Constructing a Presentation
Positively UK is a national organisation which aims to protect the health and well-being of people living with HIV by providing tailored peer support, promoting positive attitudes and equitable access to health for people living with HIV. Positively UK advance education and research about health, particularly in relation to HIV and campaign against HIV discrimination, increasing the involvement, voice and visibility of people living with HIV in all aspects of life.
Background
The activity was sponsored to give training to a group of women who went out and presented to those newly diagnosed with HIV. The theme of their presentations was to look at their lives in a positive way, which was challenges both in terms of getting the content right but also making sure the delivery was professional and helpful.
‘I’ve also experienced ITD’s training, Presenting with Impact and thought that sponsoring with training might prove helpful. We discussed the idea with Positively Women and everyone agreed that training in the area of presenting would be a very beneficial way of supporting the charity, particularly as they had never had any formal training’
Need
The objective was to help build awareness of the importance of both recognising which work needs to treated as a project and then to give ideas on how to plan and manage projects.
Typical challenges when presenting put forward by the participants were;
- Feeling confident when speaking to a group
- Overcoming nerves
- Knowing how to stand / move when presenting (body language)
- How to avoid using the same words or repeating yourself
- Keeping to time or running over
- Your mind going blank, don’t know what you’re going to say next
Activity
To ensure practice sessions were successful, each participant in turn delivered sections of their presentation. The rest of the participants’ made up the audience and during the sessions each presenter gained feedback from the trainer on any area where the presenter’s delivery style could be improved or delivered differently to add impact.
Outcomes
Each participant gained key learning in constructing their presentation and in delivering skills.
Participant Feedback
“Very scary but very good and great fun.”
Client Comments
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you, everyone has been really enthusiastic about the day and can’t wait to put it into practice.”
“It seems that the approach taken worked really well and the feedback from the participants’ has been great too.”