Keeping your Talk Fresh

Participation

For advanced doctoral candidates and postdocs of all disciplines.

Objectives

This is an activity-based workshop, led by theatre professionals, whose expertise is in eliciting the researcher‘s narrative, identifying the speaker‘s authenticity as a storyteller and supporting the speaker to effectively communicate the importance and relevance of the work and the core message in the talk. Throughout the oneday workshop, participants learn storytelling techniques, practice telling stories and integrate storytelling techniques into their talk. The seminar provides participants with the opportunity to connect a story to their core research, build the story, create suspense and anchor points of reference throughout the talk with their story. Additionally, they will learn to develop a protagonist in the story and learn how to „chunk“ or segment units of action in the talk.

Content

• Position the research within a meaningful and relevant story

• Tailor the story to the audience

• Start a story with a strong opening to get the audience involved

• Create clear and identifiable characters and environment

• Build suspense with the narrative and move towards a clear aim

• Economize language and get to the point

• Use active language and identify key points

• Craft the story and build towards a dynamic conclusion