I was recently at the Business Growth Hub Festival of Enterprise in Manchester at the Royal Exchange Theatre. An amazing opportunity to connect with people from other businesses and catch up with some of the uber networkers I know for the Manchester scene.

One of my favourite aspects of the event was 'Speakers Corner' where anyone could get up and deliver a 60-second pitch. A queue quickly formed for this, and you could see the anticipation in the eyes of those in the queue.

Some were jumping at the chance to be heard, while others were steering well clear. There were some great pitches and some not-so-great, but all the better for those who did it. For me, a networking opportunity to address a room of a couple of hundred people shouldn't be missed.

Delivering a 60-second pitch shouldn't be a chore or something to be fearful about. At this event it was a quick way for many people who understand what you do. A fast way to generate interest and make it easier to start conversations.

Many kinds to the Business Growth Hub in Manchester for putting this event on.

John Cooper is a comedian and presenting skills trainer based in Manchester

Get in touch

While helping a business client increase traffic to their website, I remarked how their Google Analytics marketing reports weren't so different from taking a stand up comedy skills workshop.

That might sound like an odd thing to say - but the more I thought about it the more the comparison holds up.

Google Analytics reports feedback what's happening on a website, what people are looking at and responding to. How long they stay engaged, and if they connect...becoming a customer or a fan. You can even see it in real time.

For that particular website, we added some recent case studies and removed technical jargon. By doing that we changed the language - the website's voice - and added relatable stories (short case study videos) to draw people in and acquire new customers.

I used this metaphor again this week quite fittingly, at my first workshop at the Google Digital Garage in Manchester. They were really supportive in providing me with a space to lead my all elbows 'Present Yourself!' comedy workshop, which mixes stand up comedy with presentation skills, team games, improv, public speaking tips and interpersonal skills all rolled together.

It covers the same ground as analytics, but with less artificial intelligence. It's for humans instead of websites. It's all about understanding your audience. How to stay engaged and avoid attention span 'bounce rate', and the language we use tell stories and connect with others. Again, all in real time. I guess you might call it the discussion points we have as  'human analytics'.

Human Analytics (in front of an audience) :

• Audience. Make eye contact with them, this will give you all the data you'll need.
• Behaviour. Be aware of your body language, relax and be comfortable.
• Engagement. If what you're saying isn't working experiment off script with a different approach  -this is where the scary fun learning happens.
• Acquisition. Don't try too hard to be funny. Just be yourself. Let your audience, or customers, come to you.

The feedback since I started running these sessions in 2015 has been great. Together with the help of the  Business Growth Hub  it's evident that business leaders across the North West are really keen to integrate this kind of skills workshop into their own team training programmes.
[boxout_start]

[boxout_end]