Last year, it seemed there was continually politicians and business leaders in the news because of their latest speech. At the time, it got me thinking about the power of this communications medium, but none of these speeches compares with the global impact Obama’s inauguration speech has had.

As a medium, speeches have a lot to deliver. They have to entertain, inform, inspire or influence us, whilst simultaneously raising the profile and reputation of the speaker – who only has one chance to get it right.

A great speech can last for generations; we are still looking to the speeches made by people such as Martin Luther King (“I had a dream…”), John F. Kennedy (“Ask not what your country can do for you…”) and Winston Churchill (“Never has so much been achieved by so few…”) for inspiration and example. So deliver a great speech and you could be making history!

With so much pressure on getting it right, speech writing can be both absolutely terrifying and hugely exhilarating making it, in my opinion, the ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ of communications.

So if you haven’t tried speech writing yet, I’d wholeheartedly encourage you give it a go. It’s hard work, but like everything that requires that extra effort, the rewards are high!

To get your regular speech writing and pubic speaking fix, try visiting a local Toastmasters club, there are 14 in Switzerland, including two in both Geneva and Lausanne.

‘Rock on!’

Melitta