Conference speakers: Cheekiness is charming; but not in a form letter

Nerve: To be a good conference speaker, you've got to have lots. But it is possible to have too much. Two speakers at our recent Speechwriters Conference demonstrated the difference.

The week after the conference, HeSheOrIt wrote me a nice e-mail thanking me for the invitation, and then asked:

"Favor....Could I have a walk on water letter that states who the audience is, how well educated they are, how well you think I connected with them ..... If you want to send me a quick email with thoughts, I can clean it up and send back to be printed on your letterhead. OK?"

HeSheOrIt was a great speaker. So, despite chuckling at HeSheOrIt's cheekiness, I indulged HeSheOrIt with a testimonial, calling the session in question a "triumph." (Sharing more of my heartbreakingly beautiful letter would reveal HeSheOrIt's identity.)

I wrote the testimonial because I thought: Okay. We're both pros. Why mess around? If you want a "walk-on-water letter," just ask for one. Right?

But then, the very next day, I got an e-mail from another speaker who will also remain nameless. HeSheOrItJunior, we'll call him, her or it.

HeSheOrItJunior was another fine speaker預 proven pro who had spoken at the conference before. But HeSheOrItJunior went over the line of obnoxiousness in several ways.

First, by commandeering Ragan's attendee evaluation forms, tallying the feedback and sending me the results in an e-mail:

"Looks as if your conference participants enjoyed participating my program as much as I enjoyed working with them! Thanks again for bringing me to Ragan Speechwriters Conference.

"One-hundred percent of your colleagues requested that Ragan Speechwriters Conference bring me back for another program -- and I couldn't agree more! I'd love to join the Ragan Speechwriters Conference again. Your colleagues had several suggestions for follow-up programming, including � [HeSheOrItJunior inserted three of HeSheOrItJunior's bread-and-butter topics here].

"In the meantime, could I get a letter from you outlining what your group got out of my session and how you've applied the ideas we discussed? I know a letter from you would be very impressive to my potential clients. I also know that you're very busy � so please let me know whether you have time to do this."

Aside from being glib as the day is long, it's a form letter!

Note the awkward insertions of "Ragan Speechwriters Conference." Note how little sense it makes to ask me, the conference organizer, "how you've applied the ideas we discussed." I remembered the last line�"please let me know whether you have time to do this"庸rom the last time HeSheOrIt spoke at the conference.

That time, I had time. This time, I didn't.

As the saying goes: Fool me once, shame on me. Try to fool me again, and I don't think I'll have you back next year.