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When science meets the performing arts

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10th July, 2024

Twenty of our senior scientific staff have attended a special workshop aimed at helping them to elevate their presentation skills and communicate more effectively.

Does the thought of pre­sent­ing to a large audi­ence leave you feel­ing slight­ly ill? Pub­lic speak­ing is often at the top of the list of things most of us try to avoid.

So, when a group of our sci­en­tif­ic staff attend­ed a work­shop aimed at help­ing them improve their pre­sen­ta­tion skills, the last thing they expect­ed was being asked to become a human dinosaur. Or wan­der around the room play­ing the part of a knife or fork.

These are just some of the left-of-field exer­cis­es our staff (12 Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tist Trainees, 5 from our Foren­sic and Ana­lyt­i­cal Sci­ence Ser­vice and 2 from our mass spec­trom­e­try ser­vice) were asked to par­tic­i­pate in at NIDA, the Nation­al Insti­tute of Dra­mat­ic Art.

NIDA designed the Pre­sent­ing with Impact course specif­i­cal­ly for some of our senior sci­en­tif­ic lead­ers to ele­vate their pre­sen­ta­tion skills, inspire con­fi­dence, com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly, exe­cute their con­ver­sa­tions and artic­u­late ideas in the work­place and at conferences.

Par­tic­i­pants deliv­ered work-relat­ed pre­sen­ta­tions on cam­era and received feed­back on their pre­sen­ta­tion styles.

They were taught prac­ti­cal tech­niques to enhance their vocal and phys­i­cal pres­ence focus­ing on align­ment, ener­gy and con­fi­dence. They were then guid­ed on how to build an authen­tic pre­sen­ta­tion and engage their audi­ence effec­tive­ly, fol­lowed by indi­vid­ual coach­ing from the tutor.

A group of more than 20 people smiling.
Par­tic­i­pants at the NIDA Pre­sent­ing with Impact course.

“It was an amaz­ing day, and I gained an expe­ri­ence that I very much appre­ci­at­ed,” said Abi­gail Elias, Senior Sci­en­tist at Liv­er­pool Haematology.

“We used pro­fes­sion­al act­ing tech­niques and exer­cis­es from pro­fes­sion­al act­ing train­ing to cre­ate an expe­ri­ence that allowed me to dis­cov­er my inner per­former and deliv­er pre­sen­ta­tions and speech­es confidently.”

Trainee Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tist, Hila Kakar described the day as a great learn­ing opportunity.

“It was a fun-filled day with lots of inter­ac­tive ses­sions, designed to enhance good pre­sen­ta­tion skills,” she said. “As a trainee clin­i­cal sci­en­tist and 4th year RCPA Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence Immunopathol­o­gy Fel­low­ship trainee, I deliv­er talks to oth­er RCPA trainees, and I par­tic­i­pate and present data and research projects at var­i­ous forums.

“The NIDA Pre­sent­ing with Impact work­shop was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to enhance and utilise these skills mov­ing forward.”

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