One of our clients had a tough year. The decline in oil prices hit this private company hard, and the president was charged with passing on some tough year-end compensation numbers at the annual shareholders meeting.

Our DDCC team was asked to create a presentation that faced those numbers head on. Still, when we learned about all of the great initiatives this company had accomplished to foster growth in the coming year, we knew we could create a context that showed strong leadership and promise of excellence. When we learned that the compensation and benefits this company’s employees received was well above like firms in the same industry, we knew there was lots to celebrate; even in a year of adversity.

Our creative team worked closely with the company president and marketing leader to build a presentation with solid accomplishments, preparation for success and upbeat forecast. Instead of a multi-hour parade of company leaders giving their individual diatribes, we integrated short well-edited videos of them focusing on just the highlights. Colorful and simple charts and graphs illustrated the numbers so well that all levels of employees could clearly understand the past, present, and future in a positive context. And rolling all of this into a Prezi program lent a ‘cool’ factor to what turned out to be a 1.5-hour tight, entertaining presentation.

As it happened, DDCC’s speech punch-up, targeted theme and positive speech coaching for the presenters lent just the right amount of polish and credibility.

Voila! The result was a dynamic, truth-telling hour and a half that invigorated the group to improve and prosper. With the previous year’s numbers only part of the story, and all in the proper context in a professional genre, there emerged the hope, confidence and ‘can do’ spirit needed to build a positive future.