Those Pesky Thank Yous

How many times have we had to sit through the million thank yous that need to be said at the beginning of a big meeting or conference. It's important to acknowledge the folks who put a program together but for most of us sitting in the cheap seats, it has little or no meaning. I ran across this great idea on Cool Tools that was described by Seth Godin on his blog.

Briefly, the suggestion is to build a PowerPoint presentation that can be run in the front of the room before the conference formally starts. The slide show is made up of all the people involved who deserve to be thanked. When you come up to the podium say, something pithy like:

"Let's give a big hand for all the folks who put so much work into making this thing happen. Yeah baby!"

Face the screen and applaud the slide show. Turn it off and then face your audience and get things started. (Adding in the "Yeah Baby!" is my idea and is optional.)

[Image: "supermom with the superyawn - _MG_6221": Flickr: Creative Commons: Uploaded on November 24, 2006 by sean dreilinger]