As professional speakers we adapt to the needs of the organisation and its audience. And these needs can be many and varied! I was privileged this month to deliver the ‘keynote’ to an audience of 350 people as a prelude to the judging of South Africa’s biggest ever Jam Contest. And I’m not talking about the musical kind of ‘Jams’ or ‘Traffic Jams’. I’m talking about the real thing, the sticky fruity mixtures that some of us put on toast!
That certainly was very different to any assignment I have ever done before! And I really enjoyed the experience. During my ‘keynote’ I mentioned a few of my favourite recipes where jam is an ingredient and the audience asked for copies of the recipes. So, here are the two recipes - Recipes from Jam Keynote.
I was privileged to be part of this exciting event. Creativity and passion together generate exciting results. General Manager of the Oyster Box Hotel, Wayne Coetzer enthusiastically involved his team and with Mary Carlisle of the Midlands Forum generated an event where the atmosphere was ‘electric’. This was an excellent example of ‘recognising and optimising opportunities’. And the attention to detail was great. We couldn’t believe it when we stood for ‘God save the Queen’ and her Majesty (aka Barbie Hamilton, personal assistant to Wayne) entered.
Her Majesty (Barbie Hamilton), Wayne Coetzer (General Manager of the Oyster Box Hotel), Barbara de Jongh (member of Midlands Forum) and Executive Chef, Kevin Joseph.
In addition to presenting the ‘keynote’, I was also invited to be a judge (in the jam contest) and this was fascinating. A fundamental truth about judging jam is that if the flavour isn’t good, nothing else really counts. You could theoretically have a jam that scored high for the container, label, visual appeal and most of the other aspects, yet if the flavour isn’t right, people are not going to enjoy that jam!
While judging marmalades I couldn’t help thinking in terms of our lives.
If you were a marmalade:
- What would your container look like? Describe it (for example, are you a small round glass bottle).
- Can you see the contents properly through the glass? Or is the container camouflaging what is inside?
- What does the lid look like and how does it fit? If you tipped the container, would the contents run out and be messy? What else are you doing to make sure you are ‘well-preserved’?
- What does the label look like? Is it in line with your personal branding?
- Is there congruence between the container, label and contents?
- What does the consistency of the marmalade appear like? Is it too solid, too runny?
- How clearly are the flavours defined? Can you taste the different fruits? How good is the combination?
- How would you describe the sugar balance?
- How visually appealing is the marmalade?
- Is the marmalade chunky enough and yet palatable? Or is the mixture a homogenous mass?
For more information on Keynotes or ‘Executive Coaching’ please please contact me - brenda@146.66.90.172, Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311.
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