Date: Saturday 26 March 2011
Location: Park Plaza Hotel, Utrecht
Time: 14.00 - 17.00
Contact: John Hynd
The AGM is open to members only.
Downloads: (log in first to access the bulletin)
Invited speaker
Philip Yaffe: What Shakespeare can teach us about clear writing and speaking
Time: 11.00 - 13.00
Sworn translators who attended this talk are entitled to 2 PE points as defined in the Wet bëedigde tolken en vertalers
Price: members, gratis; non-members €10 (to be paid at the door).
This year, we have invited Philip Yaffe to talk to us before the business part of the meeting. The talk will be about 90 minutes, with time for questions. Between 13:00 and 14:00, coffee and tea will be provided, but members are free to go and have lunch elsewhere.
About the talk
According to surveys, people seem to be more afraid of public speaking than dying. For many, rather than giving the eulogy at a funeral, they would prefer to be in the casket (Jerry Seinfeld). Public speaking isn’t easy, but it doesn’t need to be frightening. Successful public speaking is founded on only a handful of underlying principles. Once these principles (embodied in much of Shakespeare’s writing) are revealed and taken to heart, the techniques of public speaking become easier and more natural. Even shy people can successfully speak in public – if they truly know what they are doing.
The term “death by PowerPoint” suggests that there is something wrong with this presentation tool. There isn’t. It can be very useful. What is wrong is that it is so often poorly used. As with public speaking itself, proper use of PowerPoint depends on understanding only the handful of true principles that underlie its effective application.
Approximately half the talk will seek to reveal and examine these principles, with plenty of good and not-so-good slides to illustrate them in practice.
About Philip Yaffe
Philip Yaffe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a mathematics degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Yaffe has more than forty years of experience in journalism and marketing communication. At various points in his career, he has been a teacher of journalism, a reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal, an account executive with a major international press relations agency, European marketing communication director with two major international companies, and a founding partner of a marketing communication agency in Brussels, Belgium, where he has lived since 1974.
Yaffe's latest book is The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional (2010).