One of the presenters at today's Nonprofit Networker, hosted and facilitated by Chiesman, Black Hills Community Foundation, and the Dahl, was Nancy Anderson-Smith, Director of Youth Programs and Continuing Education at SDSM&T. (I know, that's a lot of comas, but it couldn't be helped) She talked about networking as meeting people with intention. Intention to help others, to grow a stronger community, to find out what is important to others. Networking helps us care for our neighbors.
She gave us an assignment: prepare an elevator speech by the next convening of the Nonprofit Networker. An elevator speech is what you tell the mayor while shaking his hand at a Chamber mixer. I had a good one as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Member. Now I need a new one, so I was very pleased to have an assignment that I can apply immediately.
An elevator speech is clear and concise. Who am I, what do I do, why it's important and what do I want. It should be a sentence or two, surely not more than two or three lines of text. I am verbose. This will be difficult for me. She gave us a couple of minutes to network at our tables in groups of three and four. I went with my old elevator speech that ended on Friday with my contract, but it is a little long.
Power networking, Nancy explained, is a concise expansion of just the 'what I'm looking for' part. Add a few statistics to back up my request. Be clear and concise. I'm using that word a lot because she did too. (I believe repetition in speeches is used to drive home a point.)
She picked a random member of her captive audience to deliver his elevator speech. He was John Stewart of Main Street Square. He ended his speech with an enthusiastic "...this is your square." Everyone clapped. I can't wait till October! See? It works :)
Nancy also told us that a good elevator speech will help you write grants because grant reviewers like concise work, too.
She gave us an assignment: prepare an elevator speech by the next convening of the Nonprofit Networker. An elevator speech is what you tell the mayor while shaking his hand at a Chamber mixer. I had a good one as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Member. Now I need a new one, so I was very pleased to have an assignment that I can apply immediately.
An elevator speech is clear and concise. Who am I, what do I do, why it's important and what do I want. It should be a sentence or two, surely not more than two or three lines of text. I am verbose. This will be difficult for me. She gave us a couple of minutes to network at our tables in groups of three and four. I went with my old elevator speech that ended on Friday with my contract, but it is a little long.
Power networking, Nancy explained, is a concise expansion of just the 'what I'm looking for' part. Add a few statistics to back up my request. Be clear and concise. I'm using that word a lot because she did too. (I believe repetition in speeches is used to drive home a point.)
She picked a random member of her captive audience to deliver his elevator speech. He was John Stewart of Main Street Square. He ended his speech with an enthusiastic "...this is your square." Everyone clapped. I can't wait till October! See? It works :)
Nancy also told us that a good elevator speech will help you write grants because grant reviewers like concise work, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment