Pre-conference workshop

Telling the story: creating effective oral presentations

Eric Reiss

This workshop is designed to give insecure and inexperienced presenters hands-on tips that will help them hold their own and get their ideas across in competitive and stressful environments. And it will help experienced presenters recognize their bad habits and get into some better ones.

Through role-playing, discussion, example, and participant presentation, we’ll learn how to:

• Zero in on the “big” idea
• Organize our message for maximum effect
• Time our presentations – from elevator pitches to keynotes
• Leverage the techniques of the ancient orators – “Roman Columns” etc.
• Answer tough questions

I’ll also deal with a lot of practical nuts-and-bolts concerns like:

• Where do I put my hands?
• What if I can’t remember what to say?
• I’m presenting in a foreign language…
• I wasn’t given any warning before my presentation
• I get really bad stage fright

Year after year, we hear of great ideas that were killed by atrocious presentations. Alas, presentation technique can make or break more than just ideas – a poor presentation can also kill a career. Today, IAs regularly present to their teams, to their bosses, to the CEO. And they speak at a lot of conferences, too – mostly without the benefit of professional coaching. As a former director at the Royal Theatre of Denmark, I’d like to rectify that situation.