Presentation skills

Improve your presentation skills and become a more confident speaker

Improve your presentation skills and become a more confident speaker

Presentations are perhaps one of the most daunting ways that we have to communicate our science. A good presentation can gain you useful feedback, valuable outreach and networking possibilities. A good presentation might secure project funding or maybe even your dream research position. A bad presentation will be forgotten. Some people are born with good presentation skills, but most of us need to learn them. Trial and error works, but good advice and practice is best.

ResClim and ClimateSnack are organizing a presentation course in Bergen 3-5 February 2014. The course will be run by Matt McGarrity from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he is a Senior Lecturer in the Communication Department. Matt teaches classes on public speaking, argumentation, debate, political humor, communication education, and the history of rhetoric. His free online public speaking course recently enrolled over 120,000 students from over 200 countries. He has won a number of teaching awards, including the National Speakers’ Association’s Outstanding Professor Award.

Matt McGarrity in action during his recent online Coursera course (source: Matt McGarrity)

Matt McGarrity in action during his recent online Coursera course (source: Matt McGarrity)

The ResClim/ClimateSnack course will be split into lectures and practice sessions. Each morning Matt will present theory and advice about how to plan and deliver better presentations. Each afternoon the participants will split into groups and practice their own presentations whilst actively applying the advice from the morning sessions. Through discussion and interaction we will improve our presentations towards perfection.

The aim is that, by the end of the course, the participants will be able to plan and deliver conference presentations that people remember.

There’s some great news for ClimateSnack. ResClim will fund the flights, accommodation and course for 3 ClimateSnackers (either international or outside the ResClim collaboration). This is a great opportunity to improve your presentation skills, meet other young and early career scientists and extend your network. If you would like to apply for one of these places, send a short text (no more than 200 words) explaining why you would like to improve your presentation skills. Send your application info@www.scisnack.com. This will be on a first come first served basis (providing what you write isn’t gibberish). The only prerequisite is that you have or will soon publish your first snack and that you are committed to continuing in the ClimateSnack community. You will also have to write a snack together after the course under the suggested title, ‘the importance of clear and concise climate messages’.

THE COURSE IS NOW FULL. THANK-YOU TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SHOWN INTEREST. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE CLIMATESNACK WEBSITE FOR MORE EXCITING EVENTS IN THE FUTURE.

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