All on-site workshops are currently suspended due to COVID-19.
Two-Day Workshops
Present Your Science: Transforming Technical Talks Course and Coaching
Would your team benefit from tailored training and coaching on their technical presentation skills from a world-class expert in scientific communications? This comprehensive and intensive two-day course equips scientists, engineers, researchers, and technical professionals to present their science in an understandable, memorable, and persuasive way.
Through a dynamic combination of lecture, discussion, exercises, video analysis and personalized coaching from Melissa Marshall, each participant will walk away with the skills, knowledge, practice, and feedback necessary to transform the way their work is presented.
•Transform the scientific presentations skills of participants.
•Enable participants to utilize effective strategies for content, structure, slide design and delivery of scientific presentations.
•Teach participants to analyze and adapt to their audience.
•Help participants understand which scientific details to emphasize in their presentation and which details to filter out.
•Equip participants to understand and enact the assertion evidence slide design in their own talks to make their scientific presentations more understandable, memorable, and engaging.
•Assist participants in developing an engaging and confident delivery style.
AGENDA
Day 1
Formal Workshop (6 hours)
The formal teaching portion of the course where participants will engage in lecture, discussion, exercises, and video analysis while developing their own talks. See agenda for the one day course as an example.
Day 2
Coaching (7-8 hours)
Participants will prepare and give an approximately 10-minute presentation about their own work based on strategies learned in Day 1 and receive individual feedback and coaching from the instructor and peers in the session. Pre-work instructions will be provided to participants and preparation before the session is required. It is recommended (but optional) that participants be video recorded to review their own performance following the session.
Maximum of 75 participants; 20 on Day 2 for individual coaching
C-Suite Conversations: Presenting Successfully to the Executive Level
This comprehensive and intensive two-day course equips management level professionals (or those aspiring to management) to present their ideas to executives in an understandable, memorable, and persuasive way. Through a dynamic combination of lecture, discussion, exercises, video analysis and personalized coaching from Melissa Marshall, each participant will walk away with the skills, knowledge, and practice necessary to succeed when presenting to executives.
•Assist participants in developing an engaging and confident delivery style.
•Enable participants to utilize effective strategies for content, structure, slide design and delivery of executive presentations.
•Teach participants to research, analyze and adapt to the specific challenges of an executive audience.
•Help participants develop a story line for their executive presentation that emphasizes the appropriate details and filters out less critical ideas to convey the most important and actionable message.
•Equip participants to understand and enact the assertion evidence slide design to make their slides more understandable and persuasive. Discuss strategies for handling Q&A and executive audience distractions effectively.
Maximum of 12 participants
One-Day Workshops
Present Your Science: Transforming Technical Talks Course
Does your team need in depth training to transform their technical talks? This intensive one-day course equips scientists, engineers, researchers, and technical professionals to present their science in an understandable, memorable, and persuasive way. Through a dynamic combination of lecture, discussion, exercises, and video analysis, each participant will walk away with the skills, knowledge, and practice necessary to transform the way their work is presented.
•Transform the scientific presentations skills of participants.
•Enable participants to utilize effective strategies for content, structure, slide design and delivery of scientific presentations.
•Teach participants to analyze and adapt to their audience.
•Help participants understand which scientific details to emphasize in their presentation and which details to filter out.
•Equip participants to understand and enact the assertion evidence slide design in their own talks to make their scientific presentations more understandable, memorable, and engaging.
•Assist participants in developing an engaging and confident delivery style.
•Discuss strategies for effectively handling a Q&A session, especially difficult questions.
AGENDA
1.5 hours
Qualities of Effective Technical Presentations, Analyzing Audience, Filtering Detail, Structuring Content
2.5 hours
Illustration of Technical Ideas, The Assertion Evidence Slide Design, Special Slide Considerations (Title, Agenda, and Conclusion Slides), Crafting an Effective Pre-Read and Handout Document for a Presentation
1 hour
Dynamic Delivery, Achieving Confidence
1 hour
Handling Q & A
Maximum of 75 participants
Present Your Science ADVANCED: Taking Tech Talks to the Next Level
*Prerequisite: Participants must have already taken the Present Your Science: Transforming Technical Talks One or Two-Day course.
Have you been using our techniques, but ready to take them to the next level? This exciting and interactive workshop delivers advanced training and techniques designed to give rocket fuel to your technical presentation skills.
Skill sets developed in the course include: data visualization and storytelling with data, advanced slide design techniques, using linguistic strategies to sell your science, and delivering to achieve engagement from your audience. Participants should bring a short (approximately 10 minute) sample presentation that follows Melissa’s basic techniques learned in the first course. You should expect to leave with a newly revised, super-charged presentation and an array of tools to advance your technical presentation skills.
•Equip participants with strategies for data visualization: analyze context and select an appropriate visual display that eliminates clutter and highlights key findings.
•Teach participants how to not just present data, but to tell a story with their data to achieve a successful outcome.
•Explain creative linguistic strategies that can be used to reveal connections among technical information and to sell ideas.
•Discuss innovative slide design techniques and graphic design tools to enhance the visual aesthetic of slides.
•Help participants resolve roadblocks and barriers they have encountered when using the “Present Your Science” course techniques in real situations.
•Provide immediate feedback and coaching to participants on how successfully they deploy the advanced techniques when presenting their own work.
Maximum of 12 participants
Half-Day Workshops
Present Your Science: Transforming Technical Talks (Our SIGNATURE OFFERING)
This versatile half-day workshop covers the full gamut: content strategy, slide design, and presentation delivery. With a dynamic combination of lecture, discussion, video analysis, and exercises, this workshop will truly transform how your scientists present their work and will help foster a culture of improved communications throughout your company or institution. 3-4 hours.
Maximum of 75 participants
Show Your Science: Visual Aids for Technical Talks
Looking for improved and practical slide design strategies that go way beyond killing your audience’s interest with bullet point after bullet point? This workshop takes a deep dive into the world of slide design and challenges the status quo of boring, text heavy slides with innovative, research-based strategies for more effective and engaging visual aids. Working with their own material, participants will learn a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of slides and they will learn innovative new strategies for showing their science to their audience with exciting slide design. WARNING: This workshop results in dramatically improved slides and participants who will never think about or design slides in the same way ever again! 3-4 hours
Maximum of 75 participants
Talk Nerdy to Me: Presenting Your Science to the Public
Talking to the general public about your science can be tricky—How much can you assume they know? How much detail should you share? How can you get them excited about your topic? If these questions sound familiar, this workshop is for you. Melissa will offer proven strategies that will improve your content, slides and delivery so that you can more easily engage a general audience. This is an interactive workshop where you’ll participate in group exercises, analyze video examples and then practice the techniques you’ve learned using your own work. 3-4 hours
Maximum of 75 participants
Small Group Coaching Sessions
A terrific add-on to the half or full day Present Your Science Workshop! Each participant in this session gives a 10 minute presentation and receives individual feedback on their presentation content, slides, and delivery from Melissa Marshall as well as from the other participants in the session. This session has high value for those needing presentation experience or those with an important presentation coming up that needs review. It is recommended that this session be video recorded so that participants can review their performance. It is required that participants have attended one of Melissa’s lectures, workshops or courses in order to participate in these coaching sessions. Some pre-work is required. 3.5 hours
Maximum of 10 participants
Skill Sessions
All 60-90 minutes; unlimited participants
Better Than Bullets: Transforming Slide Design
Using a slide design strategy proven to make technical presentations more understandable, memorable, and persuasive, your team will learn to create better presentation slides using an engaging, assertion-evidence design structure. Through a series of exercises and critiques using their own material, participants will learn the theory behind the structure and how to make immediate improvements.
Powerful Presentations: Tools for Filtering Details and Telling a Story
The ability of your audience to understand and be interested in your technical work depends on what you say and how you say it. This lecture presents tools that participants can use to: 1) filter the detail of their work to make a clear argument, 2) construct content that is memorable and "sticks" with an audience, 3) structure a presentation to tell a compelling story of the science, and 4) adapt technical content to audience members of different backgrounds—even when they are in the same room. These skills will be taught via lecture, discussion, small group exercises, and analysis of videos of other speakers.
Powerful Posters: Creating Engaging and Accessible Scientific Posters
Have you walked into the poster session at a recent conference only to be overwhelmed by all of the wordy, complicated posters on display? How can you make sure that your work gains the attention of those passing by? Scientific posters play an important role in research communication by allowing you to more personally interact with those interested in your topic. This interactive lecture provides tips and tricks for presenting scientific posters more effectively. Key topics to be covered include layout, formatting, selection of visuals, gaining attention, and delivery of the poster to viewers.
Get to the Point: Effective Executive Summaries and Elevator Pitches
Sometimes you only have a couple of minutes to get your message across to a key executive, and the clarity of that message can often make the difference between success and stagnation. This fun workshop will teach your team how to create a clear and convincing summary of their work and recommendations so that it’s compelling for any audience, particularly decision makers or stakeholders. Participants will create, practice, and receive peer feedback on their own pitches during the workshop.