On Thursday night I went to a Making Presentations workshop at the Werks, run by the copywriter and poet Ellen de Vries. I wanted to go because my recent Barcamp presentation didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I figured it would be good to learn what I might be missing.
Nine people attended the workshop, split into two groups. We were asked to introduce ourselves with just our name and job titles to see what conclusions people drew from them. This was a little weird for me, since I'm still on sabbatical and had to invent a title. Everyone else sounded very fancy.
The course covered a lot of material in two and a half hours, including defining objectives, understanding the audience, not presenting after lunch and the use of adult education theories. The workshop format worked well, allowing people to share their own experiences and tips. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have a chance to present again – I'm looking forward to putting what I learned into action.
Sadly I'm going busy when Ellen's doing her next course on DIY Copywriting, but would be going if I was free.