New York City, January 20, 2003
She had the room mesmerized. Her presentation included music, beautiful vistas, and solid information. I was in the audience, and I was more than impressed.
I was working on a big sales project with a small community hospital on Prince Edward Island (PEI). PEI is the smallest of the Canadian provinces. But it makes up for its size with its beauty and hospitality.
I had taken some members of the hospital’s executive team to give a presentation to the senior marketing team at Philips in New York. At that time, the global marketing group was located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The presenter that day was the Executive Director of the hospital,let’s call her Kay.
Kay had the marketing team enthralled with the beauty of her home province and intrigued by the opportunity she laid out for them. They were looking for a hospital to use in a North American marketing campaign. The budget for the campaign was around $1 million. That’s a lot of press coverage for a 100-bed hospital.
The hospital executive had hired a local design company to put together the slides with music for the story they had created. They knew this presentation was too important for a do-it-yourself project. In speaking with Kay the day before the presentation, I knew she was nervous. This was a big deal for her organization. But she nailed it. I think half the room full of New Yorkers were thinking, “why don’t I move there?”
Kay and her hospital were chosen by the marketing team. The hospital got splashed across newspapers and magazines. The headline in the ad for the New York Times was “ Patient well being. Hospital well being. The prescription was the same.”
I learned that even a small organization can bring a big punch with a well-crafted, well-rehearsed presentation.
Joe Pops
R2BB