Clients have not hesitated to ask me to develop a keynote speech from scratch in light of certain circumstances which the audience faced. Often these circumstances arise from some wholesale disruption in the industry or the world in general. Here's a description of three situations which fell into this category.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

In the immediate wake of the 9-11 attack, the Federal government created the TSA and organized it hurriedly to get air traffic back to normal as quickly as possible.

Understandably, in rushing the organization into existence, management systems were not thoroughly designed. A year later, TSA planned a national conference of middle and senior managers to put a plan in motion to professionalize the administration's management.

Planners asked me to keynote the conference and present a broad overview of management issues which begged for correction. To design the speech, I interviewed select managers at airports and administrative centers all over the U.S. These findings were then compiled into a set of talking points which became the basis for the presentation.

Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)

The IMA is a professional association of men and women whose management positions charge them with oversight of corporate accounting systems. The economic collapse in 2008-2009 confronted many companies and non-profits with unprecedented cashflow and asset management challenges.

Having never faced a similar scenario in the past, the more junior members of the IMA were feeling overwhelmed by this predicament. They were needing informed perspectives on how to cope with what they faced, manage their personnel effectively, and keep morale high within their staff.

A nearby chapter asked me to address these needs in a keynote at an upcoming regional meeting. Over the course of six weeks, I interviewed veteran professionals in their arena, gathered their best wisdom on what counsel to give, and used this input as the crux of my presentation.

State Association of Self-Storage Owners

As the economic downturn deepened in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 economic collapse, many small businesses struggled to survive.

Particularly hard hit were independent business owners who operated self-storage facilities. In the slower economy, demand for rental spaces dropped. Banks tightened requirements for loans and lines of credit. And property values fell.

A Texas-wide association of these property owners approached me about keynoting their state convention and addressing how to manage in tough times. By interviewing key figures in various parts of the state, I identified the most pressing problems, uncovered ingenuous ways in which certain owners were tackling these problems, and put together a light-hearted, but information-rich keynote for their conference.