President combines persuasive personal stories with entrepreneurism
Salzburg Global Seminar President and CEO Stephen Salyer gave a Media Literacy Business Planning workshop on Wendesday, August 7 entitled “Making Change: Tools for the Media Entrepreneur” as part of the final week of the seventh annual Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change.
Drawing on his own long experience in public radio production and management in the USA as well as the media-related initiatives he has launched at Salzburg Global Seminar since joining the organization in 2005, Salyer emphasized the importance of not only having a good business plan, but also of mastering the art of storytelling.
Using the example of Roshan Paul, founder of the Amani Institute, a non-profit focussed on professional development and training for graduate students, Salyer explained that storytelling is a “leadership art through which we translate values into action,” aimed at persuading potential investors to support businesses, initiatives and causes through sharing “authentic” stories about the personal motivation behind such projects.
“People need to understand us with their heart as well as their heads,” Salyer’s presentation told students.
Salyer’s presentation was one of many given to students as part of the three-week long Academy, held at Schloss Leopoldskron.
The 66 media and journalism students from 53 different universities on five continents spent three weeks studying media literacy, led by Paul Mihailidis, Salzburg Academy Program Director and Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Marketing Communication at Emerson College with guest lectures from other university professors and leading NGO and media industry experts.