Introduction

Below are a couple of introductions you may use to introduce Chris at your event.  While you are welcome to tailor this introduction to your audience, please gain Chris’ approval any modifications. 

Introduction - brief (and preferred)

This one is about 60 seconds and is less formal and "informational."

We are pleased to welcome Chris Trout, president of Strengths in Focus. While Chris is widely known as an inspiring speaker, many first come to know him through his writing. In addition to the Strengths Ezine, an online publication with thousands of readers in more than a dozen countries, he is author of Reflecting Strengths: Transformative Lessons from Resilient Youth. This powerful collection of essays on how we can tap the unrecognized strengths of challenged and challenging kids is available here today. I invite you to check it out.
What often catches people's attention is Chris’ clarity and integrity. While his ideas are informed by research, they are colored by the humor and personal insight that can only come from thirty years of in-the-trenches experience - as an educator, therapist, family mediator, executive director, and parent. Chris will say these insights are the result of a simple idea: do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Whatever the case, we’ll take it, for when Chris Trout challenges us to “see differently,” we want to see what he sees.

Please help me welcome Chris Trout.

This one is more formal, informational… and takes longer to say! (I don't encourage it except in the most formal settings.)

We are pleased to welcome Chris Trout, president of Strengths in Focus, and author of Reflecting Strengths: Transformative Lessons from Resilient Youth. While the ideas Chris will share are informed by research, they are colored by the humor and personal insight that can only come from thirty years of in-the-trenches experience - as an educator, therapist, family mediator, executive director, and parent.

These varied roles have offered rich opportunities to explore strengths-focused thinking in action. In the early 90’s, Chris’ co-created a nationally recognized model for the use of story-telling in prevention work with teens. As the founding Director of the Mission Possible Teen Center in Westbrook, Maine, Chris brought the concept of “growing strengths in the midst of chaos” to life in one of the most economically and socially challenged neighborhoods in Maine. And his creation of the Youth Resiliency Project in Portland, Maine provided the opportunity to explore what “strengths-focused” program design looks like across highly diverse populations, ranging from neighborhood-based afterschool programs for immigrant and refugee youth, to peer mentoring in both urban and rural schools. In 2004, Chris left 27 years in education and social services to create Strengths in Focus, with a mission to share these transformative ideas internationally through speaking, writing and teaching.

Over the years, Chris has inspired thousands and his weekly online Strengths Ezine now reaches readers in more than a dozen countries, from New Zealand and South Africa to Canada and the US. 

Chris will say the insights he shares are the result of a simple idea: do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Whatever the case, we’ll take it, for when Chris Trout challenges us to “see differently,” we want to see what he sees. 

Please help me welcome Chris Trout.