In this video, presentation coach Patricia Fripp offers some terrific tips for more successful Zoom meetings:

Want to share your tips for great video presentations?  Leave a comment below or e-mail me.  And don’t forget to sign up to follow Bannon Communications on Twitter.

It begs many questions. Is Mayor Pete plagiarizing a politician he admires in the hopes that we won’t notice (an act that virtually ended Joe Biden’s 1988 presidential bid)? Is he simply borrowing a bit of style and some winning language from the last great orator to hold the post to which he now aspires? In the era of social media and a world in which retweeting and sharing others’ thoughts, ideas, pictures and more without any sense of responsibility to credit the creators of that content has become commonplace, do audiences even care any more where the message comes from?

That last question should be especially troubling for any of us — citizens who will elect the next president and certainly communications professionals such as myself — who value authenticity in our leaders.

Want to share your thoughts on this issue?  Leave a comment below or e-mail me.  And don’t forget to sign up to follow Bannon Communictions on Twitter.

I’ve been blessed throughout the course of my career to have opportunities to work with so many amazing leaders – CEOs of Fortune 500 companies; elected officials at virtually every level of government; regional chamber of commerce and economic development executives dedicated to building stronger, more vibrant places to live, work, run a business or raise a family; the heads of large charitable organizations and small nonprofits born out of one caring soul’s need to lift up those in need; and even a few household names from the world of professional sports.

I’ve been in position day after day to see how great leaders lead – how they keep moving toward the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel even as so many others … and so many obstacles … threaten to knock them off course.  And I’ve been there to see some not-so-great leaders fail – people who were born with the drive to lead but believed they could succeed on potential alone.  And now I’m looking to share with others the lessons I’ve learned over more than 15 years in the company of these women and men of distinction.

I’m excited about opportunities that are on the horizon and the chances I’ll have through Bannon Leadership Consulting to help good people achieve great things in their businesses or the communities that they call home.  I’ve been asked to come and share a lot of these lessons with business and community organizations in the past – to help them organize, plan and execute for greater success.  And this new organizational structure will help me to do that in more formal, more effective way for both consulting clients and audiences who are interested in my message.

So please take some time to poke around the site, www.BannonLeadership.com.  Take a minute to sign up for the RSS feed on the left to be notified of future updates, follow @BannonLdrshp on Twitter, and leave a comment if you’ve got something to share or send me an e-mail to let me know how I can help you realize your vision.

At the same time, I’ve given my fair share of speeches and presentations over the years. And those are always fun. Most recently, I spoke in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where I delivered a keynote address on community and economic development to the good folks of the Northwest Chamber Leaders Conference.  It was a great time, and I probably learned twice as much from the wonderful community and business leaders who came to the conference from all across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada as they learned from me.  When it was over, I was asked by a handful attendees about whether I’d be available to come and speak in their communities, and so it goes for somebody who writes and gives speeches professionally.

A week later, though, I was blessed with a real treat — an opportunity to sit in the audience and watch my father deliver his first public speech in decades.  My dad, George, is an amazing guy. I’ll spare you the million and one reasons I’ve got the best dad in the world, but I’d urge you to take my word for it.  He was forced to retire early with a severe knee injury in 2001, and after he adjusted to the realities of his life without work, he threw himself into the pursuit of one of his lifelong dreams.  He wanted to write and publish a novel.

So, on March 23, he took to the front of the room at a “Meet The Authors” night at a local library to deliver his first book talk.

Like all public speakers, he was nervous. I’d talked with him about it a month or so ago — even offered to help him organize his thoughts. I worried for him and wanted him to do a great job, and I kind of felt a pang of role-reversal, thinking back to the times when I was a kid and he’d offer to help me study or when he’d talk to me about my batting swing. As much as he ever wanted me to succeed on the baseball field, I wanted him to hit a home run when he delivered his remarks at this event.

But he didn’t ask me to help him put together his speaker’s notes. So I was a bit more anxious for him than I let on when I met up with him a little while before the event was scheduled to begin.  There were three other authors who would be speaking, and they’d all done these things before. But Dad looked ready. So I gave him a quick pre-game speech about how everybody in the room wanted him to succeed and how he’d be great just by being himself.  Then I took my seat and waited.

The first couple of authors who spoke were very good — both having published multiple titles and done years worth of speaking engagements and media interviews.  Then it was Dad’s turn.  And he killed it.  Seriously, a grand slam.  He got his first laugh from the audience after about 12 seconds and another within half a minute of that. He made connections with the crowd, told personal stories, wove in details of the story in his book and brought it all home with a personal message about chasing one’s dreams even when you think time may have passed you by.  I was in the back of the room, and about halfway through his remarks a teenage girl in the seat in front of me leaned over to her mother and said, “I like him.” And I couldn’t have been more happy for my dad or more proud as a son.

So I wonder … is it in the genes?  I understand how I can craft a pretty decent speech with so many years of experience. And I understand how I can give a pretty good speech with so many years studying, teaching and practicing speechmaking. But how does my dad, who hasn’t delivered public remarks in nearly 20 years, win the room like he did?

I like to think he gets it from me.

Please take a little time to watch the video of my dad’s remarks at the Northland Public Library Meet the Authors event. If you like what you hear, visit his Web site, www.GeorgeBannon.com, to order a copy of his novel, The Final Crusade. It’s available from Amazon and all the other usual suspects, but if you order from Dad’s site you get it for $5 off the cover price, free shipping, and he’ll personally sign it for you.

Update: This op-ed has been picked up by the Sacramento Business Journal and is available online to non-subscribers now by clicking here.

Chamber Executive Magazine -- Summer 2010 -- featuring a cover story by Bannon Communications President and CEO Shawn Bannon

Thanks to the good folks at the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, who gave me the opportunity to write the cover story for the summer edition of Chamber Executive magazine. 

The article takes a look at how communities across the country are working to brand and promote themselves for economic development, talent attraction and tourism in difficult economic times and a period of fierce competition.

Let me know what you think after you’ve read the piece, especially if your community is doing something unique or creative to spread the word about what makes it a great place to live, work, run a business or raise a family.  Leave a comment below or e-mail me.  And don’t forget to sign up to follow Bannon Communications on Twitter.