Speech: 21st Century Renaissance Speakers, by George Alger

Where were you on the second Sunday in February, 11 years ago?

Well, a number of you were right here in this very theatre, at a Renaissance Speakers meeting. Ray and Carol were even sitting in the same seats!

In Feb 2000 I was President of this club.

Bill Moon was winning all the best coaching ribbons.

Lance Miller was winning all the best speaker ribbons.

Mick Coventry was lobbying to make the Renaissance Speakers a British Colony.

Roberta Perry was voted the most gracious person in humanity.

Kathy Oliver had just turned 18 and finally became a legally consummated member of the club. [JOKE]

That year, 1999-2000, was marked by a Y2K concern regarding the potential failure of global computers, due to a problem with computer calendars not being able to transition to the 21st Century.

That year we also engaged in an ambitious promotional campaign to promote the Renaissance Speakers and to gain new members.

In a few short months, we concluded a very successful membership drive, ending the year with one of the top membership levels in the club’s history.

Here are some of our promotional actions: [SHOW SLIDES]

♦ Although the VP Membership had a game for bringing in the most guests, I think Richard Stewart ultimately beat everyone in the club by a factor of ten. [JOKE]

♦ In spite of that, several members, including myself, were making regular invitational announcements in the various course rooms around Celebrity Centre and Los Angeles. [SHOW SLIDE]

♦ We were promoting the club at the weekly Celebrity Centre Clear Expansion Committee meetings. [SHOW SLIDE]

♦ I was writing Toastmasters articles for the The Latest magazine and recruiting others to do the same. [SHOW SLIDE]

♦ One unusual promotional action was the purchasing of a series of advertisements in The Latest magazine about Toastmasters, which were typically displayed on the same pages as the articles about Toastmasters and the Renaissance Speakers. [SHOW SLIDE]

♦ This was the single greatest volume of outflow for the year, and possibly ever, for the club. Since their circulation was 65,000 back then, and since I believe were promoted in at least three issues, you can see we had some outflow going. [SHOW SLIDE]

♦ One other thing. In 1999 I established the first RenaissanceSpeakers.com website, with the help of Kay Marie Baron, and as part of all these other promotional activities, potential guests were being directed to the club website to gain additional understanding about what we’re about.

The main point here is that there were a number of promotional activities that were ongoing and it was by February that all these activities really ramped up for a surge of new members that joined the club.

My point this morning is “Outflow = Inflow.” [SHOW SLIDE]

And the reason this is pertinent to 21st Century Renaissance Speakers is because today, we are on the verge of an additional outflow opportunity.

Something even more opportune than the some 200,000 messages our club was outflowing around this time 11 years ago.

And what is that modern mechanism?

Find out after this meeting, at 1pm, right here in the Theatre. You are invited to this month’s Renaissance Speakers Social Media Workshop titled:

FACEBOOK. Good? Or Evil? [SHOW SLIDE]

Although the title gives an indication of the topic, if you think you know what this workshop will be about because you use Facebook, you may be surprised.

Regardless of whether you love or hate Facebook, or if you are a heavy Facebook user, or a casual user, or don’t know what to think about it, you should come away from this workshop with not only some additional insight into how you can use Facebook to better promote your own interests, but we will be focusing on how to leverage Facebook to expand the Renaissance Speakers.

And don’t presume this is a big promotion for Facebook. It’s possible that someone may come up from this workshop and NOT want anything to do with Facebook.

So what’s the point of this speech?

Developments in 21st Century communication technologies pose a compelling opportunity to promote the Renaissance Speakers.

And today, at 1pm right here in the theatre, you have an opportunity to find out more.

Hope to see you here at 1pm!