b'speaker spotlightCM&E: In your experience, Part of the skill of public speaking is making connectionswhat distinguishes a truly and finding ways to draw people in and make them feelmemorable speaking engagement from just a good one? What do you [like] a part of the conversation. I try to approach publicthink makes that connection click?speaking as like a visitationwere just sitting togetherDR: I think thats really just building community. If you leave there feeling and were just talking with each other. like youve somehow contributed to - David A. Robertson building community in the audience youve been speaking with, and they feel more connected not only with you but with each otherthey feel seen or valued, or that they value something more than they did when they startedI feel like that is something thats really important for me as a public speaker, and those things, I think, make for successful speaking engagements.CM&E: What kinds of conversations or projects areyou most excited to bring to audiences next?DR: Three come to mind immediately. One of them is When Im a Moshum, a sequel I wrote to On the Trapline, and its about loss. The grandfather in On the Trapline is fashioned after my father, and the questions that my youngest child asked when it really sunk in that his grandfather was deadthat was something I wanted to offer to everybody. Im also working on a collection of essays right now called In Pursuit of the Good Life (based on pearls of wisdom, or quotes from people he admired, that my dad kept in his notebooks). Then, one of the books that probably wont be out for another two and a half years, but [that] Ive finished writing and editing probably about three times already, is a novel called The Ghost of the Ghost of Isaac Jones. Its a ghost story, but its also a story about intergenerational trauma and the choices we make with the trauma weve inherited in our lives. Im outlined probably up to 2028, Id imagine, but Im so excited for that one to come out.14 CORPORATE MEETINGS & EVENTS corporatemeetingsnetwork.ca'