Communications Skills Workshop
Getting Your Message Across
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
A lot of what happens in – and to – the water community in Colorado is a
direct result of legislative action. And as the 2010 session of the Colorado
General Assembly gets underway, you may very well find yourself in the
position of wanting to discuss a water-related issue with a legislator.
This workshop will help you do that - giving you more confidence that
your message is having an impact. Whether you’re trying to present your case
to legislators, other elected officials, regulators, agency employees or as
wide an audience as possible in the general public, there are skills you can
use and improve. We call it the art of influence.
In two and a half hours, we’ll have a hands-on, write-it-down,
talk-it-through workshop that covers:
- How to craft a message and get people to pay attention to it
- The approach: not too passive, not too aggressive
- Communicating with legislators face-to-face
- Methods and media: letters, phone calls and writing for
publication
- Choosing your words carefully and efficiently
- Elevator lobbying: getting your point across in 30 seconds or
less
- Staying on message
- Establishing good long-term relationships with policy-makers
The presenters are the principals of Hartman and Brown: Diane Hartman,
who has done extensive media training for the Colorado Bar Association and
other communicators, and Fred Brown, who spent more than a quarter-century
covering the legislature and state government for The Denver Post.