A wise leveraging...

The first annual Theodore C. Sorensen Speechwriting Award was presented last month to my long-time colleague Laurie Vincent for her work with a MasterCard Worldwide executive. My eyes popped out of my head when I read Mr. Sorensen's critique of her entry, where he said:

The content of the speech is a wise leveraging of the core competencies of the speaker's company; in particular, MasterCard Worldwide is uniquely positioned to identify global payment trends in micro- and macroscopic terms.

I've been saying for some time now that every speaker knows something that no one else knows, and every speaker has data that can help make a point that others are trying to make but can only quote anecdotal evidence. So in writing a keynote address, you should ask yourself (1) What does my speaker know that no one else knows, and (2) what data do we have that will substantiate a point that is struggling to take shape in a larger conversation? The idea is to present your speaker not as a knowledgeable quoter of other people's data, but as the owner of data that knowledgeable people will soon be quoting as a primary source.

In the MasterCard speech, Laurie provides this jumping-off point for her speaker:

MasterCard Worldwide has a special vantage point, at the heart of global commerce. We are able to monitor global payment trends, and individual economies and markets. What we're seeing now is... 

She's got us. We can see in our mind all those credit cards being swiped, generating data that her speaker is now going to make meaningful for us. That makes this a speech worth listening to.