundreds of people signing up for webinars on Selling Creative Work and the follow-up webinar on Defending Creative Work, the AAAAs has scheduled Filament to conduct the following webinars in 2014. Click on each to get more information.
April 4, 2014 —Getting the job and keeping the job – What to expect in your first few years in advertising
May 8, 2014 — Managing Nerves During Meetings, Presentations, Pitches & Q&A
October 16, 2014 – Selling Creative Work Webinar (not yet posted on AAAA website. Click here for the most up to date list of webinars)
November 6, 2014 – Defending Creative Work Webinar (not yet posted on AAAA website. Click here for the most up to date list of webinars)
In addition to the webinars, AAAA is hosting Filament Inc. for a more in depth in person workshop on June 19, 2014 in Boston. Click here for a full list of AAAA workshops.
We look forward to a great year of working with the staff at AAAA.
With more people accessing sites on mobile devices, and computer screens getting wider, it was time for www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com to undergo a facelift. The fact that the blog was not very attractive made the need for an update even more important.
It is always difficult to talk to agency folks about Filament’s new website or blog since the expert eyes of hundreds of clients and creative staff are now looking at our work. While the new look won’t be winning any design awards, it is cleaner, more up to date and easier to view on all devices. For the record, while blogspot.com has limited choices for blog layout, they make it very easy to have a blog. Thanks blogspot.
With a new look comes new posts so make sure to catch up with the latest posts.
Filament has the second biggest year in the company’s 16 year history with clients taking us all over the US but also sending us to Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, Canada and Chile. Each country had its own charm and beauty. As much as new clients and exotic places are interesting, it seemed at times like we were getting a first class tour of the world’s greatest conference rooms. As much as each location is different, the conference rooms all look the same. Only the coffee machines are different.
All kidding aside, it was wonderful to work with so many new people in new locations and we appreciate your hospitality. We look forward to an exciting 2014.
Friend and colleague, Jim Joseph has published the follow-up book to his enormously insightful The Experience Effect. The new book, The Experience Effect for Small Business takes many of the same insights about how to build an experience for your customers and puts it in terms that make sense to small business owners who face different challenges and have different budgets that big business.
As a small business owner, it was wonderful to see someone address small businesses as a real entity, particularly professional small businesses like our business. Too often, small business in the political and publishing world means a mom and pop cupcake shop or convenience store. And while those businesses are important and have their own challenges, they have virtually nothing in common with small professional business like a consulting firm or a small accounting firm.
Kudos to Jim on a fantastic book!
Friend and colleague, Jim Joseph has published the follow-up book to his enormously insightful The Experience Effect. The new book, The Experience Effect for Small Business takes many of the same insights about how to build an experience for your customers and puts it in terms that make sense to small business owners who face different challenges and have different budgets that big business.
As a small business owner, it was wonderful to see someone address small businesses as a real entity, particularly professional small businesses like our business. Too often, small business in the political and publishing world means a mom and pop cupcake shop or convenience store. And while those businesses are important and have their own challenges, they have virtually nothing in common with small professional business like a consulting firm or a small accounting firm.
Kudos to Jim on a fantastic book!
