The Presentation Skills Training Workshop 2022-23 organised by Communications and Public Relations Office was a great success. From October 2022 to June this year, a total of seven sessions were held to provide University staff members across faculties with training in presenting at academic symposiums, seminars and press conferences, supplemented with AI-powered analytics.

Brian Hodgson, trainer of the workshop, has over 40 years of public speaking experience and is a winner of over 50 Toastmasters contests. “Public speaking is a joy to me,” he said . “As a trainer, I aim to encourage presentations that ‘wow’.” While academic presentations are relatively more content-focused, they are sometimes not as exciting as business presentations. “Participants who come from medical or science backgrounds are the hardest to train, for they tend to think and speak from the left side of their brain.”

Hodgson also talked about what makes an effective presentation. “It is not only about the content. Convincing can also be about how you look: a person can look convincing just by their gestures,” he said.

The training workshop includes four main elements, including nerves and impromptu speaking, body language, writing a presentation, and how to make technical presentations easy.