From Aaron Wood, President Covent Garden Speakers
A good presentation or workshop leaves you with something other than a sore bum. On 18th August Alan Donegan gave us a great workshop on how to give workshops. Devising and delivering outstanding workshops is a skill which is not often featured in Toastmasters. We may give occasional workshops in our club meetings, but they are often shorter and have perhaps a single activity. Alan gave us a masterclass on how to prepare, plan and present to give great workshops.
Alan is clearly a man who can play it load and quiet, and he pitched his delivery perfectly for the message – that we can all give workshops. His stated outcome was definite – for us to leave the room with the bones of a workshop. Through questions, presenting, group work and other activities we did just that. His understated but energetic style showed everyone in the room that you don’t have to be a particular type of presenter to run a workshop. Sometime I wonder whether toastmasters are nicknamed toasties because some are a bit hammy and the rest are cheesey, but Alan was measured whilst also being enthusiastic.
I was so pleased that I found time to come – the workshop gave a number of tips which also apply to planning and presenting longer speeches and conference presentations. I have taken away the plan for a professional workshop I will be giving in the near future in my professional area, and the confidence to plan and present workshops in the future. If there was one negative, it was simply that we did not have more time with Alan. There was a lot more we could have taken mercilessly from him!
Two really great strategies which Alan mentioned were:
1. REALLY focus on the attendees. This should really be our focus any time we speak. Alan had us write down examples of "take aways" - when you leave this room you will be able to ..... (and the next verb is NOT understand!). This fits in with books like Andy Bounds "The Jelly Effect". It's great to focus the mind on the outcomes, it works well in the marketing of the workshop and it helps remind you why people should pay you for what you are going to tell them!
2. Storyboard your workshops and presentations onto sticky notes. I came across this a little while ago in another book - the idea that you begin your planning by doing a "braindump" and then create a few topics/areas and storyboard them onto sticky notes that you can move about.
