How can you create a successful public speaking workshop?

First things first, be honest: Are you actually qualified to teach a public speaking workshop? Have you done enough speaking engagements or presentations? Are you trained as an actor or stage performer? Have you been an educator, coach, or facilitator, putting in the hours to understand what helps you connect with an audience? Answering these questions will also help you to frame your workshop in practical, rather than theoretical terms. Theory is interesting, but practical advice, what you've achieved either for yourself or others is what truly convinces an audience to listen, along with: DEMONSTRATING powerful speaking skills WHILE you are running the workshop! If you have the experience, expertise, and results, share them freely!

Absolutely key. Honestly leads to trust. Starting off any other way you will never recover. I find Starting off with a true, relevant to your industry and audience story, pulls in everyone from the beginning. Current topics with examples are strong story additions.

Having been a college professor for 25 years and having been in industry for 15 years prior, I have given presentations at conferences and of course in my classes far more than I can count. I believe I am very good at communication skills and would love the opportunity to participate in this group and activity. Regardless of what the presentation is, I always go in with a plan. I don't necessarily have an outline per se, but I do have notes of the main points that I want to focus on. I try to make it more engaging by getting the audience to participate as I believe having an engaging presentation is so important than just talking at your audience.

I have been around public speaking space for a while now to know that no two presentations are the same. so each time you need to speak, embrace the the key elements of public speaking that guarantees effective audience engagement. Preparation Deliberate Practice confident Performance.

in my experience a good orator keeps a track of time, he lets the words sink in and waits for an impact. Also Humor is quintessential aspect of a good public speaking practice, the one who can laugh at himself, the audience gets receptive for him.

The most successful in life had positive motivation and encouragement from others along their road to success and happiness. Include in your content these key points.

Confidence in yourself as an individual to deliver a talk is critical to your success. I use PowerPoint for mine, but never have notes. I speak from my heart, keeping it precise and mist importantly light hearted and educational.

Outline the content and structure of your workshop! Monroe's Motivated Sequence is ideal for sequencing a persuasive speech. And you can use it to outline your entire workshop. Use the ANSVA formula as your sequence. ATTENTION: Grab them from the get-go. How? Make a powerful opening statement about Why you are meeting. NEED: Structure your seminar around attendees' pain points. How? Send out a pre-workshop survey to identify their challenges. SATISFACTION: Present 3 sessions that solve their problems. How? Use this ANSVA approach for each session. VISUALIZATION: Don't just tell them what to do. Show them. How? Demonstrate what you are discussing. Involve them. ACTION: Invite your guests to share their biggest takeaways before they leave.

Here's a good approach. Write out a few of your best examples or stories. Pick the best - that's the hook for your closer. Pick the 2nd best - that's the hook for your opener. The rest are weaved into the body. Opening: hook them with a personal anecdote or example that ties to the goal of your workshop. Then explain why it is significant to them personally. Briefly preview the content. Body: Weave in examples, applications, and some interactive bits or exercises. Maybe offer Q&A (never end on it though!). Closer: Summarize the key points. Then tell your best hook story - something that is emotionally powerful (emotion is what makes it stick). And it should tie to an inspiring call for them to implement what you just taught.

Excellent points. If you begin with a story, that can become your reference material to better transition AND help you keep the audience engaged.

The most successful in life had positive motivation and encouragement from others along their road to success and happiness. Include in your content these key points.

Preparing your materiel is a valuable step that tends to be rushed through. This is where knowing your audience is important. Do they prefer video? Would a workbook be of good use to them? Questions like these will put the focus on the attendees experience and their results. When just getting started, many skip these types of questions because they don’t feel it is cost effective. Again…know your audience. You can use multiple learning tools that keeps your audience engaged and gives them what they need to be successful with what you have given them.

One of the most important things to keep in mind as you prepare your materials and resources is “will this be accessible to everyone, or what do I need to make this accessible to all?” For example, if you have pictures that are important to the workshop, audience members who may be blind or have low vision won’t be able to engage with the material UNLESS you describe the visual both in alt text and verbally. If there are any audience members who may be D/deaf, any videos you use must be captioned.

Whenever I give a workshop, I have (or will create) the relevant resources everyone will need for when they are attending the workshop. And also information for after. For example, I have (simple) handouts on the day for attendees, and if there's more of a budget, I have a 12-20 page workbook where attendees can interact more with the information. This might take a while to set up, but it is worth it. I also always film my presentations (unless the place I'm at does not allow this or we are discussing confidential information/processes), so I let people know that the workshop or presentation will be available in the coming weeks on YouTube, and the slides will be on SlideShare. I will generally email attendees once they are online.

It should mostly be about them and less about general understanding of the skill. Anyone can read about public speaking, its the execution that matters, therefore the content should cater to their needs.

I practice my delivery by rehearsing in front of my family, whether it’s my husband or even on FaceTime with my mom. I find that speaking in front of others gives me the feedback I need and makes me feel more prepared for the event. I used to work in live television, so dealing with unexpected situations like mistakes or technical difficulties is kind of my specialty—you have to go in KNOWING these moments can happen and if they do, in these moments, being as relaxed as possible is the key because when you get stressed out, you can’t think as quickly. Smile, laugh, joke, be candidly authentic and just keep flowing. People won’t notice a mistake as much if the flow doesn’t stop ??

I have always found that, in my practice of my program, taping myself is a tremendous tool to assist me in better critiquing myself.

There's a right way and a wrong way to "memorize". I prefer the word internalize. The wrong way is to try and memorize the thing word for word. Because you'll inevitably miss a line and then you'll get derailed. The right way is to internalize it. Think of the way you know the words to a song without having to think that hard. Think of a story you've told a million times - you know it so well it's second nature even though it comes out a little different every time. You should aim for fluency through repetition (like telling the same old story) not rote memorization. This will make you more confident too because you're not stuck in your own head!

It is especially important to rehearse a workshop or a talk if it is your first time giving that particular talk or workshop. I have given and taken many workshops and it is always frustrating when the speaker is inefficient and disorganized so I always rehearse talks to make sure I have a good flow and the material is paced well and fits within the allocated time

To truly be successful, I learned that by initially talking about something you understand and know leads to more successful outcomes. For instance, if you are a butcher, your first public speaking should be in front of a group where you talk about the proper way to trim a side of beef, or something similar. This will help you develop your confidence to talk in front of other groups about any other topic, knowing that their expectations are that you will talk from your knowledge base.

When trying to speak to an audience, be personable and enthusiastic. If you have a strong introduction which can also display your skills as a confident public speaker, your credibility increases. Incorporating humour, quick questions and live demonstrations of certain speaking techniques, the audience will be more engaged, and retain pertinent information.

In our post-pandemic era of fast paced innovations and transitions - the number one sought after skill is ADAPTABILITY. Which means in short, knowing how to learn + process + apply new information in real time. In my opinion, this is the core distinguishing factor when it comes to delivering an impactful public speaking workshop for audiences and/or individuals.

*Measure progress and learning: Incorporate evaluation methods to assess participants’ progress throughout the workshop. Use surveys, quizzes, or self-assessment exercises to gauge their growth in public speaking skills. *Seek feedback and adapt: After the workshop, gather feedback from participants to identify areas of improvement. Use this feedback to refine and enhance your future workshops.

It can definitely be intimidating to ask people what they think of a workshop you spent a lot of time preparing. It helps when I keep in mind that this is an opportunity for me to learn from the feedback and to decide whether I want to make the changes mentioned. Sometimes things I thought went badly worked very well! Other times I hear different perspectives on a point that I hadn’t even considered. If nothing else, it shows your audience that you care about what they have to say!

I have offered the following many times in the past and have always gotten positive feedback: Consider that all public speaking is, at it's core level, an instructional event and treat it that way. Ergo, apply Robert Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction when building your presentation outline. Then, there are hints at what to do while presenting. For example: pan the room constantly as you speak, seldom speaking an entire sentence at one person ... refocus throughout your speaking, even if you are answering a particular person's question. That way, you provide inclusivity to the audience throughout your presentation. Handling interrupters, whether or not relevant to the presentation is another skill to learn. But, what do I know?

Public Speaking Workshop: Public speaking can be robotic or theatrical, it’s all about finding the theme or strength within the speaker. There are different styles you can attempt but the the one that most naturally flows is what’ll capture your audiences attention. Have a workshop where you market it with speakers that are in different fields. Have a corporate S&P 500 executive, have a lead actor from broadway, a doctor, and whatever else you may think would be unique. Showing your colleagues the different ways a speaker can execute speech can help someone take away pointers on spacing, inflection, and capturing the room.

There are reasons why people want to improve their public speaming skills and why they feel anxious in the first place. Addressing some of these may be helpful for folks. I have always known myself to enjoy setting where I get to stand up and talk to a group of people and part of that is personality. Not everyone is gonna like that but clear concise and effective communication is needed across the board even if you wont be a teacher or a ted talk guru.

Public speaking develop by learning and practice and sometimes it is natural. Because the sound and face and posture have contibution to be a good speaker.