deconstructing blah blah: rapport

It's funny, but one of the things I arm myself with before I go to any pitch or formal bid (apart from the usual designs, rationales, mock-ups, power points and show materials) is a brain freshly infused in local political happenings as well as the most sordid celebrity tabloid scandals I can get my hands on. This entails a broadsheet or tabloid purchase or two on the way to the meeting (and with my sense of time, I am invariably early so I have time to read and have coffee).

I consume both important news (like the Oakwood mutiny hearings, the latest money laundering scandal of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, the irritating pre-election posturing of scary Ping Lacson, the new traffic schemes in New Manila of Bayani Fernando, the deteriorating peso brought about by things like the sacking of Central Bank's Buenaventura, stuff like that) and the latest gossip (Ogie Alcasid responsible for Regine Velasquez's pregnancy, more pregnancy rumors about the Sex Bombs Girls Jopay and Rochelle, Mystika and her brother causing an uproar at a Cebu Pacific flight, Lolit Solis playing hardball with Mother Lily over the casting of Mano Po 2, the difficulties of Quark Henares' new film Keka with Katya Santos, the schism between the Viva Hot Babes, the sweet young thing whose XXX naked pix are making the internet rounds, how nice Aubrey Miles is as a textmate - the list goes on).

Armed thusly, I can, before, during or after the presentation, throw in the occasional pop reference, droll political observation or eye-popping tsismis. It works because all the people sitting across the table from me are exactly that - people. People can and need to focused on the presentation, yes. But conversational tidbits used as metaphors to illustrate certain salient points in the pitch create an immediate connection.