If you had the time to travel the world to see just how the largest corporations are organized, the one thing you will find in common is that seminars are at the root of everything from onboarding to sales to regular departmental training sessions. There probably isn’t an area of your company which couldn’t be improved if you stepped up your seminars. A lot of time, effort, and money are invested in each and every seminar you offer, so to get the most out of them, use one or more of these tips to make improvements you so desperately need.
Table of Contents
1. Practice Makes Perfect
While you know your industry inside-out, you may not be comfortable getting up in front of a large crowd to talk about a topic chosen for this seminar. Any experienced public speaker will readily tell you that the effectiveness of your presentation is directly proportionate to your comfort level. It shows through when you are terrified of speaking in public, so that’s something you’ll need to nip in the bud before stepping up to a podium.
As you work on your technique, find a few trusted friends to practice on. Just be ready to hear their critique and don’t be offended on a personal level. They will give you an honest assessment of how they personally reacted to your presentation. If you want to hear it yourself, record your talk and then consider how you would react if you were a member of the audience.
2. Employ the Benefits of Technology
Sometimes seminars can be a bit monotonous. That is a given. While you develop your oratory skills, inject a bit of technology into your speeches. Look at whiteboards, for example. Everyone expects you to have those large white tablets on an easel or PowerPoint presentations. Why not go one step further? Have you considered how a whiteboard animation video could liven up the demonstration?
3. Offer Your Seminar in Cyberspace
One of the latest trends in today’s hi-tech workplace is ERP software. Today, employees can simply log onto the Cloud-based HR platform to do everything from picking up tasks to recording daily output – and so much more. Have you considered putting your seminar in the Cloud as well? Now you don’t need to be as focused on getting over stage fright because you will not be speaking to anyone in the room.
Put together your seminar in segments and use those techie tools like whiteboard animation as highly effective teaching tools. More and more companies have done away with weekly meetings and are now requiring staff to access training seminars online from their desk. This lowers the cost for your company while keeping work flowing as you set aside certain times each person can view the seminar from their desk.
Technology to the Rescue
There is no getting away from the fact that you will, at some point, be required to speak at the orientation of new hires or provide ongoing training within your company. You may even be asked to give a talk at a job fair or industry convention. Learn to overcome your fear of public speaking while using technology to get you over the rough patches. If you can’t do it, rely on technology. That’s what it’s there for, so use it!
