With tens of millions of blogs on the Internet, all competing with each other for attention, it is almost a chivalrous act for one blogger to cite another. So it’s only polite for me to return the compliment, and refer readers of this blog to Ian Griffin’s blog -- http://www.exec-comms.com/blog/.

Ian is a Silicon Valley speechwriter, who has written for top executives at Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems. I had the pleasure of meeting him last week at the 2007 Speechwriters Conference in Washington, D.C.

I was one of the featured speakers at the conference. My topic was, “Bite the Bullet: Turn Your Speaker’s Liabilities Into Assets.” I’d tell you about my presentation, but Ian has saved me the trouble. He posted an admirable summary of my remarks on his blog, which may be accessed at http://www.exec-comms.com/blog/?p=167.

Another speaker at last week’s conference was veteran speechwriter Fletcher Dean, who blogs at http://www.thespeechwriter.com/.

I often suspect that fulltime speechwriters are becoming extinct. A poll taken at the Speechwriters Conference several years ago revealed that more than half of the attendees spent less than 20 percent of their time writing speeches. In other words, a great many speeches these days are being writing by PR generalists. Unfortunately, it shows.

So perhaps it’s helpful to the generalists that fulltimers like Ian, Fletcher and me are willing to share our expertise on line. If it is, maybe the generalists –- be they in government, the corporate world or academia -- will show their gratitude by throwing us a freelance assignment from time to time. (Hint-hint.)