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ENTERTAINING.  INSPIRING.  ACTIONABLE.

We offer a variety of workshops for associations and for your members (e.g., monthly meeting, regional conference, leadership development retreat, all-hands meeting, town hall, and annual conference).

Visit the Meeting Planners to learn more about our collaborative approach, pre-interviews, Smart Exercises, handouts, customization, and more.

Ira Koretsky, The Chief Storyteller ®, combines his business acumen, public speaking experience, facilitation expertise, training skills, improvisational comedy background, and storytelling skills to ensure your program is educational and actionable (customers, testimonials, video clips, and success stories).

Workshops for Associations are designed to improve individual and organizational performance. Workshops for Associations are customized to your learning objectives, culture, and event theme. Workshops for Associations are actionable with specific takeaways and exercises matched to your participant’s learning development goals. And all of our workshops for associations offer a safe and fun learning experience.

40100
people inspired
14
countries
111
cities
550
keynotes & workshops delivered

EXPERIENCED WORKSHOP FACILITATORS & TRAINERS

Ira Koretsky

CEO | Founder | Army Veteran

Sylvia Baffour

Trainer | Workshop Facilitator

Ira and Sylvia Baffour, your workshop facilitators, have worked with hundreds of associations, non profits, and charities around the world (customers, success stories, video clips, testimonials).

Ira’s specialty is helping you simplify the complex, especially when the stakes are high. While Ira is a communication professional today, for part of his career, he was both an executive and hands-on professional in high technology. For example, he was a CIO in Healthcare IT, marketing director in managed web hosting, and supported enterprise level IT systems for several years. Ira is also an adjunct professor in communication, storytelling, and public speaking at the University of Maryland. Sylvia’s specialty is helping you thrive with emotional intelligence strategies. Sylvia is a certified life coach, has lived in five countries, and speaks five languages. And she is a successful book author with, I Dare You to Care  (Amazon).

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

  • Before/After. Your workshop trainers will work with selected participants, one-on-one, in advance of your program. First, they will apply the tools and techniques to a specific situation(s) you select. Second, they will develop a new After (e.g., presentation, story, and gateway question). And third, during your training program, they will compare and contrast the Before and After, step-by-step.
  • Hands-on Coaching. Ira/Sylvia will work one-on-one or in teams, providing specific coaching and hands-on support after the program to reinforce the learning and help to accelerate the team’s leadership and communication effectiveness.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEARNING TOPICS

Below are two accordion/windows listing the workshops for associations’ titles. Press [+] to expand and [-] to close.

Workshops/Training for Members -- Conferences, Meetings, and Events

STORYTELLING

  • Awaken the Storytelling Giant in You
  • Scientists & Engineers to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Scientists & Engineers)
  • Internal Communication to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Internal Communication)
  • Webinars to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Webinars)
  • Trainers to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Trainers)
  • Thought Leaders to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Thought Leaders)
  • Paint by Numbers:  Data Storytelling Workshop Masterclass

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

  • Leaders to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Leaders)
  • The Language of Leadership:  Inspire and Influence with Your Words, Body, and Voice
  • The Language of Leadership for New Leaders
  • Resilience and Flexibility:  Peak Performance in the Face of Change
  • Inspire and Succeed with Emotional Intelligence

DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING, & BRANDING

  • “What Do You Do?”  How to Develop a “Wow! Tell Me More” 30-Second Story (Elevator Pitch)
  • Build a Stronger Association through Better Storytelling
  • Development to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Development)

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

  • 7 Practical Steps to Thought Leadership
  • How to Become a Recognized Thought Leader with Social Media
  • Become a Thought Leader with the Power of Public Speaking
  • Thought Leadership to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Thought Leaders)

PRESENTATION & PUBLIC SPEAKING

SOCIAL MEDIA

  • Social Media Storytelling 101
  • Unleash the Power of Social Media Storytelling
  • How to Build Your Persuasive, Personal Brand on LinkedIn

TEAM BUILDING & TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

  • No More “But”Heads:  Build Stronger Workplace Relationships with Positive Words and Body Language
  • “Yes And:”  How to Use Improvisational Humor Techniques to Improve Your Influence and Effectiveness
  • The Most Important Story in Your Life, is the One You Tell Yourself
  • Treat Everyone Like a CEO:  Create Better Teams through an Empowering Perspective

Workshops for Associations

STORYTELLING

  • Awaken the Storytelling Giant in You
  • Telling the Story of Success:  How to Develop and Deliver Member/Sponsor-Focused Success Stories/Past Performance
  • Paint by Numbers:  Data Storytelling Workshop Masterclass
  • Internal Communication to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Internal Communication)
  • Congressional Fly-Ins (customize the content and take-aways with your planning team)

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

  • Leaders to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Leaders)
  • The Language of Leadership:  Inspire and Influence with Your Words, Body, and Voice
  • Voice of Leadership:  How Effective Leaders Succeed without Managing
  • Executive Presence:  Dramatically Improve Your Clarity, Comfort, and Confidence
  • Resilience and Flexibility:  Peak Performance in the Face of Change

DEVELOPMENT, MARKETING, & BRANDING

  • “What Do You Do?” How to Develop a “Wow! Tell Me More” 30-Second Story (Elevator Pitch)
  • Build a Stronger Association through Better Storytelling
  • Development to the Power of Story  (Storytelling for Development)

PUBLIC SPEAKING & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

  • Become a Thought Leader with the Power of Public Speaking
  • Develop & Deliver Great Webinars
  • Speak Like TED:  5 Strategies to become as Inspiring and Memorable as the World’s Top Speakers
  • Speak Like TED for Scientists and Techies
  • Becoming a Confident and Compelling Public Speaker

SOCIAL MEDIA

  • Unleash the Power of Social Media Storytelling
  • Build Your Personal Executive Brand in Social Media
  • How to Develop and Maintain Thought Leadership in Social Media

TEAM BUILDING & TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

  • No More “But”Heads:  Build Stronger Workplace Relationships with Positive Words and Body Language
  • “Yes And:”  How to Use Improvisational Humor Techniques to Improve Your Influence and Effectiveness
  • Treat Everyone Like a CEO:  Create Better Teams through an Empowering Perspective

Ira Koretsky made me look good. I recommended him as a personal development speaker at our annual meeting in Denver. As one of ten concurrent sessions, this type of program generally pulls about 100 participants, tops. More than 400 people showed up for Ira’s session and stayed. The real estate industry relies on strong personal relationships and trust. Increasingly, demands make it easy to lose sight of this. Several industry legends told me that Ira’s program was something of an intervention, putting them back on the game where it belonged—with people. Thanks, Ira!

Ann OliveriSenior Vice President, Strategic Development, The Urban Land Institute

Ira has spoken at several ASAE & The Center’s Great Ideas Conferences and he always receives very positive feedback from attendees. His speaking style is very engaging in that he provides a good mix of audience interaction and formal presentation. Anyone who attends his sessions will walk away with new ideas on how to approach relationship building, networking, business storytelling and much more. I would highly recommend him to speak at other conferences and events!

Megan DenhardtSenior Manager, Learning, ASAE & The Center

Ira did a fantastic job with this public speaking and story telling workshop the Atlas Corps Fellows. He engaged a diverse and professional audience of nearly 70 leaders from over 50 different countries and after a four-day training on Marketing and Communication skills, Ira was the favorite presenter for the majority of the Fellows. He is fantastic!

Scott BealeFounder & CEO, Atlas Corps

It’s the best presentation I have been through on social media and I have been through many!! I need to think about our messages and processes as we help our members be better business owners and marketers. Your ideas, approaches, and tools were outstanding. They will help us move into the 21st century of marketing. You present this topic in such an eloquent way!

Cathy MroskoDirector of Government Affairs and Industry Outreach, National Systems Contractor Association

When I was the executive director at IWPA, Ira rocked the house at our annual conference. When I transitioned to NWPCA, Ira was my first and only choice for our sales-themed annual leadership conference. Ira’s keynote on blending storytelling and selling inspired our members. He challenged them to think deliberately (his catch phrase) about how they message and communicate their brand stories. I knew he would deliver another fantastic program, and he did.

Brent McClendonPresident/CEO, National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA)

In all the years as executive director, I cannot remember watching a keynote from start to finish. I’m typically handling any number of conference-related questions or issues. For Ira’s keynote, I stayed the entire time. His warmth, humor, and passion engaged the audience members from the first few words. Ira energized the audience with a variety of insightful approaches to being stronger communicators and better business storytellers. Six months later, our members are still talking about him.

Torryn Brazell, CAE, CMPExecutive Director, National Grants Management Association (NGMA)

Ira inspired our more than 800 attendees. He inspired them to think differently about how to present themselves verbally and in writing, through the entire job hunting process. He underscored the importance of telling your story through your client or prospective employer’s eyes. We received many favorable comments about his topic. We were very glad to have Ira as part of the panel of ABA speakers.

Esther D. BrewerEducational Programs Manager, American Bar Association

Ira is an effective, engaging presenter. He made learning fun, connected with our members with tailored content, and presented business storytelling techniques and principles in such a way that my members wanted to use them right away. Because of the positive reviews the members gave his presentation, we invited Ira back for the following year’s conference. True to expectations, he delivered another great session that gave our members tools they could put to use immediately. I highly recommend him.

Robert E. McLeanExecutive Director, Association of Language Companies

As someone in the webinar industry, I see hundreds of them every year. Ira’s was the best I have ever seen. His slides were visually engaging, stories insightful and on point, and messages practical and compelling. Something I have never experienced before in a webinar was Ira’s use of interactive exercises–yes exercises. They were all relevant and helped bring to life his concepts–something challenging to do in web presentations.

Patrick WileySenior Sales Director, ReadyTalk

He is an A+ presenter who hits the ball out of the park. Ira presented one of the best programs we ever had at our professional association meetings. I was so pleased with the success this event that I retained Ira to present at our annual company sales meeting. The training he provided was a huge success. He brings tremendous value to any organization seeking a fun and informative speaker, executives looking to get more out of their networking activities, and sales professionals trying to grow their account base. I cannot recommend Ira strongly enough.

Jeffrey FasoldtChief Financial Officer, Toshiba Business Solutions

Ira’s workshop at AGI was everything he promised it would be! I invited Ira to help us develop AGI’s brand story. It was lively, interactive, and engaging. Following his program, our entire staff was eager and excited to begin the discovery process. Our executive team was especially impressed with Ira’s insightful ideas to find the right words we could all get behind. I highly recommend Ira for communication, leadership and capacity building workshops.

Andrey GidaspovAmerican Geosciences Institute

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