San Francisco Opportunity: Storytelling for Leaders: Aussies are the best raconteurs and you can learn from the best of the best.

I've known and trusted Shawn Callahan, the founder of Anecdote for several years. I have recommended his services to many businesspeople and everyone has spoken highly of him when they have used his services.

He and his team are world leaders at extracting the stories of businesses and helping business leaders tell those stories to strengthen teams and build better public empathy.

Shawn and his colleagues run a global business from their headquarters in Melbourne. They will be in San Francisco on 7 February 2012 to run a one-day workshop on Storytelling for Leaders.

This will be well worth attending. The details are at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2424672260/eorg

Australians have an expression "mate's rates" which means a discount for a friend. If you use the promotional code anecdoteUSspecial you'll receive a $300 discount or mate's rate.

The note Shawn sent me tells the story of the workshop: "We all need better ways to persuade, share what we know and help those around us make sense of the complex world we live in. Developing our innate storytelling skills helps build confidence, convey ideas clearly and effectively, and probably most importantly, present to our colleagues our humanity. We all want to convey our ideas with impact, yet eyes instantly glaze the moment you beam your PowerPoint presentation laden with slide after slide of dot points. We know informally that stories are engaging; we tell them at dinner parties and people listen and they 'get it'. Yet few leaders systematically harness storytelling to communicate ideas, convey the organisation`s values or inspire and motivate people. The (San Francisco) workshop is highly interactive and throughout the day participants will engage in lots of practical activities designed to build their skills and knowledge. We are strong believers in the importance of practical activities to foster effective learning."