|
|
Birthday
Techniques for Speakers: What to do when the
organization, or someone in the audience is having a birthday
(If you are listed here you may send me your complete contact info and website and I'll give you a link)
Below are unedited entrants in Tom's Birthday contest.
Tom,
Happy Birthday from Norfolk England, I'll send you the same as I did
last year!!!!!!
Regarding birthday in the audience.
I was a Master of Ceremonies at an event, the Keynote speaker was a
member of the 1966 England football team (very famous over here). I
arranged a meeting in the afternoon to discuss how he liked to be
introduced, I overheard his wife tell a friend that it was his birthday
the next day.
The evening went very well, and Alan gave a very touching, motivational
presentation about his career in football. The presentation ended at
around 23:50. As I stood up to give thanks, at about 2 minutes past 12 I
got everybody to stand up and sing happy birthday. The look on his face
as almost 400 people stood and gave him the loudest happy birthday he
had ever had.
Best wishes,
Richard Parramunt.
Dear Tom
I put a clean sheet or blanket on the floor, have the birthday boy or
girl lie on it face down, and ask for 6 volunteers to administer a 12
handed back rub while the rest of the group sings Happy B'day 3 times, each
with increased gusto.
Or I let the birthday person demonstrate my favorite game, the
Trust Fall. We blindfold the person, put him or her in a circle of 5 other
people who lock hands. Then we ask the person in the middle to cross his
or her arms and, without stepping in any direction, just fall and be
caught. As a reward for going first, I give the person a box of
chocolates.
Or I appoint the person co-leader for a segment of the program. He
or she selects "volunteers", records points on a flip chart, or, if it's
during a Q & A, I surprise everybody by asking the b'day person to answer a question. Whatever the answer is, I tell the audience it deserves a
standing O.
Looking forward to learning what others do, Tom. Thanks
Gary Michael
The Talk Doc
talkdoc@ecentral.com
www.drgarymichael.com
Hi Tom-
I've had participants in a workshop do a mixer that works like this:
Without using any words, line yourselves up around the room in the order of
your birthdays. Disregard the year of birth.
Give participants a couple of minutes to do the process, then verify the
order they ended up in. Often there is someone with a birthday in the group.
Did I win yet?
Cassandra Cockrill, DTM
District Governor, 2000-2001
Toastmasters International, District 57
MOMENTUM: Play to Win!
www.toastmastersd57.org
Dear Tom,
Sometimes I learn of a person's birthday prior to the presentation, this may be mentioned in the pre-presentation feedback form I send out, or in a phone conversation about the group.
I then obtain a contact name of a personal friend or member of the person's family and obtain a few positive comments about the birthday celebrant or little
anecdotes and turn it into a mini 'This is your life' statement about the person. It is even better if I can link or weave the birthday greeting into the theme of my presentation. The person is 'anonymous' until the moment I invite the audience to wish them a Happy Birthday. This adds a little suspense to the announcement.
For Example:
Ladies and Gentlemen, we all know about dedication to a cause (my theme). You have dedicated your professional lives to the service of your students. The world will rarely know of, nor seek to reward that dedication. How many of us would know that among us today, is a man who has
achieved great things through his simple determination?. His Principal believes that his clear vision and long term planning alone led to the establishment an
annex at his school for male students experiencing serious learning difficulties. It has
profoundly changed the culture of schooling for boys at Castlemaine Secondary College. Perhaps you have heard of him and his work. His name is Peter Thompson, and by the way, its his birthday today!
I pause, turn to where he/she is sitting I start clapping and usually the audience joins me in the applause! (No standing ovations...Australians just don't do that! )
It works because I have found something valid for the topic of my presentation, valid for the recipient and the audience.
The birthday celebrant is very pleased that I knew this stuff about them and I always give credit to their friend in the audience for the information they have passed on to me.
Regards,
Justin Shortal
Senior Project Officer
SOFNet Schools'Television
Department of Education Employment and Training
Victoria
AUSTRALIA
Tom...For the first scenario I would ask that person if their boss or fellow
workers are doing something special for them today. If not, I would offer to
buy them Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner. It does not embarrass them, however it would bring attention to the fact that you need to make people feel special.
For the second scenario, you could invite attending management to the stage
or front and have the audience stand and sing Happy Birthday. This would get the crowd involved and make for excellent rapport.
Peter Gates
1. Individual with birthday.
Get correct spelling and pronunciation of person's name ahead of time.
In group set up's and appointing table scribe or facilitator, ask "who has a birthday closest to (today's date)?"
In keynote just invite person to stand.
Have everyone sing happy birthday and write name on overhead, flip chart or PowerPoint
or just tell everyone.
Give birthday person a gift of a personalized copy of your book, and bunch of flowers if you can for a female participant. Flowers always hit home.
2. Company birthday.
Arrange with meeting planner for birthday cake with company anniversary wording and logo on icing.
Have everyone don a birthday hat provided, (really cheap at Dollar Stores vs. party supply places), and get everyone a kazoo to hum Happy Birthday before break and cake. If company is able to, have them imprint the kazoos through a specialty advertising company with company anniversary details.
Hope to see you in Washington DC at the convention. Sorry can't get there sooner for your event.
Roy
Roy Saunderson - Professional Speaker & Consultant -
Recognition Management Institute, 981 Wellington Road South,
Suite 612, London, Ontario CANADA N6E 3A9
E-mail: RoySaunderson@RealRecognition.com
http://www.realrecognition.com
"Showing people how to give REAL RECOGNITION(tm) to others!"
Hi Tom,
I've used this line a few times:
I'd like to wish Mary Smith a very happy birthday. When I was a kid, I'd
roast a marshmallow over the candles. My last birthday cake had enough
candles to roast a turkey!
Happy birthday,
David Rothman
1. (indiv.)
I announce the birthday and give them a copy of one of my books or my
husband's open edition fine art print.
2. I send a framed or unframed open edition fine art print by my husband,
Raymond Horner Jr.
I work with health care providers around issues of burnout. When an individual has had a birthday: I have arranged a small group activity to include the birthday guest and structured it so that the topic involves special
occasions or relaxing events. Through a series of scenarios the activity ends up revealing that it is this person's birthday and everyone in his group starts singing 'Happy Birthday' while encouraging the other groups to do the same. We then give a gift of one of my products plus the organization's product of a t-shirt or tote bag. This comes as a great surprise to the guest!
When it is an organization's birthday year I have taken the p.r. director in to my confidence and secured archive slides of historical photos. I call ahead to the hotel sales dept. to obtain permission to use confetti or bubbles. I then contact the organization's board members and ask them to contact committee chairs. These volunteers have the confetti and bubbles and have enlisted friends to help. At the end of my presentation I flash the historical photo slides, segue my closing in to a comment about 'caring' with something like, "xyz organization has been doing just that-caring for 75 years and that deserves a special celebration...." then I start the singing of Happy Birthday, the volunteers throw the confetti and blow the bubbles and the catering dept. wheels out a cake. Board members then present the staff with a rose and a good time is had by all!
Ann Leach
Tom,
I just have all the audience members get in two lines facing each other and
then have the birthday boy or gal go run through the line getting spanked
along the way. The Ole Fashion spanking machine. Only got sued twice so
far. ;)
2. Or I give them ideas on how to spend their birthday.
Top 10 things to do on your birthday card.
1. Eat a bowl full of Jelly Belly Jelly Bean's one at a time.
2. Make a dirt cake and eat it in front of an unsuspecting friend.
3. Play marbles with a kid.
4. Have a regressive birthday dinner with a group of friends (start with
desert at one friends house, go to another for the main course, the have
salad at another's and finally eat an appetizer at your house).
5. Send yourself a singing telegram at the office.
6. Have a party and send out children's invitations (have everyone bring a
gift for a needy child or charity).
7. Make up your own birthday song to the tune of "The 12 days of Christmas".
8. Send out a multiply choice present list.
9, Register your gift ideas at your favorite store (even if you don't get
any, it's still fun!).
10. Rent or go see your favorite movie you loved as a kid.
11. Be-friend a person at a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. Give them a
gift, find out their birthday, and do something nice for them.
12. Plan your perfect birthday and Just do it!
13. Stretch outside your comfort zone (try a new hair do, get a perm, bungee
jump, parachute, go skinny dipping, test drive a sports car, eat some new
exotic food, take up a new hobby, but most important of all...decide to have
a TERRIFIC DAY on your birthday and EVERYDAY!
See you in DC.
Scott Friedman
Just finished a newsletter for The Arc of Anchorage in which we
addressed the 10th birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act! Does
that count?
Susan
I was teaching a course out of state for a small group of participants,
approximately 20 people. It was a 2 day presentation and on the first
day one of the participants informed me of another's birthday for the
next day.
After the class on day 1 I got the catering department of the hotel to
make and serve a birthday cake, candles and all with this lady's name
on it. We had coffee, cake, and balloons as a surprise during the
afternoon stretch break.
Total cost to me was about 55$ and worth every penny.
No, the idea was not original, but it was unexpected from the class and
that is what made it so meaningful. Sometimes, just doing the
unexpected has great impact!
--
Shelley Cohen RN, BS, CEN
Health Resources Unlimited
educate@hru.net
www.hru.net
I refer to 3 books I possess which tells me
(a) who else shares b'day and (b) what of significance
happened on that day.
I usually have time to write a B'day Letter with that info
and call attention to it.
If it's sudden I have surprised even myself w/ what nuggets
of knowledge I hold about many dates; I use the book WITTY WORDs by Eileen
Mason.
If the group is loosey-goosey I'll even ask for show of
hands re b'day and then ask audience to cheer 'n holler.
A good game to play, if there's time and it seems "right" is
to bet real money that there are several people who share
month and day as b'day. If there are more than 30 it's
likely to be the case and if more than 50 it's certain to be so.
(After all, there are only 366 days max).
Again...Tom, that Memorial Tribute to your Dad is a
winner so congratulations on preparing it.
I'll bet it caused lotsa dads to wonder if they are
truly living up to what yours did.
See you at NSA; I'm involved in getting my 2 granddaughters
at airport so they can be fully ready for the Youth Program next day.
JOHN JAY DALY
Tom, here is what I did when I was in the audience on my birthday.
THE BIRTHDAY PHENOMENON
by Allen Klein
For the past three years I’ve either been out of state presenting one of my
humor programs or attending a conference. I was not pleased having to spend this special day in an unfamiliar city with a group of strangers who had no
inkling that it was my special day. So this year I decided to change all that. Before I left town, I scheduled an alternative date to celebrate my
birthday with my family and was determined to created an outrageously fun
birthday for myself in spite of the situation. First thing I did was to let
everyone in the conference session I was attending know that it was my
birthday. Then I told them that I wanted a hug from each of them. I not
only got hugs throughout the day but throughout the conference as well.
Later on in the day, in a crowded elevator, I announced my birthday and asked twelve total strangers to sing “Happy Birthday ” as I exited. What a
wonderfully funny sight seeing and elevator filled with adults singing to
Happy Birthday as the doors closed.
Next, I headed to buy myself some flowers. After I selected a stem of
lilies, I asked the florist if she had a Birthday card to include with my
selection. She handed me one and then noticing how much time and care I was taking in writing the card asked, "Oh, are you buying these for someone
special." "Yes," I said. "Me." She looked puzzled and then laughed as I
wrote, "To Allen. Happy Birthday. I love you." And then I signed my name.
What I noticed throughout the day was that everyone I told that it was my
birthday, from the hassled hotel desk clerk who gave me a bud vase for my
flowers to the convenience store clerk who looked like she hadn’t smiled for years, not only willingly participated in my off-beat requests but, without
an exception, immediately smiled, became friendly and a most willing participant to help me celebrate in my special day.
Then it struck me-- I had just discovered "The Birthday Phenomenon." Tell
someone it’s your Birthday, whether it is or not, and suddenly they cheer up.
So, the next time you are down when out of town (or even in town for that
matter) tell someone it’s your Birthday (even if it isn’t)-- and you'll
create a Happy Mirthday.
Hey B-day Boy, We are going to have to have b-day drinks in DC. Mine is in August.
In answer to question number 1. How have I handled finding out that there is a birthday in my audience.
If it is a man, I sing Happy Birthday to him, ala Marilyn Monroe style and get the whole audience to cheer at the end.
If it is a woman, I grab several men out of the audience and have them sing "You've lost that lovin feeling", ala "Top Gun" and get the whole audience to join in.
(I tee it up about doing something different, so rather than doing the same thing (the b-day song) we do the above.
Big Hugs to ya,
Suze Baez
I carry with me in my "Things to have in an emergency"
kit a number of 8 1/2 x 11 birthday cards that I can
add a name to and a tape of someone who sounds like
Elvis singing happy birthday. When I find out who the
fortunate person or organization is I bring the person
or organization leader up to the front and present
them with the card (of course it has all my
information on it as well!) and play the tape of happy
birthday to them! This always works well and I am
already prepared for it.
Oh by the way Tom, Happy Birthday!
Mike Miller
Do you need a storyteller or trainer?
Then give Mike Miller-Storytrainer a call!
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/mmiller/index
What is a "STORYTRAINER"?
Storytraining is having your training made into a story format so it is more fun and memorable!
Good Morning Tom.
Here is my story on birthdays.
I am currently a Customer Service Facilitator with Canadian Tire
stores here in Canada. My first store was out in Powell River,B.C. which is
two provinces away from where I live. This was the first major trip away
from home since I had been married a year ago and had hesitations along with excitement
about leaving on this trip.
When I arrived at the store it felt like I was coming home to
family as they made me feel so welcome at the store and also in my seminars. One
gentleman name was Carey and I found out it was his birthday and he was at this seminar on his day off.
During our coffee break in the afternoon Carey had stepped out
for a minute so this gave me a chance to get the rest of the group together
to sing happy birthday to Carey when he came back. The group was really
excited about it. As I said before, the whole group were like family to each
other and they were gung ho for this.
Carey walks back into the room and we "let it rip" with happy
birthday to you. The look on his face and the smile from ear to ear was
priceless. I only had 11 people in this seminar, but could they belt it out!!
I am back in Saskatchewan now and think of my "family" in B.C.
quite regularly. Hopefully one day I will be able to help Carey celebrate
another birthday.
Wishing you all the "BEST" for your birthday!
Sincerely,
Larry McCrea
alwayssmilin59@hotmail.com
1.) You find out that a person in your audience is having a birthday.
If it's a man, I say, "It's your birthday? Congratulations! How old do
you feel?" They laugh and shrug their shoulders, usually.
If it's a woman, I take the better part of discretion and say the same
"birthday..congrats" thing, but add "So, what's it like to finally be of
legal drinking age?" if she looks to be fairly young. If she's older, I
say "That's great! 29 is such an awesome age, isn't it!" It gets big
laughs and a warm smile or blush from the birthday girl and is usually
accompanied by "I wish" or some such comment from the recipient.
So, how old do YOU feel, Tom? Like me, you act like your 12, making
life a LOT more fun, but it's how old you feel that matters. I blew
away so many of my formidable years being a whining hump and complaining about too many things that I now feel younger then I ever did since I
left college in 1985. (I graduated. I wasn't asked to leave)
Have fun!
Brendan
mailto:bpt@tobignroup.com
http://www.tobingroup.com
Hey Tom:
This is something I've used several times with people when you know how old they are and who are obviously self-conscious about their age.
"It has just come to my attention that Nancy is having a birthday today.
She's not too happy about turning 40. But Nancy, age is really only a
matter of perspective. For example, the only reason that you are forty is
that there are twelve months in a year. But what if we were to say there
should be fourteen months in a year. That means you are a mere 34. How
does that sound?"
Tom, this actually works best when it's an older executive or key person.
Obviously, the way it works, is that you take their real age, multiply it by
12 and you have the total number of months they are old. They you divide it
by 14 (or another number like 16) and you get the same age in the "new
years." If a person was turning 60 and you used a 16 month year base, they
are now just 45!
The audience likes the math game and it's not something they've heard
before.
But since I really want to win your Electronic Butt Camp program, allow me to submit another technique.
You develop a cheat sheet of funny or interesting things that happened or
were still true for each year from 1935 to present. That covers every
person in the audience usually. Here is my favorite example.
"I have just been told that Ed is turning 62 today. Now, you are only as
old as you feel, Ed. But I just wanted to REMIND you that the year you were
born, 1938, there were still hundreds of people alive who had personal
memories of Abraham Lincoln."
Other fun facts, which you can cull from the Net (just plug the year and
trivia into a search engine) are when certain products were introduced (hula
hoop, copier, electronic typewriter, etc.)
They are a fun way to make people feel "old" but not be cranky about it!
So....do I win?
Avid E-reader, and fellow NSA member, Brian Walter
Tom,
Here is what I do in all my keynotes.
My programs have a great deal of audience interaction. In the very first
activity, I ask the audience to form in groups of 3 - 5 people. After I
explain what they are to do I tell them that they need to pick a group
leader. "The group leader is the person whose birthday - month and day,
since we won't discuss years as this conference (that always gets a few
chuckles) - is closest to today's date (then I say what today's date is).
This activity automatically starts the groups (who are usually strangers)
to interact in a fun and non-threatening way.
After the allotted time for the activity, I move into the audience and ask
the group leaders "by a show of hands, whose birthday is in the current
month". I then select the person closest to me with their hand raised and
ask him or her what their birth date is. I do a quick mental calculation
to determine how many days it is from today. I then ask the rest of the
group leaders who can beat that date.
Often in large audiences, one of the teams starts jumping up and down,
pointing to their group leader because it is that person's birthday. I
quickly move closer to that person and ask them "is it true that today is
your birthday?" If it is, I then ask the audience to give this person a
round of applause. Then comes the best part....
In an almost hush tone, I say, "Since this is your special day, may I give
you a birthday surprise?" They usually are suspicious, but often say yes
or ask what is it. "'Why it's a birthday kiss!", I tell them. At this
point the audience is usually howling. I then pull out a Hershey candy
kiss and give it to them. Then I ask the audience to sing happy birthday!
Everybody enjoys it including the birthday person. After we sing, I ask
that person to give me one idea that their group came up with as a result
of the activity. We then move onto other group leaders and other ideas. I
throw out candy kisses to each person who responds. I make funny comments as I "throw them a kiss". After the activity, we pass the "feed bag" (a
bag full of kisses) around so that everyone gets a kiss because they are all special today.
The key is to be flexible. I have had interesting responses...
1) Sometimes if it is a women, they want a real kiss. I give them one.
2) Once with an audience of 200 women and 2 men, one of the men was the
birthday person. I offered him a birthday kiss and he said "OK!" I gave
him a hug instead. A Hershey hug.
3) If the birthday person turns down the kiss, sometimes another person
will ask for one. I give them one.
The point is to be flexible, creative, and spontaneous with the audience.
They will love you!
- Glen -
=====================
Glen Knight, FHIMSS
Knight Associates
2526 S. Harmony Ave.
Boise, ID 83706
mailto:glen@glenknight.com
http://www.glenknight.com
Hi Tom Yes its me Bill Naylor trying to win your CD.
I was always told by my mum to carry birthday cards, get well cards and congratulation cards in my case, as often when you are visiting a client you establish that it is his or his secretary birthday, or that they have won an award, or that one of the team was ill. To this day I always have them to hand, it shows that you care.
We also send out birthday cards to customers cars based on their date of registration, inviting them to ask their owner to call in and collect their present with is usually a car care kit.
Finally I was running a seminar for 55 delegates covering customer satisfaction, in the morning session I found out that one of the delegates was celebrating his 50th birthday. During the lunch I tagged onto the back end of my slides a slide extending our best wishes to him, on his special day, you can imagine the lecture hall erupted.
To this day he always reminds me of that event.
Regards
Bill Naylor
I am such a BAD singer that I promise not to sing... that's their gift!
Susan Rathman
Compuware - Southern California Branch
QACenter - Mainframe Automated Testing
Tom...whenever I speak, I visit several web sites to find out birthdays and
famous events that happened that day. Then, without being contrived, I try
to work that into my presentation.
For example, I was speaking on September 28 to a group about quality circles. Checking the web sites below, I found the following:
Birthdays...Confucius, Michelangelo, Ed Sullivan, Moon Unit Zappa (and
others). Try to find some similarities or contrasts (humorous, if possible)
between the person having the birthday and the "celebrity." You might even
check out some of the many web sites with quotations, find (for example) a
quotation by Confucius (or another birthday celebrity) and then use it in
relation to the person or organization having a birthday.
Events...in 1930, Lou Gehrig committed his first error in 885 games. We all
know Gehrig as the "Iron Man" (before Ripken broke his record), but this feat might have been even greater...almost 6 years playing first base (and being
involved in more plays than any other player on the team) and no errors! I tied that into the quality issues. Or, you could tie it into another great
accomplishment...the founding of the organization to which you're speaking (if today's their "birthday"). Another event that day was from 1941...Ted
Williams, the last man to bat .400, accomplished that with 6 hits on the last day of the season. Then tie that factoid into your presentation.
So, do some research for other birthdays or events that you can tie into that
day's event, whether it's a birthday or some other auspicious occasion. Here
are some web sites that can help:
Today in History http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
dMarie Time Capsule http://dmarie.com/asp/history.asp
Daily Almanacs http://www.dailyalmanacs.com
Those Were the Days http://www.440.com/twtd/today.html
This Day in History http://www.historychannel.com/thisday/
Biography.com http://www.biography.com/
Famous Birthdays http://www.famousbirthdays.com/
- Bill Wilson, America's #1 "Unprofessional" Speaker
Bill Wilson
The BrightPath Company
POB 817
Hendersonville, TN 37077
Web: http://members.aol.com/QuoteNotes/index.htm
The BrightPath
Company...Bright Ideas to Enhance Personal Success
Enhancing personal success through five critical skills areas: Presentation
Skills, Writing Skills, Personal Management Skills, Business Skills, and
Internet Skills...visit our web site at www.BrightPath.com
for free tutorials
and information that can dramatically improve your personal success.