Presentation is a form of leadership. Whether your intention is to inspire, inform, convert or convince, for the time that you’re up there, you’re directing the minds in your audience to follow your reasoning, consider your points and reflect on your anecdotes, that is of course, if you can keep them engaged!
- Why am I giving this presentation?
- What impact do I want to have on my audience?
- How do I start with a punch?
- How do I organise my points to create a good structure?
- What techniques can I use to keep my audience engaged?
- How do I avoid death by Power Point?
- What’s my nervous default and how can I overcome it?
- How do I end with a twist?
Charisma and confidence may give us a natural head start when it comes to standing in front of an audience but there’s a lot more to it than that. The words we choose, the quality of reasoning, the anecdotes, storytelling, sensitivity to an audience and clear structure all add to the making of an excellent presentation.
Presentation is a form of leadership. Whether your intention is to inspire, inform, convert or convince, for the time that you’re up there, you’re directing the minds in your audience to follow your reasoning, consider your points and reflect on your anecdotes, that is of course, if you can keep them engaged!
- Why am I giving this presentation?
- What impact do I want to have on my audience?
- How do I start with a punch?
- How do I organise my points to create a good structure?
- What techniques can I use to keep my audience engaged?
- How do I avoid death by Power Point?
- What’s my nervous default and how can I overcome it?
- How do I end with a twist?
Charisma and confidence may give us a natural head start when it comes to standing in front of an audience but there’s a lot more to it than that. The words we choose, the quality of reasoning, the anecdotes, storytelling, sensitivity to an audience and clear structure all add to the making of an excellent presentation.
We can and do cover all the common concerns and challenges for a presenter, i.e. nerves, pace, projection, body language, eye contact etc. And we do that using original, engaging and fun activities. However, we also believe that it’s essential not to neglect content: structure, originality, colour and substance. What you say is just as important than how you say it!
Your students may already be oozing confidence from plenty of previous experience in front of an audience, or they may be terrified of even uttering a word in public. We’re familiar with both extremes and everything in between. For that reason, as with all our courses, we listen carefully in our conversations with you, then draw upon our bank of resources and activities when tailoring any course and remain flexible on the day. Whatever their starting point, we’ll take them up a gear.
Some of our activities include:
- An opening discussion to ascertain students’ main concerns and aspirations
- Watching a short example of a great presentation followed by theoretical analysis of what makes a presentation effective
- A Wiser Words ‘investigation to presentation’ task where students work in teams to assess and evaluate information and evidence, filter out red herrings, then reorganise points into a concise, well-structured presentation. This is designed to mirror the journey from initial research to presenting your findings and conclusions with a clear structure. There are lots of tips throughout for how to do this well.
- A Wiser Words story-telling game using visual aids – the challenge is to avoid all the classic mistakes commonly made with visual aids and step into the audience’s perspective.
- A series of ‘snippet’ exercises – original and entertaining mini tasks to examine and practise a variety of presentation techniques
- “The First 30 Seconds” – a task to explore what makes a great first impression and how to get off to a good start
- “Taking Questions” – a task to practise thinking on your feet and how to be ready to face good questions at the end
- Group presentations on light-hearted topics drawn from a hat, to pull together all the skills and points covered from the day
- A Wiser Words peer affirmation task – students encourage each other and give constructive feedback. We chip in too!
Given that the reasons for organising a workshop on presentation skills can vary considerably, a phone conversation will help us to understand how to tailor any course to fit your objectives and meet the needs of your students.
You may have a specific goal in mind such as preparation for a public speaking event or as part of the EPQ programme. Or you may just like to give your students an inspirational experience to explore this theme in general given that it will inevitably crop up at various points in the future! We’re very flexible and happy to work to specific targets, so do get in touch and tell us about what you’d like to achieve.
“It has given me a whole new way of looking at presentations. I am already thinking about how I can incorporate your tips into my up-coming presentation.”
“It was really enjoyable and more importantly, engaging, keeping us thinking and focused throughout the day.”
“Very good insight into presenting information effectively, appropriately and to a high standard.”
“The course is very informative and teaches you a lot of new skills as well as enhancing your current skills.”
“Incredibly helpful and informative. Perfect for our age group.”
“I enjoyed the range of interactive tasks in which we took part and the use of simple activities to illustrate common problems in presenting.”
“It was both challenging and engaging and prompted me to reflect on the importance of differentiating evidence from the argument it supports.”
“The course leader was friendly, well informed and encouraging when we had to present to the group.”
“This has been incredibly useful for any situation in which I might have to give a presentation, as well as thinking logically about how to formulate arguments.”
“Really interesting, useful, made me think differently and well structured.”
“Enjoyable and informative with plenty of opportunity to develop our own ideas and share thoughts/issues.”
“Very relevant. I learned a lot about structuring presentations, and how to ‘grab’ an audience with a good introduction.”
“Given me more confidence and excellent tips for presentation skills.”
“It has helped me with my planning skills, formatting introductions, and how to present myself to enable the greatest response. Very positive and resourceful. Great speaker.”
They say…
“Now I can definitely win arguments against my brother! It has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possible answers.”
“This was brilliant compared to all the other courses I’ve had in my 17 years. Truly inspirational, I have no higher praise.”
“It made me excited to challenge myself more. Very well managed and structured leading to a brilliant course.”
“I was constantly motivated and recharged with varying discussions and tasks.”
“Enriching, and I’m now more aware of the complexities of questions and the intellectual debate that could follow.”
“I found this day exciting, exhilarating and full of new ideas and things for me to enjoy.”
“The puzzles were thrilling to solve but also very clever and challenging.”
“We got to do everything ourselves and think for ourselves without being spoonfed.”
“I enjoyed getting up to lead. I really didn’t think I’d be able to do it but I felt really good when I did.”
“Amazing and a huge learning curve for me and the whole of my year group. It really developed my communicating skills.”
“It was just fantastic. I loved it! The best bit was seeing everyone’s amazing designs.”
“100% the best course I’ve ever been on. A great experience and I would love to do it again. Every activity was amazing.”
What makes
us different
Our tasks are 100% original, our leaders are experienced and our approach is dynamic.
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Build your
own day
We can run a selection of workshops in one day, with groups moving around in rotation.
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