Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When a father tweets...

I’m speaking this evening at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC to a group of 100 or so federal government human resource professionals about the impact social media has on relationship building and recruitment.

The event is sponsored by Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) client Monster and also features presentations from Tom Temin of Federal News Radio and Bob Jacobs, NASA's Deputy Assistant for the Office of Public Affairs.

I wanted to share my introductory remarks.

Experts tell you that when giving a speech it’s important to start out with a joke to break the ice; to help connect with the audience. Make it appropriate and, if possible, tie it to the theme of your presentation.

Well, I don’t have any jokes. But, I do have one heck of an anecdote for you.

I’m the proud parent of two beautiful and high spirited sons. I was recently invited by my four-year-old to come to his pre-school class for “what does your mom or dad do at work” day. I was going to be introduced by my son to his classmates -- a group of 15 pre-schoolers.

The first parent was lawyer. The second owned a restaurant. The third (the guy right before me) was a firefighter. Can you believe that? How could I compete?


My son rose and stood before the class. “My dad...,” he said in his most proud voice. “Tweets all day long.”

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