Dear speech-fans and -friends,
Just back from the World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association in Washington DC.
Even posting the dozens of pages of notes
and documents I bring back could not match what you get by participating:
next to high-level expertise and the most up-to-date insight on speeches, it’s
meeting and networking with professionals from all over the world; it’s
experiencing the power of speeches from talented colleagues; it’s the
motivation to become better professionals.
The conference this year ranged from how the political brain works to what wit adds to speeches and speakers, to reflections on the profession of speechwriter – from the making of the State of the Union to what singing and speechwriting have in common. Let us know what you want to explore and we’ll find a way to share this.
You will find the latest selection of quotes and speeches on logospathosethos.eu.
Isabelle
Variations
on the power of antithesis
I am convinced that the worst day of
European integration is better than the best day of nationalistic Europe.
This is indeed an extraordinary day.
A historic day.
A day when we put to bed any doubts that the
whole EU is fully committed to joining the Paris Agreement.
Today we are again showing global leadership
on climate action, just like we did in Paris by helping craft this landmark deal.
Our reputation was on the line because
remember:
They said Europe is too complicated to agree
quickly.
They said we had too many hoops to jump
through.
They said we were all talk.
They even started to question whether our
heart was really in it.
Today we clearly showed that we mean business.
Today's agreement shows unity and solidarity
as Member States take a European approach, just as we did in Paris.
This is what Europe is all about.
In difficult times, we get our act together,
and we make the difference.
Read the full speech here :
Miguel Arias
Cañete, Ratification of the Paris agreement, 30 September 2016
Our Secretary of State [John Kerry] is the descendant of sea merchants and
sailors. He’s a Navy veteran himself. So, in a lot of ways, the
ocean is in his blood. Many years ago, John’s father passed to his son a
sailor’s love of the sea -- its wonder and its beauty and its power. But
John’s dad also loved what he called “the sailor’s environment” -- reading the
weather and the waves, and the different ways that one adapts to the
ocean.
Of course, the problem that confronts all of us today is that we’re asking
far too much of our ocean in asking it to adapt to us.
Read the full speech here :
Barack
Obama, Our Ocean Conference, 15 September 2016
Finding
the stories
It is the responsibility of a leader to spend
time with the people they were elected to serve.
If you want the real stories, you have to go
where people live. Coffee shops and church basements, mosques and synagogues.
Farmer’s markets. Public parks.
It was in places like that that I got the best
sense of what Canadians were thinking, and how they were doing.
Read the full speech here :
Justin
Trudeau, General Assembly of the United Nations, 20 September 2016
Listening to the outside world is not a bad
thing: we need to hear what people think about our proposals (…) Yes we must
listen, but citizens need to know who we are listening to. We need to be open
about when and how lobbying happens and have some rules in place for how it
works.
Read the full speech here :
Frans
Timmermans, Opening remarks on the Commission proposal for a mandatory
Transparency Register covering all EU Institutions, 28 September 2016
The power of silence
When we gather in places like Babi Yar,
Auschwitz or Ponary, to honour the memory of the murdered victims, we
helplessly search for the right words and phrases. Some, like Pope Francis, who
recently visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, choose silence (…) . It is (…)
understandable that we most often choose silence, because silence can be louder
than a scream.
Read the full speech here :
Donald
Tusk, Commemorative Ceremony of Babi Yar Massacre, 29 September 2016
Make it tangible
Imagine waking up in a room whose temperature is exactly as you want it.
Your sleep-tracking wearable device has
already switched on the lights.
The app knows you are awake, so the coffee
machine starts to brew.
A fantasy of the future? Not really.
The 'smart home' is fast becoming a reality.
Read the full speech here :
Andrus Ansip,
Europe should not be afraid of data, 29 September 2016
Call to action
Ci sono poche professioni che hanno tanta
influenza sulla società come quella del giornalismo. Il giornalista riveste un
ruolo di grande importanza e al tempo stesso di grande responsabilità. In
qualche modo voi scrivete la “prima bozza della storia”, costruendo l’agenda
delle notizie e introducendo le persone all’interpretazione degli eventi.
Read the full speech here : Pope Francis, To the National Council of the Order of Journalists, 22 September 2016
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