Visual aids – preparing and delivering

There are only 2 reasons to use visual aids: add impact help explain something. Resist the temptation to produce an endless series of dot-point slides with the odd graphic thrown in. Preparing your visual aids – 10 tips The most important visual aid is you, the...
Presenting with humour

Presenting with humour

If science events are to compete with other events available to the public as a night out, they need to be entertaining as well as informative. Scientists may not be willing or confident enough to share their often-keen sense of humour with a public audience. But...

Managing nerves when presenting

Presenting technical concepts to a small audience of your peers can be as nerve‑wracking as presenting to a large group of lay people. These tips for will help you to present with confidence and deliver with style to any audience. Prepare The most important element of...

Facilitating a meeting

Have you ever left a meeting worried that it was not really as productive as you had hoped? Perhaps some of the quieter people had insightful things to say, but they never said them? Maybe decisions seemed to be unanimous, but you were not sure if everyone or only the...

Brainstorming

Alex Osborn, the father of brainstorming, found that people who followed his rules didn’t stare at each other in embarrassment or run out of the room screaming during a brainstorming session – instead, they generated a lot more ideas. He also found that more ideas...

Writing a media release

Designing your main message Often it’s not the quality of the science, but the way you ‘package’ your story that gains media coverage. Ask yourself these 3 questions and use your answers to formulate your main message: What are the main points you want to get across?...