Founded in 1986, SpeechComm has been a leader in the corporate communications consulting arena for more 30 years. Collectively, our trainers possess decades of experience in the fields of communications consulting, media and corporate training.
Headquartered in the greater Boston area, we conduct training workshops throughout the US. Our clients range from large multi-million dollar corporations to smaller professional services companies, across a broad range of industries and niches.
Companies that hire SpeechComm share our belief that investing in employee training and development is essential for maximizing productivity. The key to driving that result is ensuring clear and positive communication throughout all touch points of an organization.
Although we offer a core menu of communication training programs, we believe that you know your employees’ needs best, so we also develop customized programs depending upon our clients’ particular needs, objectives and goals.
“As a writer and a natural introvert, public speaking is not in my wheelhouse at all. When my novel came out, one of the biggest surprises was how much public speaking was required as part of my reader outreach. I could not have done any of it without Elise Simard’s thoughtful and intuitive coaching. Elise helped me go from someone who was terrified of public speaking to someone who actually enjoys it. She is one of the best consultants in the speech communications field and I cannot recommend her highly enough.”
The SpeechComm Story
The SpeechComm story is a story of legacy and shared values passed down by one generation to the next. In establishing SpeechComm in 1986, Lora Vivilecchia had one foundational belief: effective communication is the key to success in both our business and personal lives. Armed with an undergraduate degree in English and a Masters Degree in Communications, Lora decided to offer her indepth knowledge of the intricacies of communication techniques to businesses that recognized the value of this emerging discipline.
The challenge that Lora presented to the corporate audiences she was training remains the core challenge that SpeechComm presents to its clients to this day: How do we get our message--oral or written-- across as we conceived of it and hoped it would be received? How do I get you to understand what I actually, really, mean. As the modes of communication within a modern workplace—among colleagues, customers, and clients—have multiplied, the need to be mindful of, and skilled in, effective communication practices has only grown in importance.
Lora began those early sessions by developing training courses that dealt with putting together a coherent message and then using powerful non-verbal cues to get it across. It was Lora’s belief that there were many aspects of communication-- and especially presentation skills--that were not being given the attention they deserved: Eye contact, the way that we connect with other people, was largely ignored, along with facial, and vocal expression. The use of space, gestures and most importantly the use of humor wasn’t talked about. Humor, when correctly used, goes a long way toward the speaker and listener developing rapport. When the speaker and audience laugh together, they connect. Shared humor relaxes the listener and the speaker. However, the traditional courses in ‘Public Speaking’ didn’t deal much with these necessary skills.
Little by little it became apparent to Lora that most people, even those in high positions were uncomfortable and even afraid speaking up at meetings, addressing an audience, or deftly and persuasively presenting a Power Point or similar visual aids. The obvious answer to these communications challenges was expert training in the mechanics of organizing your message, audience identification and interaction, learning the basics of non-verbal communication, instructor feedback via audio and video and of course practice, practice, practice.
Lora’s passion for her work and belief in the far-reaching value of effective communication greatly influenced her daughter Elise, prompting her to pursue her own degree in English and to apply what she had learned in the context of rapidly expanding mass media outlets: college radio and, upon graduation, television production. Like her mother, Elise saw successful communication as a bridge connecting speaker to audience, co-worker to co-worker, message to masses. And Lora recognized that with her innate skills as a presenter and speaker, Elise was perfectly positioned to lead SpeechComm into its next phase of growth, building upon a solid and durable foundation.