Media Training. Presentation Skills Training.
Two different courses (both run by Rough House Media).
But both have the same basic aim:
To help you come across well, to enable you to say what you want to say, in the most interesting, compelling, convincing way possible.
And so, when a client recently asked us to train a group of their senior staff in both media and presentation skills, we seized the opportunity to see where the two training courses might overlap, where we might co-ordinate two separate schedules.
Our presentation trainer Sue Carruthers and I sat down and discussed in detail the content of the courses we ran, and how we might combine them.
When we’re delivering a media training course, we focus a lot on key messages, and also cover importance engaging your audience and ensuring that message is delivered effectively.
A key element of Sue’s presentation skills training is mindset – equipping her delegates with the tools to calm their nerves and get them in the right state of mind to give a good presentation.
Both of these learnings are valuable when doing both an interview with the media and a presentation, so it made sense to combine these at the very start of our day of training course.
There are other similarities: after all, the whole point of a doing a media training course is to learn how to handle questions – a skill you may well also need if you’re doing a presentation.
But we decided that, along with some other topics, was not practical to combine.
After all, we weave the skills and techniques of handling questions from the media throughout each and every media training course, while for presentation training, it is one topic alongside others such as planning and preparation, structuring a presentation, using your voice, coping with nerves and using Powerpoint.
We ran the course we designed over one day, with seven delegates who divided into two groups once we’d covered key messages and mindset.
While one half of the group did presentation skills, the others did media training, and at lunchtime they swapped over, coming together again at the end of the day to share what they had gained from the day.
A stimulating – if tiring – day, for both the trainees and our team.
If you have senior spokespeople who would like to polish both their media and presentation skills, then why not consider a combined course? Contact us on info@roughhouse.co.uk or 020 8332 6200 for more information.
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