Subject: Seminar on New Ideas for Presentations
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 01:19:00 -0800 (PST)

Please read the proposal below from an excellent ghost writer and 
presentation consultant from the White House Writers Group.  Steve Kean 
suggested looking into this for some fresh ideas to improve our presentations.

We can have a session where we share with them some of our presentations and 
they give us ideas for humor and personalization.  A question is whether this 
would work for internal audiences such as all-employee meetings as well as 
external ones.  Once we understand their methodology and capabilities, we 
might find we can do some of this ourselves, and we would consult with them 
on an as-needed basis for future presentations.

If you are interested in this seminar, let me know if you have a presentation 
that they could review to make suggestions with and pick a possible date for 
a seminar--say Monday December 4th or Tuesday the 5th?  I will forward this 
to the EES and EBS presentation folks, but let me know who else might be 
interested.

- Rob

----- Forwarded by Rob Bradley/Corp/Enron on 11/20/2000 08:43 AM -----

	Daniel Casse <[email-masked]>
	11/17/2000 06:51 PM
		 
		 To: <[email-masked]>
		 cc: 
		 Subject: meeting with White House Writers Group

Rob --

Thanks for your call this afternoon. I am excited about the prospect of
working with Enron again.

As I told you when we talked this afternoon, my colleagues and I have a fair
bit of experience working with executives to make slide presentations more
compelling and memorable.

Rather than work from a strict template, I have always tried to work closely
with the material in the remarks themselves.  Sometimes I work with one of
my colleagues d Mike Long or Doug Gamble d who have been professional
humorists.  They are very reliable when it comes to providing opening lines
and punching up a script.

But in many cases, it requires thinking of an unconventional, fresh approach
to slide presentations to help make a strong point.  Here are some examples:

I have frequently used a mix of thematic newspaper and magazine cartoons
to both open a presentation and introduce humor throughout.  This is the
best way of telling a joke without having to tell a joke.

Occasionally we will use a series of photos and images to emphasize
points.  Historical photos are particularly good as a way of introducing a
historical analogy.  Sometimes when the speaker is quoting someone, simply
putting a photo of that person works.  Photo slides can also be used as a
punch line for a joke.  I?ve encouraged CEOs to use them during otherwise
staid investor presentations and they are greeted with uproarious laughter.
In many cases, I encourage the speaker to find a series of images that set a
mood.

Again, creating this type of presentation requires working closely with the
material, ideally early in the development process.

As you suggested, I think we could spend some very productive time together
in Houston or Washington at time convenient to you.  I would probably want
to bring a colleague.  It might work best if I had a chance to review a
pending set of remarks d or even an old one --  in advance, and make that a
basis of our discussion.  During our meeting, we would then have the chance
to map out ideas for any upcoming presentations.

From my perspective, the sooner the meeting the better.  Late November and
early December is a relatively slow time for us and my travel schedule is
flexible.

The White House Writers Group charges $300 per hour for professional time
and $100 per hour for research.  Depending on how much time you wanted to
spend with us and how much preparation you wanted us to do in advance, we
would charge you around $3000 and certainly less than $4000 for this
session.

In any case, we would not want price to be an issue.  We have enjoyed doing
work for Enron in the past and are eager to work with you again.  Please let
me know how we can make this happen.

Very best

Daniel

--
Daniel Casse
White House Writers Group
615-297-5999
615-297-5908 (fax)