Join Chris Foster, Dr. Gary Puckrein, Rex Repass and Patrick Pho for their workshop, Just Five More Seconds of Mindshare? Use the Best Strategies and Tools to Reach Your Audience!, on Sunday, October 16, 2011 4:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. at the PRSA 2011 International Conference, Oct. 15–18 in Orlando, Fla.!
Picture this: It’s another Monday morning. As you step out of bed, you are beginning to mentally prepare for the thirteen meetings that stagger ahead on your manic schedule. While gradually awakening, you emerge to commence your daily routine… pick up the paper, make the coffee, pop the English muffin into the toaster and turn on your computer – ready to respond to a series of instant messages and e-mails aggregated in your inbox from the time you kissed the kids goodnight at 11PM until the time the alarm clock went off at 5:45AM. You want to be in the office by 7, so you quickly rush through your calendar reminders to ensure you are on time and aware of all of your obligations. You enjoy that one last sip of coffee before jumping into your suit and you wave goodbye to you family (who are just now waking up). After shutting the car door, you immediately turn on your Bluetooth (allowing you to multitask even more!) and quickly dial-in for your weekly Monday morning staff call. Turning on your mental auto pilot, you suddenly realize you’re 20 minutes into the call and you’ve been asked to provide your projections for the week. What did you gather from the first half of the call?
We’ve all been in similar situations before – and it’s likely our audiences have been through the same. Overtaxed for time, how do we retain our audiences’ undivided attention?

