A DECADE+ OF STORYTELLING POWERED BY THE BEST WRITERS ON THE PLANET

BE PART OF THE LEGACY

TAMPA BAY • FEBRUARY 23-24 2026

This FINAL encore experience will be unlike any other. Because like everything we do, it's been "reimagined" from beginning to end. It's not a virtual or hybrid event. It's not a conference. It's not a seminar, a workshop, a meeting, or a symposium. And it's not your typical run-of-the-mill everyday event crammed with stages, keynote speeches, team-building exercises, PowerPoint presentations, and all the other conventional humdrum. Because it's up close & personal by design. Where conversation trumps presentation. And where authentic connection runs deep.

Pandemic Twins

–a special poem for our 29th anniversary


We’re a playful pair of panda twins

   Pandemic pals both wearing grins

While walking streets so slow and sparse

   It’s made life seem a wicked farce

 

We’re wondering how to pass this test

   We fear the worst, hope for the best

We share the unknown every day

   We diligently make our way

 

We keep our distance, wash our hands

   Tune in for where today’s count lands

Read our tablets, pump our weights

   Rejoice because we’re happy mates

  

Were I to lose you though, I’d die

   I wouldn’t even want to try

To live without my panda twin

   A prisoner in the dark within

 

You’d feel the same, I know you would

   But thinking like this does no good

Life goes its way without a code

   And leaves us on this unmarked road

 

We walk it best when holding hands

   We’re intertwined like ginseng strands

Have been for nearly 30 years

   Our love outlasting all our fears

 

So now like panda twins we play

   And laugh and cuddle every day

So far the COVID monster roams

   Through other people’s hearths and homes

 

But if he dares to come this way

   I know exactly what I’ll say

“Get lost you fucking parasite!

   We panda twins are here to fight!”

 

Together we would do him in

   Against the odds we always win

Our home’s our sacred shielded bower

   Our marriage is our super power

 

And so we celebrate tonight

   We panda twins take great delight

In all these years we’e been as one

   How very much I love you, Hun!

Martin D. Hirsch
Martin D. Hirsch
Martin Hirsch started building his own communications consulting practice in 2017 after a career spanning almost 35 years with one of the world’s leading international healthcare groups. He’s led internal and external corporate communications, brand and reputation management, and crisis and issue management. Working in both the United States and Europe, he has advised multiple CEOs and collaborated with colleagues all over the world. Martin’s strengths include executive consulting, strategic message development, content marketing, storytelling, communications training, public speaking, mentoring talent, and inspiring organizations to advance beyond their limitations.Lately he’s been helping clients by writing keynote speeches for top executives, developing strategies for pitching new business and explaining complex issues, ranging from how to apply new digital health tools in the pharmaceuticals industry to making sense of the rapid and complex changes challenging employees to maintain their equilibrium at major corporations. Martin also works as a faculty adviser at the New York University School of Professional Studies, helping graduate students with their Capstone Papers. His speaking engagements have included presentations at the IABC World Conference, the European Association of Communications Directors Summit, the Corporate Communications International Leaders Forum, the European Commission Communications Directorate and the Rotterdam School of Business Reputation Forum Netherlands. More recently, he was a panelist at the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association conference on expat issues held at Pfizer headquarters in New York. Martin’s writing, including essays, letters and poems, has appeared in newspapers and magazines in the U.S. and Europe. You can read his blog on MUSE-WORTHY, here on BIZCATALYST 360°. He received the American Association of Journalists and Authors 2018 Writing Award for Best Personal Story Blog.

DO YOU HAVE THE "WRITE" STUFF? If you’re ready to share your wisdom of experience, we’re ready to share it with our massive global audience – by giving you the opportunity to become a published Contributor on our award-winning Site with (your own byline). And who knows? – it may be your first step in discovering your “hidden Hemmingway”. LEARN MORE HERE


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